A commercial electrical contracting firm based in Bellaghy, Mid Ulster, has won a €1m plus contract for work in Germany.

An initial ten-strong contingent of the Premier’s 20-strong Bremen team flew out to Germany on Sunday ( Feb 8) to fit out a new store for Primark in the Waterfront Centre. It’s the company’s first contract in Germany.

“It’s a challenging project” reports senior contracts manager Tommy McKenna. “German electrical regulations are different from ours and we have had to invest considerable time familiarising ourselves with them – plus we have ten weeks to complete instead of the usual 16 for this size of job.”

The team, mostly from counties Fermanagh and Derry, and led by Tommy from Ederney in Fermanagh, will be responsible for the electrical fit out 60,000 sq ft of sales space plus stock and staff areas.

Premier has built a relationship with Primark through fitting stores for it in the UK, alongside much of the electrical work for its sister company, Penney’s in the Republic. This is Primark’s first store in Germany where it is hoping to expand.

“This is new ground, so the pre-contract work has been extensive,” says Mr McKenna. “But we pride ourselves in being the leading provider of quality, fast-track electrical installation and maintenance services to the biggest names in retail, leisure and industry”

Premier Electrics Company Manager, Tony Shivers said the latest contract win was testament to the strong working partnership that has developed between Premier and Primark for whom the Bellaghy company has completed electrical contracts in around 70 stores throughout the UK and Ireland including flagship locations in London, Liverpool and Cardiff.

He also paid tribute to Invest Northern Ireland from whom Premier have received support.

“Our local client executive Maeve Cowley and Markus Rehkopp from the NI Trade Development Centre in Dusseldorf have been exceptionally helpful during the entire process and have provided important market knowledge which has helped us considerably.”

These latest contracts follow on from Premier’s work at Primark’s flagship Oxford Street store in central London where the local company installed a wide range of electrical systems, including a new concept in lighting – a versatile LED system capable of emitting any colour from the spectrum at the touch of a button.


This was the first of the Primark outlets to use the ‘call forwarding’ queue management system to ease congestion at till banks and Premier installed it, as well as the first tagging system for changing areas.

Premier Electrics was established in 1993 and has built up a reputation for efficiency and excellence thanks to significant and ongoing projects with key retailers such as M&S, Argos, Brown Thomas, Debenhams, Arcadia Group, Virgin Group, Primark and ASDA.