Expert to put building blocks of growth in place

A North West construction firm is laying the foundations for an ambitious expansion drive with the appointment of a business growth expert as its first ever chairman as it homes in on revenue of £20 million by 2018.Peter Collins has joined the board of Manchester & Cheshire Construction in a non-executive capacity as the company seeks to more than double annual revenues over the next three years.The family-owned company, which is based in Salford and operates across the region, is aiming to more than double its turnover in the next three years after achieving £8.5 million revenue in the year to September 30, 2014.Collins, who lives in Longton, near Preston, is a main board adviser to 30 north west companies and holds several other non-executive posts across the region.He was a co-founder of Fast Forward Growth, a Manchester-based organisation which advises companies on their expansion and funding strategies.He is also a director of Access to Finance, which operates across the north west, and is a registered coach for the government-backed GrowthAccelerator programme.His first consultancy, Management Services International, which he founded in 1990, was later ranked as one of Britain’s 20 fastest-growing companies.