The Carlisle-headquartered infrastructure contractor has secured a five-year work bank worth up to £200m in recent weeks.

It is now aiming to hire 200-300 staff over the next five years after last year taking on 195 new starters to raise the headcount to 700 staff.

Story is strengthening its management structure with three senior promotions across the infrastructure business.

From February, Ian Purdham and John MacArthur will become, respectively, managing directors of Story Contracting’s Rail England and Story Scotland divisions.

Promotions to strengthen the rail business (l to r) John MacArthur, Ian Purdham, Frank McFadden

While Frank McFadden will take on the role of Rail Technical Assurance Director, ensuring that Story Contracting is a leading business in all technical aspects of Rail work.

Jason Butterworth, Story Contracting CEO, said: “We are enjoying a successful 2018/19 and we are in a strong position, partly as a result of recent long-term major framework wins in both England and Scotland.

“This will see significant growth in both of these divisions and we are therefore adding strength to the leadership of the company.”

Story’s growing stature in rail infrastructure and its collaborative approach to problem-solving has seen it land major contracts worth up to £200m in recent months.

The Story Rail division is expanding its team, particularly in the Midlands, where it has opened a Birmingham office.

The company also recently secured three framework agreements with Transport for Greater Manchester. These cover the renewals of structures, property and track on the Metrolink network and could be worth up to £50m.

To support the growth of the entire Story Contracting business, the Plant division will be investing in resource, equipment and staff to help fulfil the new contract wins, whilst also maintaining the existing work that has been secured over the past five years.

Story’s Construction division has also started the year with a flourish and is in the strong position of having secured work for 60% of its 2019 business plan.