An Interview with Kirsty Dougherty from PFC Southern Ltd, celebrating 20 years in business and based at Portsmouth Technopole since 2019
PFC Southern Ltd is celebrating 20 years in business. They are recognised as a top construction company in Hampshire, providing clients with a wide range of contracting services for all their remodelling and repairing needs and specialising in HMO (house in multiple occupation) conversions and insurance work.
We caught up with Kirsty Dougherty, who joined PFC Southern Ltd as a Director in 2018.
What have been some of your favourite projects to date?
My favourite transformation so far was a four-story townhouse on the High Street in Old Portsmouth. We really enjoyed reinvigorating it and bringing it back to life.
We are currently working on a refit at the historic Sally Port Inn in Old Portsmouth. It is a really beautiful building with lots of history. We have been brought in to reclaim parts of the iconic building to build a bespoke bar and get the pub looking shipshape once more.
Sharing our work on Facebook has been a great success, with people sharing memories of their first dates and the very special spiral staircase at the Sally Port Inn.
Where do your clients tend to be based?
We have completed shop fittings for clients such as Russell & Bromley as far afield as Scotland, but we mainly work on projects along the South Coast of England.
In addition to your role at PFC Southern, you also run a travel agency called Travel Like Never B4, booking clients onto their dream holidays.
Being able to work in both sectors for my own businesses is amazing, and not having to work for someone else definitely motivates me to do more and get up in the morning. I love delighting customers from both sectors. Whether it's someone having a holiday of a lifetime or someone completing their dream home or premises, making dreams come true makes me really happy and motivated.
What’s your best advice to someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?
I didn’t start either business until later in life as I thought I had to be employed for financial security to provide for my three daughters. Now more than ever we have seen that is not always the case, you are never too old to learn something new and have a successful new career: so if you have a dream go for it.
PFC Southern Ltd are a member of Innovation Connect and based in our Portsmouth Technopole office space.