It is with personal sadness but warm wishes that the Board announce the retirement of our Chairman James McGoff, effective September 2021. James’s leaving marks the end of an era for the McGoff Group. 

In 1973 Jim and Ethna McGoff launched the trusted, regional contractor known as McGoff & Byrne. James was the first of the McGoff Brothers to enter the family business in 1989 and his 32 years in the family business have seen many significant accomplishments.

48 years on, McGoff Construction sits at the heart of a £130m domain of like-minded businesses collaboratively forming the McGoff Group. A seamless ability to acquire, design, build, operate and maintain across targeted healthcare, residential and commercial sectors has provided the platform for the Group to cement itself as the favoured choice for Clients, funders, JV partners & supply chain partners alike.

The Group is driven by family values, innovation, construction excellence and operational expertise. In an ever-changing, challenging environment the McGoff name signifies quality, agility and above all an unbreakable force that is well equipped to sustain the business for future generations to come.

James has played a critical role on the Board of Directors in the development and success of the business, forging 32 years of unbreakable relationships with colleagues, staff and clients alike. A much loved character, we will miss him and his charming and comical personality, we wish him the best of luck in his retirement and thank him for the 32 years of dedicated service to the family business. The board is truly excited for him as he enters into a new chapter in life.

A message from James McGoff

“I joined McGoff and Byrne Ltd in 1989, it was run directly by Mum and Dad being the only shareholders, the business was successful and profitable and was well respected, we worked in a geographical area known as Granada land, as per the coverage of the local TV station for many of the leading brewers and leisure brands at the time. The business at that time carried out mainly fast track pub and restaurant fit outs and renovations, together with a more stable and less frantically paced Local Authority work, school extensions and enveloping schemes.

We directly employed all the trades including ground workers, bricklayers, plasterers and plumbers, the business moved fast, staff were changed from site to site weekly and sometimes even daily, every one of the 60 odd site staff reported to the then head office at Dane Road 6 days a week having been collected in company buses and vans to be assigned a task and site for that day!

The scenes each morning of vans arriving, doors being flung open and men swapping vehicles with their bags and barrows of tools to orders barked from Dads right hand man Bill Daly always reminded me of being on the set the hit TV show Mike Reid’s Runaround!

The last 18 months have changed the world for all of us all, McGoff Construction and our repeat leisure clients, however it has led to an unprecedented demand for quality healthcare facilities to be swiftly and reliably delivered and has served to accelerate and reinforce the vision of the current Managing Directors in that the future for the business is in self delivery, with less reliance on competitive tendering for work in a shrinking marketplace.

I have been humbled by the commitment and hard work of my Brothers, the Board of Directors and our people in their passion for creating a truly purpose-driven company. I am very grateful to them, as I am to the companies many other stakeholders, with whom we have worked to build our long-term, sustainable business. I leave the business with unwavering pride, a lifetime of lessons and the most amazing memories.

The business is in great shape, with the best team and a healthy order book, it’s with sadness I write to you now but the direction of the business is right and the time is right for me, I will miss working with you all on a day to day basis and I thank you for your excellent work, loyalty and friendship over the years.”