UK: CambridgeHOK celebrates successful year

CambridgeHOK is reaping the rewards of investing in technical expertise and innovation as it has enjoyed a record year in 2024.

Over the past 12 months, CambridgeHOK has further expanded its work, launching CambridgeHOK Refrigeration, a specialist company in its own right that designs and installs sophisticated cooling systems and spaces for the food, beverages, and pharmaceutical industries.

That business is approaching the end of its first year in operation having delivered profits and secured a turnover in excess of £5m.

Patrick Harte, joint managing director of CambridgeHOK, says he is delighted with the work carried out this year, and the healthy order book already in place for 2025.

"It has been a really successful year for CambridgeHOK and I feel that in recent years we have really cemented our position as a technical leader that is able to offer industry-best solutions. That is leading to some really prestigious contracts coming our way," he said.

"In that sense, we are reaping the rewards of having recruited, retained, and trained a highly-skilled team here, which continues to grow each year."

Highly technical projects

Now employing 90 members of staff, the company has enjoyed a busy year across both the glasshouse and construction businesses, delivering many highly technical and complex projects.

This has included the design and build of two bespoke glasshouse structures for Kew Gardens in London, each containing advanced systems to control temperature, humidity, and light management, enabling the propagation of a wide variety of tropical plants from around the world.

The business was also chosen by Forestry England to work on a project to grow a greater variety of resilient tree species to be spread across the nation's forests.

This project has seen the team design and build a protected area for tree seedlings to continue to grow after they leave a glasshouse, helping them to become acclimatized to outdoor conditions in a computer-controlled environment using a combination of fans, shade screens, and roof ventilation to regulate the temperature, humidity, and light levels as they grow.

Other projects completed this year have included supporting a ground-breaking project with Hull-based business, Gooddrop, creating a number of 'growing containers' to provide the perfect environment to grow cotton indoors sustainably.

The business also installed a vertical farm in GSK's new Global HQ in central London - officially the largest vertical farm within a commercial office building – supplying fresh, sustainably grown leafy greens and herbs for its onsite restaurant and café.

"We've had a great year and we've got a strong order book in place for 2025 already, so we will start next year in our strongest ever position," said Louis Bradley, joint managing director.

"CambridgeHOK Refrigeration is now well established in its own right too and is profitable and delivering good service levels, with a highly capable team in place this is a business we feel we can continue to grow and expand."