Gradel Quadrangles at the University of Oxford's New College

Flynn Interiors achieves record-breaking scores in the Contractors League as it celebrates its fifth anniversary 

From drylining to ceilings, design consultation to installation and fit-out, Flynn Interiors offers the full package. Armed with a talented team of industry experts, the company offers a knowledgeable, well-structured approach to interior construction – one that places client relationships and responsible practice at its core. 

Despite being founded just five years ago, Flynn Interiors has seen tremendous growth, boasting over 150 years of collective experience within the sector. Presently, Flynn Interiors is entering a new era, implementing an innovative digitalisation strategy that’ll build on its past experiences and position the company for continued growth and success. To learn more about the developments and investments ahead, Construction & Civil Engineering spoke with Sam Roe-Barnett, Commercial Director at Flynn Interiors. interior of the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital

“The company was founded in 2020 by Owner and Managing Director, Jim Flynn,” Sam begins, reflecting on the background of the business. “Jim himself has over 40 years of experience within the construction industry, notably within drylining as a Construction Director at a previous company we both worked for. Our ‘bread and butter’ is dry lining walls and suspended ceilings, but we’ve now started to expand unilaterally into the fit-out sector. We also offer passive fire protection (PFP) solutions and full design and build services along with BIM. We work in almost every sector where the dryline industry is present, however our specialisms lie in high end residential, life sciences, healthcare, commercial, and education. We enjoy complex jobs; we like to focus on specialist, niche projects that require lots of expertise, involvement and innovation to get them over the line, and that is where we really add value for our clients. 

“As a company, we do not have a long and illustrious history per se, but we were founded on three core values – to be professional, consistent and to deliver – and the people who work for us have a lot of experience in the industry. We always try to live and breathe those values.” 

Significant award 

Flynn Interiors’ commitment to quality and consistency translates into every project it takes on, no matter how big or small. One particularly noteworthy project for the company is on the Midlands Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) in collaboration with Balfour Beatty, which has just reached Practical Completion. Employing its expertise and innovation, Flynn Interiors is providing drylining, suspended ceilings and passive and structural fire protection services to the project. This work has been especially monumental to the business, however, as its dedication to health and safety has resulted in record-breaking recognition at the Contractors League. Awarded an extraordinary 94.2 points out of 100, Flynn Interiors has achieved the highest score in the project’s history – an achievement that is emblematic of its continuing excellence within the category. 

“This recognition really solidifies how we approach health and safety as a business. Safety is really at the heart of what we do, whether it’s for our staff, our clients or the stakeholders that are involved in the jobs; nothing is more important than that,” Sam affirms. “At the height of this job, there were over 40 separate subcontractors enrolled in this particular Health & Safety Contractors League, so to score not only the highest, but the highest score they’ve ever had, is a real testament to both the business and the project team that delivered the job.” 

Digital focus 

As mentioned, Flynn Interiors is modernising its approach with a fresh digitalisation strategy to help maintain and scale-up this delivery consistently into the future. To implement this, the company is investing in new technologies to streamline its processes and enhance its overall efficiency, ensuring that it’s acting in accordance with the prevailing changes to legislation impacting the construction industry. 

 interior of The New Space recital hall at New College, Oxford“When we say ‘digitalisation’, we’re not just referring to moving away from hard copy and doing it all online; we’re focusing on an entire framework that the business follows from tender right through to construction. We are currently in the second year of our four-year implementation strategy; our first two years have been focusing on the elements of construction compliance and making sure that we’re fully transparent and traceable. The latter two years will still focus on compliance, but we will also be implementing, what I call, the ‘cradle to the grave’ approach to construction: focusing on health and safety compliance, cost management and internal governance from tender through to final account and everything in between. That’s our approach to digitalisation,” Sam explains. 

“Our main drive for this, first and foremost, has been the introduction of the Building Safety Act. Our process is to get ahead of this to ensure that we are fully compliant with, not only our statuary obligations as required by law under the Act, but also with the requirements of our clients as they update their internal procedures. We don’t just see this as a requirement; it is a fundamental that we must implement to continue to grow and develop as a business. We’re going to continue to focus on improving the skills, knowledge and education of our employees, whilst employing new technologies to improve our efficiency. We’ve got a range of innovative software that we are introducing into the business right now, all of which help to improve the collaboration between the departments within the business. Everything that we implement must be scalable, whether we decide to stay where we are now or choose to grow further.” 

Sustainable growth 

Looking to the remainder of 2025 and beyond, Sam concludes our conversation by sharing the company’s focuses for the future. “Our priorities for the rest of this year are relatively straightforward: we’re going to continue to deliver the services that our clients expect of us,” Sam finishes. “We’re going to roll out and embed the initiatives that we have implemented as we continue to develop and grow the business. We’ve set out an internal mission to sustainably grow and scale the business over the course of the next three to five years to bring in new opportunities. Ultimately, our goal as a business is to remain profitable as we grow. Our clients need to be confident that we are a stable, liquid business as we continue to tender for the long term.”   

www.flynninteriors.co.uk