After almost 30 years of being based in Greenwich, O’Keefe is moving its head office next year to its 10-acre Cricketts Farm site in Borough Green, Kent.
In advance of the head office switch, the plant division has already moved out to Kent, into a £5m newly-constructed specialist facility.
With the planned head office move to Cricketts Farm, O’Keefe Group has also purchased an office near London Bridge for its London and demolition management teams, which generate £60m to £70m of the group’s annual turnover between them.
The new Kent headquarters site is now starting to come out of the ground (pictured below) adjacent to the newly-opened plant division and specialist workshop which became operational in July. O’Keefe has also invested more than £2.5m in new plant and machinery this year, building up a fleet of more than 50 excavators.
The Cricketts Farm site comprises an area of greenfield land and an assortment of period barns and a listed farmhouse which are being refurbished and converted into offices, along with a gymnasium and café.
The majority of O’Keefe’s head office workforce will make the move to Kent and the company also expects to recruit additional staff once the new HQ is up and running.
Chief executive Patrick O’Keefe, whose father Patrick Sr founded the business as a small groundworks contractor in 1970, said: “We bought Cricketts Farm four years ago with the intention of eventually making it our headquarters site but the need for the plant division move was earlier than expected due to how the business has grown, particularly over the past few years.”
Managing director Lee Horsley said: “This is probably the most significant event in our recent history. We are all looking forward to working from our new location which will enable much closer cooperation between our divisions and delivery of a constantly improving end product for our clients.”
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