FAMILIES IN SCAFFOLDING

For the first in a new AccessPoint feature, we talk to the family team who own and operate Cheltenham & Gloucester Scaffolding, based in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.

Family businesses are relatively common in the scaffolding sector – all around the country grandparents, parents, sons, daughters and spouses come together on a daily basis to work together for mutual success.

The first such business to feature in our series of ‘Families in Scaffolding’ is Cheltenham & Gloucester Scaffolding, based in Tewkesbury, on a picturesque site high above the River Avon. Founded in 2000, the company was originally based at premises that were flooded in 2007. The business is run by Graham Clarke, his son Ben, and his wife Emma. Their current home is a tastefully renovated former farm outbuilding. The company currently employs a team of fourteen in addition to the family members.

C&G Scaffolding had a solid start, securing key contracts with regional building companies. Gradually the workload doubled, then doubled again. The business was (and still is) built on one key word – reliability. When they say they’ll turn up, they turn up. When they say they’ll do it, they do it. That wasn’t always the case for rivals who would only turn up at the best-paid jobs.

“We’re a seven days a week company,” says Ben, “and we pull out all the stops to keep our promises to customers. They recognise that, hence the reason we get so much repeat business. In scaffolding you’re first in and last out of sites, so being punctual and reliable is key to a decent customer relationship.”

The company has tried not to specialise but as well as domestic and industrial work, they do heritage work on old buildings (pictured right) and churches – mainly shoring and design work. If C&G Scaffolding has a watchword – well, it’s three actually – it’s ‘health and safety’. The most vital aspect of what they offer as a business is that they offer compliant, safe workers on site. Asked if there is one thing they would like to see, all three of them agreed – licensed scaffolding businesses. And the resources to police those licenses so that every scaffolding business –small and large – is not only operating safely but regularly assessed as operating safely: “We’re working at height. We’re working in public areas, over pavements and walkways. We still, from time to time, find ourselves up against competitors working off the back of a pick-up, wearing trainers, with no-one overseeing their work. All we want is to operate on a level playing field,” says Graham. “The only people who need to fear licenced business status are those who cut corners and do things unsafely. Good companies, like us, have nothing to fear from being licenced. And we need the organisation that runs licences to be not-for-profit – we don’t want profits made for a body that pays lip service to policing.”

Ben says: “If you think health and safety is expensive, try an accident.” And Emma agrees: “Health and safety is our key priority and whilst we always price competitively, we are not, and never will be the cheapest, because we do things properly. We won’t cut corners, but we guarantee reliability and that all our work is built to industry regulations and standards, ensuring that customers get the best practices as part of the deal.”

This is one switched on family business that is growing and happy to invest in getting things right. Two new wagons and new equipment is evidence of the success the company is enjoying and proof that it pays to keep things in the family.

FIND OUT MORE www.cgscaffolding.co.uk