Construction & Civil Engineering Issue 171 January 2020

www.ccemagazine.com ISSUE 171 JANUARY

Game changer Addressing the construction sector’s drive to be more sustainable, Liebherr has created its new Electric Truck Mixer unit, which offers fuel reductions, less CO2 emissions and virtually zero noise See page 28

Waterfront development Plans for a new hotel and events venue have been unveiled by the Port of Milford Haven F Second stage approval Peab has been commissioned to complete a beautiful apartment project in Northwest Norway F

www.ccemagazine.com ISSUE 171 JANUARY

Chairman Andrew Schofield

Game changer

editor

Addressing the construction sector’s drive to be more sustainable, Liebherr has created its new Electric Truck Mixer unit, which offers fuel reductions, less CO2 emissions and virtually zero noise See page 28

Editor Libbie Hammond libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Assistant Editor Will Daynes

& Waterfront development & Second stage approval

Plans for a new hotel and events venue have been unveiled by the Port of Milford Haven Peab has been commissioned to complete a beautiful apartment project in Northwest Norway

Art Editor Fleur Daniels Staff Writer Vladi Nikolov Advertising Design Fiona Jolliffe Operations Director Philip Monument

The new decade

Operations Manager Natalie Griffiths Research Managers Rachel Harper Jo-Ann Jeffery James Page Ben Richell Editorial Researchers Adam Blanch Mark Cowles Jeff Goldenberg Tarjinder Kaur D’Silva Managing Director Joe Woolsgrove Sales Mark Cawston Dave King Theresa McDonald Gary Silk Sam Surrell Web Sales web@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Exclusive Features Darren Jolliffe Production/Office Manager Tracy Chynoweth

Social Media Abigail Blake Schofield Publishing Cringleford Business Centre, 10 Intwood Road, Cringleford, Norwich, NR4 6AU, U.K. Tel: +44 (0)1603 274130 www.ccemagazine.com Construction & Civil Engineering Magazine

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o here we are in 2020! What are you expecting for the next 12 months? The companies that we highlight in our first issue have positive plans for the year ahead and many emphasise the importance that their staff will play in delivering their

ambitious aims for the new decade. The effect that Brexit is going to have on construction sector recruitment is of course an issue we’ve been discussing for a while – are you formulating contingencies and looking ahead at how to tackle this problem?

Our interviewees also talk about the continuous need to implement and adopt new technology, and look at the sustainability issues of their business – finding ways to cut emissions and increase efficiency will be a top priority.

I will be covering these issues as we go through the year, but if there’s anything else you would like to see in our pages do let me know.

@CCE_magazine

© 2020 Schofield Publishing Ltd

Until the next issue.

Please note: The opinions expressed by contributors and advertisers within this publication do not necessarily coincide with those of the editor and publisher. Every reasonable effort is made to ensure that the information published is accurate, and correct at time of writing, but no legal responsibility for loss occasioned by the use of such information can be accepted by the publisher. All rights reserved. The contents of the magazine are strictly copyright, the property of Schofield Publishing, and may not be copied, stored in a retrieval system, or reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Libbie Hammond Editor 1

regular features

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Offsite Construction 2019 saw the construction industry take notice of Modern Methods of Construction.

What can we expect from 2020?

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skills If your business is going to deal with the inevitable shortage of skilled workers post Brexit, now is the time to act

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Virtual Reality Virtual reality can be a valuable tool, combining the power of BIM with the cloud, in a fully immersive experience

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surfacing

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Bruce Spencer-Knott discusses why the surfacing sector needs to embrace innovation and look at its environmental impact

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News Updates and information from the construction and civil engineering market

22 The UK CONCRETE Show 2020 March 2020 will see the return of the bigger and better UK CONCRETE Show to the NEC in Birmingham

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Softw estab indus

24 LKA

A hig Bosto from

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A lead equip solidif

contents

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FOUNDATION PILING LTD Foundation Piling’s name is associated with some of the most difficult and varied construction projects in the UK

42 BLUE PHOENIX GROUP Recognising the beneficial properties of incinerator bottom ash, Blue Phoenix Group is saving waste and creating opportunities

46 OLIVER CONNELL & SON

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Award-winning contractor Oliver Connell & Son has achieved some major milestones in the past two years

50 COMPLETE UTILITIES Complete Utilities assumes full responsibility of the rollout, upgrade, and maintenance of utility networks

56 CEMEX MORTARS CEMEX Mortars is going from strength-to strength, thanks to clever acquisitions and a willingness to embrace innovation

62 ILKE HOMES Offsite modular building expert ilke Homes has ambitious plans to expand its operations, with a healthy pipeline of work ahead of it

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66 CHANDLER MATERIAL SUPPLIES Independent builder’s merchant Chandler Material Supplies has grown in size while keeping traditional family values at its heart

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QUINTAIN LTD The driving force behind the evolution of Wembley Park, Quintain Ltd is now looking at new projects outside of London

company profiles 20 i-theses

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76 COLLARD GROUP

Software developer i-Theses is a wellestablished partner to the precast concrete industry, and enjoyed big success in 2019

LIEBHERR Liebherr will be demonstrating its Electric Truck Mixer range of units at this year’s UK Concrete Show

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30 CEMENTIR

80 CEMEX READYMIX & AGGREGATES

Using its world’s leading brands, CEMENTIR is a global pioneer in the field of white cement

Cemex Readymix & Aggregates offers traditional products as well as innovative special materials

34 ROBERT LEE DISTRIBUTION LTD

84 INFRASTRUCTURE GATEWAY

Today, Robert Lee Distribution is the UK’s biggest independent distributor of bathroom, kitchen and plumbing products

Working on behalf of some of the UK’s largest house builders, Infrastructure Gateway is an expert in Self-Lay

LKAB MINERALS A high-profile flood protection project in Boston, Lincolnshire is utilising MagnaDense from LKAB Minerals

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PUTZMEISTER UK LTD A leading manufacturer of concrete equipment, Putzmeister UK wants to solidify its standing in the industry in 2020

Collard Group offers demolition, remediation and waste management solutions to clients in the South of England

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Offsite construction

Modular

2020

Four trends to watch out for as MMC reaches its climatic third phase. By Joseph Daniels

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f 2019 was the year that the construction industry sat up and took notice of the modular movement, then 2020 is set to be the year that new attitudes trickle down to regulators, policy makers and planners too.

We have moved beyond the blue sky thinking of the late 20th Century when what

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could be achieved with Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) was an exercise purely for the imagination in Britain. Decades in the making, the offsite industry in the UK now has its boots on the ground, disrupting what it means to build sustainable homes.

Already, more than seven per cent of new build homes are modular (according to research

from Pinsent Masons) and only a few months ago Housing Minister Esther McVey launched a new MMC ‘centre of excellence’ across the north of England calling offsite construction the “new gold standard of building”. At the same time, McVey appointed an ‘MMC Champion’ in the form of Mark Farmer, chief executive of consultancy Cast, who will

declaration that it won’t be possible to reach house building targets without MMC. All this provides fertile ground for huge gains in 2020 for MMC specialists. Besides the public and private money pouring into the sector, there are four other trends you can expect to see continue throughout 2020; adoption, panelisation, economies of scale and diversification of traditional house builders.

The government has supplied an important stamp of approval. But the approval that matters most to developers sits with consumers, investors, commissioners and planning departments. Here, MMC can supply something that traditional house builders have been unable to - quality control.

Moving manufacturing onto production lines has always allowed standardisation, which has in turn raised standards. But technology now adds another dimension because it is possible QR code components to track their location and performance throughout their lives. It’s a key advantage of component-led, offsite manufacturing and all MMC providers will end up taking full advantage of this.

Quality control

be tasked with helping to make that happen. I have to declare an interest here having picked up a Building Innovation Champion award for 2019, judged by one…

Mark Farmer. Mark’s a massive industry advocate and the right person for the job. The government backed all this with a concrete £30m investment in an MMC provider, coming hot on the

heels of our own £19m investment from the Reuben Brothers in September.

Four trends We haven’t been able to take a breath in between big announcements, not forgetting the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) own

This matters because last year, our newspapers and TV screens were littered with reports about poor quality new build homes. Planners are as keen as consumers to ensure that what gets built will stand the test of time and the potential for armslength monitoring of construction is set to give those working in building control and planning departments a completely different perspective on quality assurance.

MMC will achieve that increasingly with panelised solutions. ‘Modular’ housing originally got its name from the prefabricated shells you could

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Offsite construction

drag and drop into place. That’s happening less and less now because pre-formed units even if only single rooms - have limitations; they can only be a large as the road or truck that will carry them, and they can attract higher transportation costs.

BRE standard I share a widely-held belief that panelised rather than totally prefabricated systems are the future. The former is endlessly adaptable and gives developers the best of all worlds - customisation, a predictable

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manufacturing schedule and reduced on-site time - without having to make sacrifices. Expect to see non-panelised systems become a thing of the past, maybe with the exception of garden rooms, sheds and other stand-alone outbuildings.

Assembly on site also lends itself to greater use of sustainable technology. The Future Homes Standard (FHS) which is due to come into effect this year, will impose greater requirements on all developers to use green technology. That’s going to increase the volume of homes

being fitted with environmental tech and that’s going to increase economies of scale for developers by rapidly raising demand and increasing competition among suppliers, helping to drive prices down. The FHS will go handin-hand with the soon-to-bepublished BPS 7014 standard for modular construction being developed by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) the first of its kind.

Such standards are important because they provide the financial world, particularly mortgage providers, with the kind of

Joseph Daniels

quality control they can lend against. BPS 7014 will be the quality mark that advocates of MMC can really get behind. This is going to help shift the sector into the fourth emerging trend of 2020 - diversification. The trail blazers have achieved proof of concept, and now you can expect traditional developers to start laying claim to market share.

The only thing that will slow this trend are the barriers to entry. Setting up MMC factories takes time and money. For MMC providers, greater investment goes into intellectual property

than materials whereas traditional construction firms have little or no IP, and all their overhead is effectively made up of bricks, mortar and labour. That creates a completely different risk profile for a business and could mean MMC pioneers hang on to their first-mover advantage a little longer if the housing market continues to soften.

MMC’s transition These are the four trends that will help the MMC revolution through its three stages of growth. The first is powered by the investors

and pioneers. That has already happened. Most people have still never been in a modular home, let alone bought one, but anyone can come to Northamptonshire and walk around an Etopia Corby home (pictured), just as they can the dozens of other modular schemes going up around the country.

The second phase will see those in public life advocating for its use and committing hard currency to its progress.

The third will see the housing industry’s professionals begin modifying, en masse, how they fulfil their customers’ briefs, whether they are a council planner, a housing association, a developer or an architect.

The year 2020 will mark the quickening of MMC’s transition from the end of the second stage to the beginning of the third - the climax of a decades long journey.

Joseph Daniels is CEO at Project Etopia.

Project Etopia was founded in 2015 and produces luxury modular homes and highquality school buildings that can be built in under four weeks. Its designs incorporate pre-installed energy-efficient technology such as solar power, heat recovery, mechanical ventilation and Passive House architectural design features to ensure each building is capable of producing more energy than it needs.

For more information, please see:

www.projectetopia.com

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Skills

Time to act

UK construction worker shortage following Brexit - what can your business do?

Andrew Murphy reports

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t’s no secret that all industries are facing the prospect of a shortage of workers due to the UK’s exit from the European Union. This is no different for the construction industry, and whilst some businesses within the industry are prepared for what is coming next, there is an alarming number of businesses who have done little to no preparation for the inevitable shortage of workers the UK is likely to see in the coming years.

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Most UK businesses ‘not ready’ for worker shortage Brexit is widely being blamed for the biggest worker shortage that the UK has seen for over 30 years, and there is good reason for this. With EU nationals already beginning to leave the UK, there is an expectation that a significant number of skilled workers within the construction sector will begin leaving the UK ahead of January 2021, when the Government plan to implement new restrictions on EU immigration.

A study by the CIPD (the professional body for HR specialists) found that most UK firms are ‘not ready’ for the postBrexit drop in workers from the European Union from 2021, with over half of the companies in the UK being unaware of the proposed restrictions on EU immigration.

Along with this, there are a huge amount of companies that say they do not have enough information from the Government to start putting a plan in place for when changes do begin to take effect.

In the construction sector, many firms are currently recruiting EU migrants due to a shortage of skilled UKborn applicants, and this is the case for the vast majority of industries across the country.

However, there is a genuine fear that businesses within the UK construction industry will struggle to fill the spaces left by EU migrants as there is a severe lack of skilled British nationals capable of stepping into these roles.

One significant issue facing the construction sector at the moment, is the requirement for any ‘experienced’ foreign worker requiring a salary of at least £30,000 per year to earn the right to work within the UK. Calls have been made by many firms across the construction industry to lower this figure. Along with this, employers are keen for

the government to introduce a two-year VISA system aimed at unskilled workers looking to come to the UK, with no requirement on minimum earnings to ensure that the labour shortage is not as significant as many fear it will be.

It’s worth noting that even before Brexit threatened to see the number of migrant workers drop, there has been a shortage of skilled workers across the construction industry for some time now. The pressure of losing even more skilled workers over the next two years have prompted some businesses to take immediate action, preparing for the worst. If your business hasn’t stepped up its preparations for the inevitable shortage of EU workers within the UK, then now is definitely the time to act, to ensure minimal disruption to business operations and your customers.

Steps your business can take to minimise disruption Keeping your business operating at close to normal levels during the coming months and years is obviously of paramount importance. Whilst there is little the industry can do to affect the decisions Government makes at this stage, it’s worth noting that businesses can take steps to help preserve their output and productivity, even with a worker shortage set to hit the industry harder than ever before in the next couple of years. Here are just a few simple steps your business can take to minimise the effects of the EU worker shortage following Brexit.

Begin upskilling current workers It’s well worth putting your current workers on training

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Skills

courses now to ensure they have all the necessary skills to succeed within their role. By upskilling your current workforce, you may not need to replace any outgoing employees, as you should have cover from your highly-skilled workforce. Your business should start by identifying any particular areas of the company where your workforce is significantly underskilled, with only one or two employees capable of carrying out a task.

Once this has been completed, it’s worth carrying out internal training where possible, but in some cases, it may be worth having an external company train your workforce to industry standard. Don’t hesitate to begin the process of training your workers, the shortage of skilled workers is only going to get worse over the coming years, so it’s definitely advisable to begin your preparations as soon as possible.

Optimise existing internal processes If you are almost certainly going to be hit by the changes coming

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in the next few years, it could be worth reviewing your internal processes to see if there are more efficient workarounds that could be employed when workers inevitably leave your business.

This could mean that you may need to also review any software or technical equipment that your business uses on a regular basis – but the hard work will be worth it in the end.

By employing this tactic, you can expect to save some money on staffing costs too, by becoming more efficient, you will inevitably require fewer workers within your ranks to carry out dayto-day tasks.

Utilise apprenticeships In the current climate, it’s absolutely essential to invest in the next generation of construction, engineering and manufacturing professionals and ensure they are given on the job training. If you do start an apprenticeship scheme within your business, you can help mould a young person into exactly the type of employee you would like to hire in the future. At the end of their course, there is a very good chance they will be eager to stay within your business, allowing you to have a fully-fledged employee who will understand the way your business operates inside out.

Andrew Murphy works at Boss Training. With over ten years’ experience, Boss Training is a specialist provider of Working at Height Training and Health and Safety Courses in the UK. Delivering training online, at dedicated training centres or onsite throughout the UK, Boss Training is PASMA and IPAF accredited and members of UKATA, a CITB Approved Training Organisation (ATO).

For more information, please see:

www.bosstraining.co.uk

Should you buy your own engineering consultancy?

This month, City Accountants (London) Ltd look at the options open to young Civil Engineers looking to go it alone Buying a large practice

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n recent years we have seen an uptake in the number of Civil and Structural Engineers setting up a consultancy.

This is not surprising, after all the reason you studied Civil Engineering at University was to have your own engineering consultancy one day.

Setting up from scratch Squatting* is probably the cheapest way of setting up. A small practice can be started from a budget as cheap as £40,000.

This includes second hand CAD equipment, computers, marketing and working capital. If something a little better is sought, then £60,000 to £80,000 will buy you a state-ofthe-art squat more suitable for attracting the sought after corporate clients. The cost of the squat is broadly speaking tax deductible – a major advantage compared to buying a freehold or goodwill and a friendly boss may allow you to bridge out your existing engineering job (spend two days at his practice and two days at your own) to ease your cash flow.

The problem with a squat is how long it will take you to start to break even. In our experience this is usually about 15 to 18 months. To set up a squat you will need some form of reputation locally, either as a specialist or a number of engineering roles under your belt. During that period you will need nerves of steel – and a clued up bank manager – as each month more money goes out than comes in!

As construction accountants we have never had a squat that has failed; a very different picture for existing practices purchased. A squat has a large inherent capital profit when, at the end of the day, you sell.

Don’t forget a squat is your opportunity to set up exactly how you want to, with staff chosen and trained by you. A chance to practice your own unique brand of Civil Engineering to your following of like-minded appreciative clients.

OK that’s fine for some engineers, but squatting is not everyone’s cup of tea. So what are the alternatives?

Buying a small consultancy This suits some civils as there is a client list from day one. The small size means you can to some extent, do your own thing and usually they are not too expensive.

The downside is you may inherit problems with the existing clients, existing staff, existing equipment or the former owner’s reputation. Another problem is insufficient clients for your needs. It should be remembered that a practice that has only ever been part time is unlikely to support a full time engineer in the short to medium term.

The attraction here is high profits – may be – in a stable environment with plenty of clients.

The downside? Cost. Large practices can be quite expensive, especially the goodwill values. Are you up to all the responsibility? Particularly managing the existing engineers and associates who may well be older and more experienced than you! The associates may take a dislike to you and leave; this could be a very difficult situation to handle.

Often joining as an ‘Associate Engineer with a view to buying in’ is an ideal compromise, because you try before you buy, have continuity with the clients and you know how the practice runs. Sometimes you can negotiate a small reduction in price on this type of practice, although haggling can prove awkward in this closed environment.

Going into partnership Tricky one! Buying a share in a partnership practice is a step into the unknown. You have the question of compatibility with the existing partners. You may find it difficult to implement changes in the practice, depending upon the attitude of the other staff. In addition, the new partner is often labelled as the junior partner, particularly if he is younger than the other engineers, making change even more difficult.

A useful question to ask here is whether the other Partners want you solely for your money?

The advantages are you have an existing book to work and established practice systems and protocols and it is often easier to take a career break if the need arises. These are useful if you are a little unsure of things. The other advantage is they are often cheap to buy into because no-one else is interested!

City Accountants (London) Ltd are Specialist Civil Engineering and Construction Accountants based North of London.

They advise on a wide range of Construction Tax issues and regularly write for the Construction Press.

City Accountants have over 20 years’ experience in Construction and Civil Engineering Accounts and are recognised for their proactive approach to Taxation in construction and business problems.

City Accountants (London) Ltd can be contacted on:

Phone: 01438 722224 | Email: kate@dentax.biz * A squat is when you acquire business premises and start a business from scratch

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Virtual reality

Immerse yourself Disrupting the construction industry with collaborative virtual reality. By Matt Keen

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rom pen and paper to CAD, BIM and 3D modelling, the ability to visualise, design and build using digital methods has always been a core component of construction.

New technologies are coming to the fore that are shifting the way construction is done, from apps and mobile devices to laser scanning and drone photogrammetry.

The construction industry has traditionally been slower to innovate than other adjacent industries, and adoption of technology by UK construction firms remains relatively low.

Indeed, our research revealed that one in five (19 per cent) construction firms admit that all of their projects are still being run with paper drawings on-site.

According to McKinsey, the industry is suffering from a $1.6bn productivity gap, and firms must take note and look to adopt emerging technologies that are set to disrupt the sector and help them tackle their biggest challenges.

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Closing the industry’s productivity gap It’s clear that change is needed, and one industry-leading technology that’s being brought into the industry to address these challenges is Virtual Reality (VR).

Combining the power of BIM with the cloud, construction workers can move from static images to fully immersive, intelligent virtual reality.

VR can be a valuable tool for the AEC industry, particularly during the preconstruction phase when digital data starts to translate into real-world resources and logistics.

Accessing accurate, timely information remains a key issue for UK firms, with over a quarter (28 per cent) of respondents in our study saying that lacking the information needed on-site is the biggest factor impacting their productivity. Correcting mistakes is taking up unnecessary time on sites, according to half the industry professionals surveyed.

Entering buildings, before they’ve even been built VR enables workers on-site to not only access information like 3D

BIM data, but better visualise how it will come together, avoiding costly errors and enabling more complex builds. Utilising VR allows any project stakeholder to experience a digital model before it’s built, helping to ensure vision aligns with the design. Potential conflicts or required changes can more easily be identified before issues arise during construction.

In the same way, VR helps with the co-ordination of different construction stakeholders, by enabling, for example, specialist subcontractors to visualise how their work fits into the design – both ahead of their arrival on-site and during their work. This could help address the fact that one in four (24 per cent) professionals said the co-ordination between stakeholders was a time drain for their business, according to our research.

Model co-ordination One use case for VR is through model co-ordination, which is the synchronisation process of all 3D model data into a centralised, master model. This gives sub-

contractors the ability to provide their design to the model coordinator, who overlays each model in its appropriate location.

Some of the benefits of leveraging VR for model coordination are decreased decision time, increased decision accuracy, and unquestioned accountability through the contextualisation of BIM data into the VR experience.

Ultimately, VR has the potential to create more profitable and seamless construction processes by improving scalability, streamlining collaboration, and enhancing the client experience.

Instead of screen-sharing, team members can review models in an immersive 3D environment using VR headsets and moving away from collaboration on paper.

Furthermore, combining VR with other technologies such as sensors and GPS technology on-site creates a real-time connection between a physical construction site and its digital twin in the cloud—unlocking an infinite number of opportunities for efficiency and project management. Bringing various data sources together and realtime analysis enables better decision making and the ability to adapt to the project’s needs.

Digital twins are a critical enabler for the industry to deliver more sustainable buildings and reduce the negative impact that construction has on the environment.

Putting VR into practice

electrical, fire pipe, mechanical (HVAC), and plumbing contractors were forced to reroute their designs. A scan of the paper drawing was passed around via email and marked up by each contractor. After three weeks, there had been little progress, and with the clock ticking, the client had to fly a team on-site for three days. Eventually the issue was resolved, and work continued.

However, the damage had been done; the delay had negatively impacted the project schedule and cost the customer in project delays, as well as travel and accommodation expenses.

This firm is not alone, we have seen similar experiences in other industry-leading construction firms, on projects of all sizes.

Placing collaborators in a virtual space where data is represented spatially has many benefits.

One such project gives us a demonstration of just how. A construction firm was working on a small project, which had four sub-contractors submit their designs for an equipment room.

When the concrete manufacturer updated their drawings to show post-tension cables running through the precast panels, the

An effective, proven solution is NVIDIA’s Holodeck VR platform.

Project stakeholders can connect to project BIM data in VR, allowing them to plan sessions before jumping to 1:1 scale. With the click of a button, the project team is transported into a virtual model at full scale, where they use familiar industry toolsets to address the problem. A solution is reached, a snapshot is taken, and the

resulting solution is sent back to the data platform attached to the issue for the designer to pick up the changes.

A new virtual era VR is one of a handful of technologies at the nucleus of a changing, digital world.

Digitalisation connects people, data and tools together in an immersive context, and this new and exciting workflow is already changing industries to help decision-making and improve productivity. Moving away from traditional methods of project design and towards these collaborative VR projects can ultimately lead to fewer setbacks, and more cost-efficient outcomes.

Matt Keen is Construction Industry Strategist at Autodesk. Autodesk makes software for people who make things. If you’ve ever driven a high-performance car, admired a towering skyscraper, used a smartphone, or watched a great film, chances are you’ve experienced what millions of Autodesk customers are doing with its software. Autodesk gives you the power to make anything.

For more information, please see

www.autodesk.co.uk

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Surfacing

The road to

improvement Bruce Spencer-Knott discusses why the surfacing sector needs to embrace innovation

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he road surfacing and construction industries are often seen as dirty and pollutive, and generally don’t have the best of reputations. However, the wealth of technology to transform our industry to achieve better results with a reduced impact on the environment, is largely going unused.

Twenty years after we launched, the civil engineering and road surfacing industries

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have changed, but they haven’t changed much. Across my own business, we’ve invested in a wide range of technologies and systems to cut our impact on the environment and to improve the quality of our work, but we all need to act if we’re to bring real, lasting change.

In a changing world, where more and more people and businesses are becoming conscious of the impact of their actions on the environment, we have a duty and a need to

embrace the innovative solutions which will help us to improve.

Last year, my company, Minster Group, won one of the UK’s most prestigious green awards: the BusinessGreen Leaders Award for Circular Economy of the Year. We’re very proud to have our hard work to cut waste and emissions recognised and receiving this kind of recognition is very important because changing people’s thought processes is essential.

Many companies are stuck in

their ways, but we all need to explore and showcase what’s possible when it comes to reducing our carbon footprint and modernising our industry.

Cutting carbon footprints Trying to reduce our impact on the environment and make the most of new, innovative technologies wherever possible is vital, and the widespread use of recycling technology is an essential first step for the industry.

The technology to recycle roads has been available for a long time and it’s been widely used for decades in many countries. Here, however, the industry has been slow to catch on.

In 2014, we became one of the first companies in the UK to be using OCL Regeneration’s Foambase recycling technology and it’s transformed the way we work. This one innovation has helped us to save hundreds of thousands of tonnes of material from going to landfill and it’s

cut thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions while also saving our clients and the taxpayer money.

With Foambase technology, material that’s removed from old road surfaces is converted into a durable alternative to asphalt as well as binder course products.

This creates a safe and durable product that can be recycled and relaid many times in the future.

As well as reducing the need for more mineral aggregate or crude oil, the creation of Foambase

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Surfacing

is much more efficient and sustainable than traditional hot asphalt; it produces 32 per cent less CO2 and the technology even allows for material containing coal tar to be safely recycled and reused.

Coal tar, which is found in 85 per cent of roads can be deemed hazardous, costing councils up to £100 per tonne to send to landfill, so recycling the material has a significant financial and environmental benefit.

Emissions can also be reduced through waste reduction and quality assurance strategies throughout the construction process. For instance, we use vehicle-mounted 3D laser scanners to create highly accurate maps of the roads we’re working on to create CAD instructions for our construction teams and automated machinery.

We also use GPS tracking, temperature monitoring and load logging to monitor and track everything while our roads are laid to ensure our work is up to standard and waste is minimised.

In this way, we’re using our material much more responsibly.

By working more accurately and by checking and monitoring quality as we work, we’re not having to dig up and replace large sections of roads at the end of the work, saving time, resources and emissions.

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Introducing new technology and inspiring modernisation When managing a business, it’s vital to recognise the importance of changing with the times and encouraging modernisation.

Implementing technology wherever possible to meet the demand for more efficient solutions.

Whether it’s the use of systems like our vehicle mounted 3D laser scanners or the use of recycled plastics in pothole and patch repair, the technology exists to transform road surfacing from one of the dirtiest parts of the construction industry into one of the cleanest.

While the ecological argument for these innovations is clear, there’s also a strong business case for embracing new ways of working.

The technology that’s available today can improve the quality of our work and reduce the costs for clients and disruption to road users. For example, roads usually have to be closed while measurements are taken with a measuring tape or tripodmounted lasers which are operated from the roadside.

Using technology such as TopCon’s SmoothRide, roads can be measured from the safety of a vehicle’s passenger seat in normal traffic conditions and the

measurements are almost ten times as accurate. This means workers are kept safe, roads are kept open, the work can be completed faster, we can reduce waste and improve the overall quality of the work.

Also, a company that embraces technology and which genuinely cuts emissions and reduces waste is becoming a more attractive proposition for clients. Whether a company works with councils, housing developers, retailers, universities or tourist attractions, more and more organisations are mindful of ways they can reduce the environmental impact of their work and so choosing a contractor that uses greener systems can play a big role in helping them to reduce the environmental cost of their projects.

Promoting innovation As it is, our industry has been slow to innovate and reluctant to commit to green technologies and waste reduction strategies.

Caught between the desire to be green and the need to keep costs down, many organisations choose the cheaper, more pollutive option. Making this choice a certainty for many organisations is the fact that many of them are unaware that there are greener and more technological alternatives to the more traditional civil engineering contractors they know of.

To many, road surfacing is and always will be a dirty, pollutive, slow and dangerous industry and this holds us all back from truly modernising. What we need to do is to showcase our innovations, demonstrate green ways we can work and to keep pushing, collectively, to modernise our whole industry.

Being technology focused also makes the industry more attractive for young people who may be considering a career in the construction or surfacing

industry. At a time when there’s a substantial skills shortage and a growing number of experienced operatives reaching retirement age, this is more important than ever. We have to get the next generation interested, and investing in technology and modernisation is a key way to make this possible.

By promoting innovation across the entire supply chain by investing in machinery from manufacturers that are willing to incorporate the latest technology Bruce Spencer-Knott

into their products, we can make a huge difference and change the perceptions of people who think the industry is an unavoidable pollutant.

We need to be forward-thinking and willing to keep up with the latest technology, explore new ways of working and push for new machinery in a sector which many believe to be a dirty industry, devoid of technological advancement.

If companies are proactive when it comes to embracing the

likes of autonomous paving and the ability to harmonise laptops and hand-held gadgets with the hardware on the carriageways, then the rest of the industry will follow suit. This in turn will make manufacturers be more likely to invest in more new, innovative technologies, improving the industry from the top down.

It’s time to make the most of innovations available and prove that it’s possible to reduce the carbon footprint of the industry and keep up with the times, whilst still improving services.

Bruce Spencer-Knott is Managing Director at Minster Group. Minster Group is an awardwinning civil engineering group which includes Minster Surfacing and Alliance Recycling.

Minster works nationwide on behalf of local authorities, major developers, national retailers, supply chain partners and the Ministry of Defence. Based in Lincolnshire, Minster Group is passionate about recycling and waste reduction and is dedicated to safer, cleaner, greener civil engineering.

For more information, please see:

www.minstergroupltd.com

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news

Waterfront development Significant plans have been revealed by the Port of Milford Haven for the build of a hotel and separate conference and events venue at Milford Waterfront in Milford Haven, following the submission of formal planning applications to Pembrokeshire County Council.

The two planning applications came shortly after the Port received approval of outline planning for its multi-million-pound Milford Waterfront development in November 2019. Together, the developments will make a major contribution to the economic prosperity of the area with around 50 jobs created, including several apprenticeship opportunities.

The 40,000 sq. ft 100-bedroom hotel will be located towards the entrance to Milford Waterfront on the site of the disused Burnyeats building; which will be demolished. Opposite the entrance to Milford Waterfront, the Quay Stores building, which was originally constructed in around 1885 and is grade II listed, is in line for a major face-lift. The facility will be able to host a variety of events including conferences, exhibitions, concerts and weddings.

If approved, both projects will follow similar development timescales with work due to commence in late spring 2020 and be completed by summer 2021.

Transforming Barnsley A Leeds-based engineering business is providing full civil and structural engineering services on the second phase of a multi-award-winning regeneration scheme, The Glass Works, Barnsley town centre’s £180m redevelopment. Adept Civil and Structural Consulting Engineers was awarded the contract by Henry Boot Construction Limited, the Principal Contractor on The Glass Works.

The second stage of The Glass Works build is currently under construction, and Adept is responsible for designing the foundations and steel frames for four key buildings. They will be home to a wide variety of retail and leisure facilities including 26 new retail units, a 13 screen Cineworld, seven family restaurants, a Superbowl UK bowling, soft play and laser quest, a new public square and a 500-space multi-storey car park.

Adept has also been involved designing the buildings with transfer structures to ensure Yorkshire Water has access to the existing main sewer, which runs under part of the proposed buildings, and has also focused on the isolating sound proof designs for the cinema.

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£400m project A HOCHTIEF joint venture has been awarded with a £400m contract to deliver the second phase of the London Power Tunnels (LPT2) project. Scheduled to start in March 2020, this six-year project will see the construction of a 32.5 kilometres tunnel for the energy supply of London. The project has been developed to minimise disruption for Londoners, eliminating the need to dig up the existing cable infrastructure, which is now 50 years old and reaching the end of its life.

Executive Director, Nicola Shaw from National Grid says: “This contract award is a major milestone in the next phase of the London Power Tunnels project and will help ensure the capital has secure, reliable access to electricity to meet the energy demands of the future.”

New joint venture HOCHTIEF CEO Marcelino Fernández Verdes added: “We are delighted to contribute with our long-standing expertise in tunnelling works in London to the city’s energy grid modernisation.”

For this project, HOCHTIEF has set up a 50/50 joint venture with J. Murphy & Sons Ltd. The two companies have a strong joint track record delivering projects such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link C320 and the Crossrail C310 Thames Tunnel project.

The contract reflects HOCHTIEF Group’s significant tunnelling expertise, its strong competitive position and ability to deliver innovative solutions to clients from the utility industry.

Ambitious plans GRAHAM has reached financial close on a £130m contract to deliver a major 1480-bed student accommodation project for the University of York. GRAHAM is also an investor as part of a consortium with Equitix – a fund manager of core infrastructure assets. The scheme forms a key part of the University’s ambitious ‘Campus Masterplan’ – a framework for how it will develop its ‘campus of the future’.

An intensive consultation and engagement process, involving a broad spectrum of stakeholders, ensured that the ‘exciting and sustainable’ designs were given the green light by the University and planners.

Construction for the project,

which has been designed by architects Sheppard Robson, will be completed for the 2022 academic year.

The design embraces Modern Methods of Construction bringing enhanced quality and

Fri Sikt Volsdalsberga is designed by the architect firm Niels Torp Arkitekter AS Illustration – courtesy of Niels Torp Arkitekter AS

Second stage approval In a contract is worth NOK 153 million, Peab has been commissioned by customer Fri Sikt Volsdalsberga AS to complete a project in Ålesund in northwest Norway. It comprises 47 apartments in two buildings and is the second stage of a new city district in Volsdalsberga in Ålesund. Construction will begin in the spring of 2020 and is expected to be completed in the autumn of 2022.

The first stage began in the autumn of 2018 and consists of three buildings with a total of 66 apartments. It is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2021.

“Work on the first stage has gone very well. We work closely together with our customer and I consider the fact that we have been commissioned to build the second stage as a big stamp of approval for our organisation,” stated Kjetil Nordang, Region Manager Peab.

delivery confidence.

Elements include pre-fabricated sandwich panels, integrating external brick finish, insulation, windows, first fix services and finished internal walls.

Neil McFarlane, GRAHAM Strategic Projects Director: “This is an exciting step forward for the University of York’s ambitious plans to deliver a new kind of campus for its academic community. We’re proud to be associated with such a talented project team who are as excited as we are to get started and bring the university’s vision to life.”

Building a real community Bovis Homes, in a new Joint Venture with Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTVH), is to build 783 homes on a £240m development, Cambourne West, near Cambridge.

The development will be made up of 70 per cent private units, which range from one to five-bedroom homes from the company’s new Phoenix range, and 30 per cent affordable housing. The 235 affordable homes will be comprised of affordable rent and shared ownership.

Bovis Homes and MTVH will also provide a number of facilities to support the local community. As part of its section 106 financial contributions, it will contribute almost £40m towards education, including the expansion of the Ofsted rated ‘Outstanding’ secondary school and two new primary schools. Bovis is also contributing £9.5m to a City Deal, including highway improvements, all within a landscape led, sustainable environment.

Building at the site is expected to begin in February 2020.

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AutoFloor Extensions4Revit

Digitising precast Further growth across Belgium and the UK accompanied i-Theses throughout 2019, with the software developer set for another year of busy new developments and order management

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eflecting on the year that has just passed, Rony Verlee – CEO Sales & Marketing at i-Theses – does not hide his satisfaction with the extraordinary 2019 the software developer had. A well-established partner to the precast concrete industry, the Belgian company had a fantastic 12 months in which the orders for its products kept coming through. So much so that it decided to postpone its entry into the French market, due to the overload of work it was faced with both in its native Belgium and in the UK. In fact, i-Theses has had such an overwhelming success this side of the Channel that it is now the undisputed leader in offering software solutions for hollow core flooring.

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As a business with a mission to penetrate every single segment of the precast concrete industry with its tools, however, the company is now focused on extending its offering and developing new solutions regarding precast beams and columns. Rony gives us some more details on what the company has been working on in the past months: “We are now ready to launch a new drawing application that enables the design of T-beam floors. What is special about this product, is that it is based on AutoCAD, which is a type of solution that is in high demand in the UK at the moment.

It has not been available in the market so far and applications have not been BIM-integrated.

We are about to fill this gap and introduce an integrated

calculation option that adheres to the Eurocode standards.

“Over time, we have successfully won over all the main UK precast companies that are involved in floor production, and they are all using our PrecastOffice software for the hollow core.

We have developed planning applications for this part of the process and are now keen on doing the same for T-beam,” he continues. “We already have the design package ready and we will shortly be able to automatically generate quotations out of a drawing. In addition, we plan on launching applications to support production planning and stock management. Ultimately, we are aiming to provide solutions that cover the entire production process, from the very first

i-Theses Integrated calculation

enquiry right through to delivery and invoicing. This will happen gradually over time both for T-beam structures and for the new module we are releasing for precast stairs later in 2020.

“The main advantage of integrating calculation and BIM is that it saves designers a lot of time,” Rony maintains. “Although the database is 3D, the users can design the floors in a 2D view and, therefore, the new product is very easy to use. As it is based on AutoCAD, it is compatible with DWG and other formats such as DXF or PDF. Existing solutions do not offer this option, which means you have to redraw/rework the whole thing and that is very time-consuming.”

Rony also points out that there is a universal requirement from customers for software that is easy to work with and that allows integration with BIM. “When BIM first appeared, everybody was talking about it, but nobody was using or implementing. As this is changing dramatically, there is a clear need from people who utilise it to be able to connect it with a range of software applications. It will definitely take a few more years before this turns into a mainstream requirement, but a positive start is made and PreCastOffice is ready to support this.

Web based project manager

AutoFloor BIM IFC Export in Autodesk Viewer

Automatic loading and stacking

Skills required Web-based applications are growing in demand when you take into consideration the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big data analytics, and the increasing digitalisation, among other components that characterise Industry 4.0. “We live in a world where it is perfectly possible to access loads of data and consult it anywhere you are on any type of device – be it a tablet, a laptop, or a mobile phone – provided that you have an Internet connection. It is all about

Stockyard & Loads Planning

making best use of the numbers you can have on your fingertips, which will enable you to check the status of any project in real time and compare metrics over a period of time, to better inform your decision-making process in the future,” Rony explains.

“The challenge to the development of all these solutions, is finding the right people who can do that,” he admits. “We have had to limit our growth in a way for the time being, because it is hard to find highly-skilled developers that will help us to expand further by means of creating the solutions there is market aspiration for. It is a very specific technology we are working with, which requires particular skills.

Bringing the web-based modules discussed above into the UK market will be i-Theses’ main priority for 2020. This is happening step by step, though, with the company requiring some extra time to launch its various applications, such as the iTs ProjectManager or the PlanDesk Capacity planner. “This should be more than enough to keep us busy throughout the new year,” Rony adds. “If in the meantime, we manage to set up a presence in France, then all the better. We are generally looking into our other neighbouring countries like Germany and the Netherlands for further expansion. We are actually already fully booked for the entire first half of 2020 for development, which promises another eventful year for the company,” he concludes.

i-Theses http://www2.i-theses.com/en/ Services: Software solutions for the precast industry

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Exhibition Preview

The UK CONCRETE Show 2020

The only UK event dedicated exclusively to the concrete industry, The UK CONCRETE Show 2020 (UKCS2020) is set to return to the NEC - with some exciting new features

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elebrating its tenth anniversary in 2020, The UK CONCRETE Show has grown over the years to become Europe’s largest specialist concrete event, attended by specialists from all over the world.

Visitors in 2020 will see both Live in-hall and Outside Demos, as well as experiencing first-hand, everything that’s new in concrete from all of the biggest names in the industry.

With over 200 exhibitors expected and over 300 product groups, visitors to UKCS2020 will be able to research and discover everything from cement

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to pumps, precast manufacturing products, admixtures, reinforcement, testing and repair. In addition, alongside the comprehensive exhibition, there is also a combination of industry specific seminars and workshop sessions. “The 10th Show is planned to be a celebration for the whole of the UK concrete industry,” says Show Director Steven Callaghan. “The 2020 show will be some 20 per cent larger in surface area compared with 2019 and is planned to be a more dynamic event, with a greater emphasis on live demonstrations.

Visitors will see a greater range of equipment functioning, something

they tell us they want to see, so UKCS2020 will be more of a hands-on interactive experience compared with previous shows,” he added.

In fact, the organisers state that no other exhibition comes close to The UK CONCRETE Show – it’s full of everything to do with concrete and unlike general, broader-based construction shows, everyone in the hall has just one thing in common – concrete.

Thanks to this specialist focus on one area, over the last nine years, the show has become a magnet for buyers and specifiers.

They come to the show to buy ahead of the coming construction

UK CONCRETE Show 2020 – 25 & 26 March, 2020

‘season’ as well as maintain and expand supply chains during the off-season, at one convenient, comfortably air-conditioned and easy to travel to the location, the NEC Birmingham.

YOUR industry show Taking place in Hall 17, the show has found the perfect fit for the format of the show, as the car parks are only a short walk away and for 2020, there is an outdoor live demo area & vehicle display area, perfect for companies to demonstrate their products.

Thanks to customer feedback from previous events, the Show is now a month or so later on the calendar from its traditional February slot.

Visitors have indicated this move was a fantastic idea and that the Show is now perfectly timed for the UK buyer, as there is no clash with half term holidays.

Furthermore, for the special tenth anniversary show, the organisers have taken the decision to redesign the show layout, and introduce a range of new features which will be rolled out up until when the doors open in March – the show is already two-thirds sold out, so get in quickly if you want to organise a stand!

Promising more visitors and both new and returning exhibitors, if you have anything

to do with concrete, you can’t afford to miss The UK CONCRETE Show 2020. Exhibitors are signing up fast – companies that have already booked stands include: Adomast, Putzmeister, Liebherr, HTC, McPhee Mixers, Conspare, Danfords, Skako, Blastrac, Scanmaskin, Siltbuster, PUK, KVM, Fastform, APD Mixer Repairs, EKC Systems, LKAB Minerals, Jonesco, Besser, Elkem and many, many more.

“It’s the sheer variety and choice that stands out at UKCS,” says Steven Callaghan, “that only a big, standalone industry leading show can offer visitors,” he concludes.

Since it first began in 2011, The UK CONCRETE Show has grown to become Europe’s largest specialist concrete event and is attended by specialists from all over the world. The 2020 show is gearing up to be a spectacular showcase for design, manufacture, specifying, site installation, testing, maintaining and repairing, and what makes it really different is that it is so specifically targeted at the concrete sector – it is YOUR industry show where the visitors are genuinely interested in seeing what’s new and they want to buy!

The final programme will be announced soon, but to keep upto-date check the website www.concreteshow.co.uk for all the latest news and initiatives.

Remember also to follow the Show on Twitter - @ UKConcreteShow - to keep on top of all the latest show developments.

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Stabilising riverbeds with high density concrete

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n recent years, civil engineering challenges have become increasingly more complex.

Whilst high density concrete containing the natural mineral Magnetite has a history of use in civil engineering projects, contemporary designs have involved more innovative solutions; one of the most recent is the use of MagnaDense concrete to stabilise underwater structures and groundworks.

The Boston Barrier In our changing climate, there is an ever increasing threat of flooding which in turn is leading to an emphasis on the improvement of flood defences. This is especially important for the town of Boston, Lincolnshire, which in 2008 saw the highest tidal surge ever recorded in the region, leading to

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the development of the Boston Barrier project. The project began in 2017 and is due for completion in 2021 and when complete will protect over 14,000 properties from tidal flooding.

The project is a partnership between the Environment Agency, Lincolnshire County Council, Boston Borough Council and Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board and will see the installation of two flood defence barriers as well as scour protection of the river bed.

Stabilising riverbeds The River Witham runs through the county of Lincolnshire, beginning in Grantham and finishing in the Haven, a tidal region of the Wash. It is a fairly unique river because of the high flow of water running through

it; the rate at which is recorded at 5.3 metres per second, an exceptionally high flow for an inland water course. It is also a major distribution channel for Lincolnshire industry and of vital importance to the county.

Due to the high velocity of water, the riverbed requires stabilisation to reduce the amount of movement of silt and other residues which settle, causing verges and holes. The solution is protection with mattresses to reduce scour, produced using concrete. Because of the shallow depth of the river and the force of the water, standard concrete would have caused the mattresses to be too thick, threatening safe passage of the vessels passing through.

The answer was to construct the scour protection mattresses

LKAB Minerals

with MagnaDense High Density Concrete. Supplied by LKAB Minerals, MagnaDense is a natural, high density aggregate which can provide densities of up to 4.1t/m3.

Produced by Subsea Protection Systems Ltd in Great Yarmouth, the heavyweight mattresses are constructed with concrete of 3.6t/ m3 density and between 150 and 300mm thick. In total, 380 heavy weight mattresses will be installed over the course of the project.

Due to the short lead times in the project, the high density concrete is being produced at Breedon Group’s dedicated plant in close proximity to Subsea Protection System’s production facility. The concrete has been designed to achieve strengths of 40N at 28 days, achieved in part due to the properties of MagnaDense. The short setting time of just 24 hours and high early strengths were a vital part of this project, to allow full utilisation of mould use in order to achieve the required production output and meet the site installation programme.

A sustainable solution It is a requirement that all projects in water are constructed using materials which can be recycled.

In this case, the scour protection mattresses are designed to

withstand 100 years beneath the water before being fully recyclable at the end of life. Concrete reclaimed from the bottom of water courses can be crushed and re-used in other applications.

About MagnaDense MagnaDense is a naturally occurring mineral extracted from LKAB’s mines in Northern Sweden. It is an inert and nontoxic material resistant to corrosion and leaching. When utilised in offshore and under water applications, MagnaDense concrete lowers the centre of gravity, increases negative buoyancy and gives mechanical protection against sea motions.

Subsea Protection Systems Subsea Protection Systems (SPS) is a leading supplier of scour concrete mattresses and other protection and stabilisation products to the subsea industry.

The company designs and manufactures a wide range of solutions for the protection and stabilisation of pipelines, cables and other subsea assets.

SPS is experienced in using high density concrete in various projects, as a supplier to the energy sector for over 20 years. It is involved in all aspects of subsea projects including Offshore Wind Farms, Oil and Gas, Inshore and

Coastal Protection.

One of the more recent and diverse projects was the development of concrete Kentledge blocks to act as weights for a temporary building at Heathrow Airport. The blocks were required to keep the temporary structure weighted to the ground. Space around the building was restricted so a high density concrete was required, adding extra weight in a restricted space available. The blocks were constructed with a density of 3.8 t/m3 and were designed to be removed once the building was no longer required.

LKAB Minerals is an international industrial minerals group with a leading position in a number of product applications. It has sales representation, offices, production units and deposits in 11 countries in Europe, Asia and the US and employs around 400 people. LKAB Minerals’ turnover was 212M EURO in 2018 and it supplied over 30 minerals to a range of industries, including construction, water treatment, polymers & coatings, agriculture and pharmaceuticals.

For details of MagnaDense please visit: www.lkabminerals.com

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Systems for every need One of the leading manufacturers of concrete equipment, Putzmeister UK is looking forward to its regularly scheduled appearance at The UK Concrete Show, and to engaging with both existing and prospective customers

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utzmeister UK Ltd was formed in Matlock, Derbyshire in 1974, and after nine years of growth, larger premises were inevitably required. It was at this point that Putzmeister UK moved to its current location in Chesterfield in the Midlands. From the onset, it was evident that the market would accept the brand and its products, which ranged from the renowned truck-mounted concrete pump to the more specialised placing booms, precasting and tunnelling equipment.

Over the years there have been some fantastic milestones and ventures involving the company.

These includes its participation in the Crossrail project, the Forth Road Bridge, Tideway, and of late the Hinckley Point Project. A lot of these milestones have come about as a result of a combination of committed staff efforts, and close collaboration with clients.

“Adapting to the market and its ever changing and evolving requirements is one of our biggest

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strengths,” explains Putzmeister UK’s Finance Director, Darin MillsBrown. “In any business operation, your people are key to achieving sustainability and longevity, and this ultimately makes your business profitable. Putzmeister UK has been fortunate in this regard that we have a strong core of long serving staff members that have stood the test of time since as early as 1984. Today, regular internal training of our expert teams in sales, service and parts is also key to our continued success.”

In 2012, Putzmeister was purchased by the SANY Group, which is ranked as one of the top five construction manufacturing equipment companies worldwide.

Included in this sector is the SANY Concrete Pump. This division of the group is the market leader in concrete pump manufacturing. Later in 2020, Putzmeister will be announcing new major market developments to complement its brand and offer an alternative solution for the UK market.

New solutions “With our market being one in which the demand from end users for equipment that is more operationally efficient, fully emission compliant, and ultimately better performing is ever increasing, the OEM equipment supplier of today must ensure that it offers the full package and more,” Darin continues. “Adding value becomes a really important factor is closing deals, and as such we at Putzmeister have launched and updated a number of new solutions, for example the Putzmeister Machine Cockpit, the information hub for your machines – anywhere and reliably in real time.”

Features of the Putzmeister Machine Cockpit include: Real time information: The construction-site status of vehicles is provided in real time, giving up-to-date information of their set-up and work progress l Remote Service: Notification of critical machine conditions l Data Analysis: Key figures for l

Putzmeister UK Ltd – Member of SANY Group

delivery rate, machine use and fuel consumption that enables the reduction of unproductive periods of time l Maintenance: Messages delivered for upcoming maintenance intervals, preventing unnecessary downtime and correct planning l Anti-theft Function: A notification is generated as soon as the machine leaves a defined area. This makes it possible to react quickly when required To test a demo version of the Putzmeister Machine Cockpit, visit www.putzmeister.com/cockpitdemo To meet the challenge of keeping up with the times, the company has also upgraded its Putzmeister Experts App – version2. Free and available for iOS and Android smartphones, the app can be downloaded here: iOS: http://pum.bz/ pmexpertsappapple Android: http://pum.bz/ pmexpertsappandroid

Expanding and exhibiting “One of the other big recent achievements of the company has been the completion of the first stage of our extension plans for our parts storage facilities,” Darin adds. “This new area now enables us to keep both more stock on site, and a wider range of parts to improve our service to

meet the end users’ requirements.

Less down time and having more machines being productive is the ultimate aim. In addition, we have taken on additional staff in key areas of the business to support our clients’ demands. This will allow us to respond more rapidly to their respective enquiries.”

Putzmeister UK will soon find itself exhibiting at The UK Concrete Show 2020, at Birmingham’s NEC on March 25 and 26. “We have displayed at the show for several years now, with very positive results,” Darin says. “With the market as it is, and with Putzmeister UK being a leading manufacturer of concrete equipment, we owe it to the industry to show that we are still willing and able to contribute, participate and promote our

offerings and strengths. The UK Concrete Show has always provided us with an ideal opportunity to showcase both tried and tested equipment, along with the latest innovations and enhancement of new equipment. It also provides a more informal opportunity to meet face-to-face with our existing customers, potential new ones, and to have open discussions about their requirements and how Putzmeister UK can address them.”

Putzmeister UK is cautiously upbeat about current market conditions in early 2020. “The current focus tends to be on things like infrastructure, residential, hospitals and schooling contracts, and these are all areas that fall within our market sector, which is good news for our clients and the communities that they operate in,” Darin states. “Our aim for our next period of growth is to solidify our current standing in the industry, and to build on this foundation and extend our market share as the leading provider of concrete machinery, parts and service.”

Putzmeister UK Ltd – Member of SANY Group www.putzmeister.com Services: World class construction products, systems and solutions

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Shaking up the system Regular attendee of The UK Concrete Show, Liebherr will be bringing its innovative Electric Truck Mixer (ETM) technology to the 2020 edition at Birmingham’s NEC

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n April 2019, at the bauma 2019 construction machinery trade fair in Munich, one of the companies making the biggest of waves was the multinational equipment manufacturer Liebherr. The reason behind the excitement generated was its unveiling of its Electric Truck Mixer (ETM) range of units with electrical drum drives.

The ETM series features a fixed body with a nine-cubic metre drum and a semitrailer with a ten-cubic metre drum. With it, Liebherr is reacting to the increasing requirement to reduce fuel, CO2 emissions and noise pollution in areas of high population density and other sensitive environments.

The truck mixer’s battery capacity reserves are large enough to accommodate an entire working

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day of standard operations, while a compact and efficient electric generator helps to recharge the battery during journey times to and from construction sites or batching plants.

Following its successful unveiling last year, Liebherr’s ETM solution will now be taking centre stage when the company makes its annual appearance at The UK Concrete Show at Birmingham’s NEC on March 25 & 26, 2020. To tell us more about the ETM range, Construction & Civil Engineering spoke with Liebherr’s Product Manager, Silvan Gadner.

“We initially began developing the ETM range back in 2017, when we were first approached by a customer that was thinking about ways to develop a hybrid truck mixer solution,” he begins. “As

anyone familiar with truck mixers will be aware, these typically diesel powered units tend to spend the vast majority of their time stationary but with the drums turning. What we wanted to do was develop an environmentally friendly system that would power the truck and allow the drum to turn autonomously.

“The concept we came up with was a solution that allowed us to replace all of the hydraulics used within our latest fifth generation model with an electricpowered system fed by a lithium ion battery. We also took the decision to include a power take off generator to feed additional energy into the battery when the unit is travelling from its base to site. This helps to further negate the – already minimal – need to

Liebherr

recharge the unit during the course of a day’s activities, which is a key requirement that customers want met as they want to retain the reliability of traditional diesel powered vehicles.”

As of January 2020, Liebherr’s ETM units find themselves in the pre-production phase, with a small fleet of completed vehicles ready to be handed over to a select group of European customers, and ambitions to move into full production by the third quarter of this year. In the meantime, anticipation is building to the company’s aforementioned appearance at The UK Concrete Show, where attendees can look forward to getting up close to a fully functioning European version of one of its ETM’s.

“The ETM will form the centrepiece of our appearance at this year’s event,” confirms Simon Cook, General Manager of Liebherr’s Concrete Division. “We will have the unit fully energised so that we can drive the drum and safely demonstrate to people how it operates independently of the main drive engine of the truck and how it does so while emitting virtually zero noise. This presence at the event will give people the perfect opportunity to meet with the key influencers behind the ETM, and we look forward to answering any questions about the product that attendees may have.”

Alongside the ETM, Liebherr will also be bringing with it one of its fifth-generation truck mixers – its current model which sits upon a Mercedes chassis – which proved to be a resounding success with strong sales figures in 2019, as well as its E Electric trailer-mounted concrete pump. Its highest hopes, however, rest with the ETM. “Anyone who knows anything about Liebherr will be aware that we never release a product to market unless we are confident it will be a success. The only difference about the ETM is that there is virtually nothing else like it

on the market today, and we can’t wait for people to see it first-hand.”

Silvan, Simon and everyone else associated with Liebherr and the ETM are linked by their shared confidence in the future potential for the range, and the business stands ready and waiting to move into full-scale production as and when orders inevitably pick up speed. “The ETM is a unit that I absolutely expect to become a prominent feature of many of construction project in the years to come,” Silvan confidently states. “With increasingly stringent CO2 emission and noise regulations coming into play, particularly in urban areas, we anticipate the market share for electric powered units to rapidly grow, potentially to as high as 50 per cent by 2025.

“From there, with a greater number of these electric units being produced, the technology is expected to become cheaper and more accessible, meaning that the long-term likelihood is that they will eventually outrun hydraulic truck mixer models – potentially within the next decade. That is why we at Liebherr have backed such an innovation and will continue to do so going forward.”

Liebherr www.liebherr.com Products: Sophisticated construction products and services

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profile: Cementir

Paving a sustainable way forward

Already established as a global pioneer in the field of white cement, Cementir is now embarking on an ambitious ten-year plan that will see it become an even more sustainable entity

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or Cementir, the world’s leading name in white cement through its global brand Aalborg White®, 2019 was a positive year marked by a number of important events, both from a product development and an operational perspective. Reflecting on the last 12 months, and the last time the company featured within the pages of Construction & Civil Engineering at the turn of 2019, Cementir’s Chief Sales, Marketing & Commercial Development Officer, Michele Di Marino is happy to update us on the progress it has made.

“The last time we spoke, the company was in the process of acquiring and integrating several new positions across Europe and the United States, and strengthening in other key locations globally. At the same time, we also underwent something of an internal

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Image above: Architect: Neutelings Riedijk Structural engineer: Lievense Contractor: JP van Eesteren Prefab: Hibex B.V.

reorganisation that would see us setting up new initiatives in the areas of innovation, digitalisation, product development, commercial activity,” Michele begins. “So, for us, 2019 was a time in which we consolidated many of the decisions taken in the last three of years, and the results have been very positive indeed.”

Arguably one of the most significant developments for the company in 2019, however, has been its renewed focus on becoming an industry leader when it comes to sustainability.

“Delivering sustainable products, solutions and processes across multiple strands – from CO2 emissions reduction to corporate social responsibility and community engagement – will form the bedrock of what we do as a business for the next five-toten years,” Michele adds.

A central pillar to achieving its goals will be Cementir’s continued investment in value driven

innovation, and its subsequent introduction of new solutions. At the time of our last look at the company, it had just launched its Aalborg Extreme™, ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) premix, the first product to fall under its AalborgINWhite® range, and based on a refinement of Cementir’s patented binder technology, Futurecem®.

Futurecem® is based on the synergetic combination of limestone and calcined clay, the pairing of which helps to replace a significant quantity of clinker in cement. “We regard our Futurecem® technology as being a vital ingredient in delivering greener, more sustainable solutions,” Michele continues. “The energy savings facilitated by the lower use of clinker inevitably results in relevant CO2 reductions, while the materials used are made up of largely available, sustainable, natural resources. Such are the positive credentials of Futurecem®

that it has been highlighted as a contributor to a more sustainable future by the likes of the European Cement Association (Cembureau) – where it was mentioned in its Green Roadmap – and in reports from the European Commission and the International Energy Agency (IEA), as regards to calcined clays technologies.

Perfectly suited to the production processes of the company’s precast concrete customers’ plants, Aalborg Extreme™ has gained good traction since its introduction, and in December 2019 it was joined by a second UHPC premixed

Image above: Architect: Neutelings Riedijk Structural engineer: Lievense Contractor: JP van Eesteren Prefab: Hibex B.V.

product, Aalborg Excel. “Similarly based on our Futurecem® technology, Aalborg Excel™ is a complementary product to Aalborg Extreme™, in that each possesses unique properties, high compressive strength, and excellent tensile strength, shrinkage and durability. With its self-levelling properties and long open time, Excel™ is the perfect fit for architectural applications with thin and complex geometrics,” Michele explains.

Within its AalborgINWhite® range, Cementir is also pressing ahead with the imminent launch of a premix solution for

3D printed concrete, Aalborg Explore™. Having first looked into the technology some four years ago, the company has since taken the time to study, access and understand the opportunities it presents, and following extensive R&D work, it feels that now is the right time to proceed. “The 3D printed concrete market is still in its infancy, but there are a lot of start-up businesses now emerging and we can see a number of future application opportunities in the construction industry for this technology,” Michele says.

A further technology that is relatively young in terms of its

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profile: Cementir

wide-scale adoption that Michele is keen to mention is magnetic cement, particularly as it relates to its ability to charge electric vehicles. “We are very excited to be working on magnetic premixes to enable the ‘real-life’ implementation of the technology, in co-operation with a German start-up company by the name of Magment,” he details. “Magment has patented a new, global material with the properties of concrete that can enable a focused magnetic field

in order to enable both static and dynamic charging of electric vehicles. With demonstration projects involving this technology currently taking place all over the world, the potential for it is massive, and we are thrilled to be playing a part in its development.”

As is the case with most well-run businesses, Cementir has a three-year plan that sets out its goals for the immediate future. Where it differs slightly is in the fact that, running parallel

to this, it also has a road map in place taking it up to 2030. “This road map sets out up our plans for the strategic development of Cementir, focusing on key themes such as internal growth and – of course – sustainability, which we have committed an additional €100 million towards over the next three years,” Michele states. “One of our targets for the next ten years is to achieve a group-wide CO2 reduction of 30 per cent, and all of our activities today incorporate this goal. Investment wise, we will continue to bring in the best new processes and technologies to create ever-more environmentally friendly solutions, while internally we aim to make further progress in the adoption of alternative fuels and in improving waste recovery.

“People wise, we will maintain our investment in training, development and our work through our Cementir Academy programme. Then, in addition to our internal efforts, strategy wise we will also continue to look for opportunities to achieve external growth. We are definitely interested in ways in which we can increase our presence in the Asia Pacific region, for instance, by strengthening our strategic presence and our production and logistic network.

“In conclusion, I expect 2020 to be the year in which we set about on the path towards a new age for Cementir, one that is driven by the core themes of innovation, growth and sustainability!”

Cementir www.cementirholding.it Services: Cement and concrete production SIKA Sika is a specialty chemicals company with a leading position in the development and production of systems and products for bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing, and protecting in the building sector and motor vehicle industry. Sika has subsidiaries in 101 countries around the world and manufactures in over 200 factories. Its more than 20,000 employees generated annual sales of CHF 7.09 billion in 2018.

Concrete - Sika develops and markets a complete range of admixtures and additives for use in concrete, cement, and mortar production. These products enhance specific properties of the fresh or hardened concrete, such as workability, water tightness, durability, load-bearing capacity, or early and final strength. The demand for admixtures and additives is currently on the rise, particularly due to the increased performance requirements placed on concrete and mortar, especially in urban areas and for infrastructure construction. Furthermore, the growing use of alternative cementitious materials in cement, mortar, and therefore also in concrete, is increasing the need for admixtures.

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WHEN ENVIRONMENT AND PERFORMANCE GO HAND IN HAND THAT’S BUILDING TRUST SikaGrind® cement additive technologies allow the cement industry to offset obstacles deriving from supplementary cementitious materials. This makes cement more environmentally friendly and increases the plants profitability.

SIKA SERVICES AG Tueff enwies 16 · CH-8048 Zurich · Switzerland Phone: +41 58 436 40 40 · Fax: +41 58 436 41 50 · www.sika.com

profile: Robert Lee Distribution Ltd

Superior stockists Stocking more than 30,000 lines at any given time, Robert Lee Distribution Ltd is the UK’s largest independent distributor of bathroom, kitchen and plumbing products

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ncredibly, the legacy of Robert Lee Distribution Ltd (Robert Lee) can be traced all the way back to 1855. It is in the more recent past, however, that the business that exists today truly began to take shape. It was in the year 2000, to be precise, that one of the industry’s most respected distributors, Mark Abrahams Bathrooms, completed the acquisition of Robert Lee (London) Ltd, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Understandably so, Robert Lee’s Managing Director, Tim Wayman is the man best placed to detail how the merging of two leading independent players came to pass.

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“Having joined Mark Abrahams Bathrooms back in 1998, at a time when it was a £6.25 million business operating across London and the Home Counties the brief was to succeed the incumbent MD and identify opportunities to take the company to another level of growth.”

Such an opportunity presented itself towards the end of the century when the chance to acquire Robert Lee (London) Ltd arose. “In a previous life, I had personally been not only a customer and supplier to, but a competitor of, Robert Lee (London) Ltd, and it was my opinion that its purchase would prove hugely complementary to

our existing operations and would open up new business channels,” Tim continues. “Ultimately, the acquisition was completed in January 2000, and in the couple of years following we set about integrating the two businesses, consolidating all of our activities into our newly purpose built, 100,000 square foot head office in Waltham Abbey in 2003.”

Since 2000, Robert Lee has gone from strength to strength, today stocking over 30,000 different product lines at any one time, and supplying 99 per cent of its retail, merchant and showroom customers with goods on a next working day delivery basis. “The key to our success is,

on the back of its commitment to holding stock in depth. “It’s fair to say that we carry perhaps the widest range of products of any distributor in our field,” Tim states.

“For a great many businesses like ours, the tendency is to carry only the best selling and

fastest moving items from each manufacturer. Our philosophy is that in order to warrant being considered a true distribution partner it is necessary to hold both depth and breadth from the entire portfolio of products available from that supplier.”

without question, day-in day-out reliability,” Tim declares. “Every single day, we have to answer three questions – do we have a certain item in stock, can we deliver it next day, and how much will it cost? Now, you can promise a customer the world, but if you don’t deliver on what you say you will they will, quite rightly, vote with their feet. That is why ‘delivering the promise’, as we call it, sits at the heart of all that we do.”

True partner As a wholescale distributor for a veritable who’s who of industry leading manufacturers, Robert Lee has also built its reputation

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profile: Robert Lee Distribution Ltd

Outside of the products it stocks for manufacturers, since 2010 Robert Lee has also gained significant traction in the sales of its own brand ranges. “Today, we have three distinct own brands,” Tim explains. “The first – ARLEY – is a range of quality bathroom, showering, kitchen and plumbing products that are primarily aimed towards merchants and trade counters. The second – Warmbase – is our collection of designer radiators, ladder rails and heating accessories, and our third brand is Synergy, which produces a stunning range of bathroom products and solutions that are designed to feature within showrooms.”

In the case of its Synergy brand, the company has been extremely pleased with its growth, so much so that it will be exhibiting its

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opportunities on the horizon,” Tim states.

Agile trader

products at the forthcoming KBB (Kitchen, Bedroom and Bathroom) exhibition at Birmingham’s NEC in March 2020. “In terms of our business model going forward, we have every intention on placing our own brand portfolios front and centre of our marketing, as we see massive future growth

Speaking of the future – both the immediate and long-term – Tim goes on to reveal the priorities for Robert Lee in 2020 and beyond, and what he identifies as being two main avenues for expansion. “Firstly, we will continue with the development of our own brand ranges, with the objective of creating additional profit opportunities for not only ourselves but our customers as well. At the same time, we will ensure that we remain wholly committed and engaged with our key brand suppliers, working diligently on their behalf to make the widest range of their respective products available to our customers.

“Growth wise, one avenue involves organic expansion, which effectively means selling more products to our existing customers, as well as new ones.

The other avenue is one that we have shown ourselves to be adept at, and that is acquisitions. When we look at such opportunities, we seek to identify the best means of increasing the scope of products that we can make available, and we have an excellent track record of working with unique domestic and international brands. We have

also shown ourselves to have our finger on the pulse of the latest bathroom, kitchen and plumbing trends and styles, which allows us to address the demands of consumers. All of which adds to our reputation for being an agile trader, able to respond quickly and efficiently when called upon.�

Robert Lee Distribution Ltd www.rlee.co.uk Services: Independent distributor of bathroom, kitchen and plumbing products

Ideal Standard Armitage Shanks recently celebrated 200 years of manufacturing in the UK and has worked in partnership with Robert Lee for the past 45 years. Our longevity is largely a result of the investment and successful introduction of industry defining solutions and products. The highest quality standards and market leading technical knowledge underpin our ground breaking solutions in areas such as healthcare and infection control. In 2019, Ideal Standard celebrated a further milestone of 50 years since inventing the ceramic cartridge.

Placing our customers at the heart of our future strategy means making it easier than ever to specify Armitage Shanks and Ideal Standard solutions. Our developments in digital and online tools now provides leading BIM content to support BIM level 2, and the launch of visualisation and design services allow specifiers to deliver even more value to their clients.

We will continue to invest in advancing our technology, products and sustainable production methods, as well as broadening our services to all our business partners and customers.

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profile: Foundation Piling Ltd

Foundation for success As it enters 2020, Foundation Piling does so with great enthusiasm as it continues to serve a range of clients on some of the most exciting construction and infrastructure projects around

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aving traded for the better part of four decades, independent piling and geotechnical engineering contractor Foundation Piling has built its vast accumulated experience and reputation on successfully completing some of UK’s more difficult and varied construction projects. In that timespan, it has witnessed a fair amount of change in the industry, experiencing boom periods and weathering the more challenging times, meaning that as we enter 2020, it continues to go from strength-to-strength.

“2019 was a very interesting, and indeed at times challenging year for the industry in general, with a number of high profile companies falling by the wayside,” begins Foundation Piling’s Managing Director, Stephen Edmondson. “For our part, we have negotiated this by making sure that the clients that we work with are those in good financial health, and the result has been our involvement in a number of completed and ongoing high profile contracts.”

Old Granada TV Studios, and for Renaker on its stylish Chester Road housing development scheme.

“In Manchester we have been involved in a number of residential schemes, such as Potato Wharf and Owen Street, while elsewhere we have also had a great deal of success in helping to deliver a number of student accommodation projects, including the Cathedral Street development in Glasgow – to which we are providing rotary piling services – and the Castle Park View regeneration scheme in Bristol,” Stephen continues.

As well as high profile schemes, Foundation Piling is well known for working with clients to deliver smaller, at best challenging piling projects, on time, on budget in a safe and sustainable manner.

“While these project examples cover a number of different sectors and specialisms, what they all share is the fact that our work on each revolves around providing dedicated contract design and engineering services,” Stephen explains. “We get involved in such contracts at the earliest possible stage in order to understand the client’s needs and tailor designs to meet these in the most efficient and cost effective way. Our depth of

Key strengths In the final weeks of 2019, for example, the company formally completed work on a large section of a major road contract for Balfour Beatty, Skanska and Costain, opening 12 months ahead of schedule, which saw it installing piled foundations around Cambridgeshire as part of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme. Meanwhile, further north, the construction scene in Manchester has seen something of a recent renaissance, which has seen Foundation Piling contracted to provide its basement construction and piling services on projects such as Lendlease’s £1.25 billion St. John’s development on the site of the

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profile: Foundation Piling Ltd

offering as a business has always proven to be a key strength, and our team – which includes seven dedicated chartered engineers – is expertly placed to advise on the best ways to utilise advanced, modern equipment to bring a project to bear in the way a developer or contractor first imagined.”

Moving forward into 2020,

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Foundation Piling is also making some important strides internally to further refine its service offering. One such move sees the company integrating the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) software to deliver more accurate virtual 3D designs and visualisations that are formed from digitalised ground and geotechnical information taken

from site surveys. Machinery wise, 2019 also saw the company introduce its second Soilmec SR-95 hydraulic drilling rig to its collection, giving it further capability to build CFA piles of up to 1.2 metres in diameter and 34 metres deep.

Positive plans In addition to its investment in technology and equipment, Foundation Piling also continues to channel funds and resources into the development of its people. “We presently have four people enrolled on our personalised graduate scheme,

and we make all the necessary time available to provide our site staff with hands on experience of operating our equipment in order to take their understanding, knowledge and competency to a higher and safer level,” Stephen adds. “Our in-house design team allow us to offer cost effective and sustainable piling solutions.”

As far as 2020 is concerned, Stephen and the rest of the Foundation Piling team are noticeably enthusiastic about what the next 12 months have to offer. “For reasons that I am sure everyone in the UK is aware of (mainly Brexit for those who do not), a number of major construction and infrastructure projects in the country have been slow to progress in recent times.

Now, with a bit more clarity about the future in place, we are

hopefully seeing a ramp up in activity country-wide that we can get involved in, for example the HS2 Extension programme, which will no doubt pose a number of geotechnical challenges that we feel that Foundation Piling is more than capable of tackling,” he says. “We have been greatly encouraged by the fact that the number of enquiries we received in 2019 was up by 20 per cent compared to the year before. It goes to show that there is work out there to be won, and we look forward to engaging with as many contractors and developers as possible in the months ahead.”

Foundation Piling Ltd www.foundation-piling.co.uk Services: Piling and geotechnical engineering solutions

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profile: Blue Phoenix Group

Building from the ashes Blue Phoenix Group drives incinerator bottom ash (IBA) away from landfill by processing it to create a sustainable source of aggregate for the construction industry

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wing to over 20 years of experience in processing incinerator bottom ash (IBA), Blue Phoenix UK (formerly known as Ballast Phoenix) which is part of the Blue Phoenix Group has gained a huge amount of confidence that its knowledgeable approach for aggregate re-use is sensible and pragmatic – one that not only ensures its long-term future, but also prevents material from being placed needlessly into landfill. Founded in 1998, the company’s leading aim was to produce aggregate material that could not just replace virgin natural material, but also offer complementary benefits in many civil engineering applications.

“The business grew steadily until the change in regulation in the mid-2000s, which restricted the use of landfills by incorporating landfill taxes for waste. In turn, this opened the opportunity for energy-fromwaste (EfW) to become more

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commercially viable. EfW is a key element of Government’s strategy for dealing with municipal solid waste in an environmentallyfriendly manner. The major residue from the treatment is IBA and our process and industry provide an effective and efficient creation of a very useful resource that would otherwise be landfilled,” Paul Knight, Managing Director of Blue Phoenix UK and CEO of Blue Phoenix Group, discusses. “In addition to this, EfW plants tend to be near or inside large conurbations, which means that our aggregates are close to the market, and that contributes to the reduction of traffic congestion, exhaust emissions, and fuel consumption associated with aggregate deliveries.

“We currently process in excess of 1.5m tonnes of IBA per year for the UK market, from 12 facilities that are strategically located across the country,” Paul continues. “Our business has quadrupled in revenue since 2012 and, as a result, we

recently ranked as the second fastest growing company on Grant Thornton’s top 200 most profitable companies in the East Midlands.”

Beneficial properties The very physical and chemical properties of incinerator bottom ash aggregate (IBAA) add to the environmental benefits of the aggregate, too. Paul explains: “First, its compacted bulk density is about 20 per cent lower than that of most natural aggregates, therefore, each truckload of IBAA delivered covers more ground.

Secondly, IBAA has self-setting properties, which means that, once compacted, it continues to gain strength, leading to longer structure life.

“Due to these properties and to the fact that it compacts readily and does not segregate, IBAA is a great material for building pavement foundations as a capping or subbase,” he sheds light on some of the product’s construction applications.

“Furthermore, it also works

very well as an aggregate for hydraulically bound mixtures (HBMs) with cement, lime/ fly ash or slag binder, and has also been used extensively as an embankment fill material or a backfill to structures. Over the years, IBAA has been used in these applications on many high-profile schemes, including 2012 Olympics development sites, M6 Toll Rd, Docklands Railway, M1/M6/A14 intersection, as well as some sections of the M25 widening.”

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Blue Phoenix UK takes immense pride in its knowledge and technical expertise. The company’s long years of experience have made it possible for it to develop a process, which ensures that, once processed, the aggregate

meets customer requirements and aggregate specifications.

Having recently completed the construction of its latest facility in West Yorkshire, Blue Phoenix UK has further developed its capabilities.

Expanding presence Paul comments: “The bottom ash processing facility in Ferrybridge will be our largest UK operational site and we have incorporated ballistic separation technology to extend our ability to extract

lighter metals from the process.

What is more, the plant also includes more rigid material size fractioning equipment, which will enhance our ability to produce a consistent grading of product whilst processing at relatively high speeds.”

To Paul’s great content, everyone at Blue Phoenix is demonstrating endless passion about ensuring that they, as a team, can provide a sustainable future, through the application of the business’ established

Fermac Fermac are delighted to congratulate Blue Phoenix on its continued success and are pleased to be a valued service partner.

Fermac operate 140 heavy goods vehicles servicing its clients in the industrial, fuel and agricultural sectors, equipped with the latest safety and technical features, providing an uncompromised service.

A national depot network enables Fermac to assist customers across most locations within the UK. Its focus on achieving the highly valued FORS Gold standard is of importance to the construction and industrial markets, as it allows Fermac to operate in any location and customer site across the UK.

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profile: Blue Phoenix Group

approach. Emboldened by its successful exploits in the UK, the group is continuing to expand its presence into other countries, too. In pursuit of this goal, it continues to invest in and develop its technology.

Wider scope “For instance, not only do we provide dry IBA technology for processing, but we also supply IBA washing technology, advanced dry recovery, and ballistic separation to the global market, which changes on a country-by-country basis,” Paul points out. “With our investment, we have been trying to widen our scope to our clients, as well as to provide innovative solutions, which will be released into the market in the next couple of years. An

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excellent example of this is the opening of our first IBA washing facility in Nauerna, in the Netherlands, which will process 600 KT of IBA. “We are hopeful that, in the long run, we will be able to provide more and more sustainable solutions to the Energy from Waste markets and the construction industry of more countries, as we know that what we offer, is a proven service,” he adds. “Needless to say, alongside our desire to provide a first-class and professional service to all of our clients, the top priority for us will remain our culture of working safely and respecting our people. We are very proud of the professionals who are part of our team and their expertise in disciplines as varied as civil engineering, M&E, technical

management, hydrogeology, and geology, is absolutely pivotal to our success. The same is valid for our processing and backroom staff, which we regard as the backbone of our service. If it was not for all these people, we would not be where we are,” Paul wraps up.

Blue Phoenix Group www.bluephoenix-group.com Services: Incinerator bottom ash (IBA) processing WRIGHT ENGINEERING WRIGHT ENGINEERING has been at the forefront of cutting-edge engineering design, fabrication and installation solutions for over 30 years and works around the world on complex engineering projects. The company is committed to providing its clients with engineering excellence and continues to invest in the latest technologies to remain a leader within its industry.

A recent project example is the design, fabrication, installation and commissioning of a sizeable incinerator bottom ash processing plant on behalf of BLUE PHOENIX LIMITED at its Ferrybridge facility. The successful completion of this notable project brings to a close another fantastic year for WRIGHT ENGINEERING.

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profile: Oliver Connell & Son

New heights Family-owned award-winning contractor Oliver Connell & Son is going from strength to strength, having grown its turnover five-fold to £100m since 2014

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reaking its own records has become a bit of a habit for Oliver Connell & Son in the last two years. The London-based contractor – specialised in ground work, civil engineering, RC frames, architectural concrete, rail, and aviation – completed its first £20m project during this period, while also delivering its tallest building so far, a 23-storey construction in Bracknell. On top of that, Oliver Connell has experienced a sharp rise in its turnover, reaching £100m, having been on £20m only five years earlier.

“Our company was founded 45 years ago and we have since developed a broad skillset, which enables us to work in multiple industries and on various types of buildings,” Managing Director, James Connell, comments.

“One of the most significant milestones for us was when we

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first started working at Heathrow Airport about 15-16 years ago.

We managed to cut our teeth in the industry, because it was quite advanced, both from technical and safety perspectives. We then moved into Gatwick Airport, too.

Owing to the experience we have acquired in the aviation sector, we were able to secure some projects in the railway industry, as well.

“The last ten years have also seen us become a leader in architectural concrete. We were fortunate to get the chance to step in and take over a job at the Turner Gallery in Margate from another company. This got us a bit of publicity and exposure to this very niche market. We went on to do many jobs in the field and have built strong relationships with some of the best architects in the business,” James reveals.

Oliver Connell’s work for the Royal College of Pathologists in Aldgate and the Sevenoaks

School in Kent are two of the business’ most recent projects, regarding architectural concrete.

Their successful completion caught the attention of the concrete community and both were acknowledged in the ‘Highly Commended’ category at the 2019 Concrete Society Awards.

James notes: “The Royal College of Pathologists, in particular, is now used as a benchmark within the industry. A lot of main contractors contact me to congratulate us on the job we have done and that has led to us winning more work.

It was a very challenging project, which involved detailed planning and challenging logistics, working around the British weather and choosing the right materials for the variety of finishes required which included; MDO ply finish fair-faced concrete, board mark timber effect finish, and for the curved trough sections we utilised GRP modular units to achieve a similar finish

to the MDO ply, which required excellent workmanship from our team. On projects like this, our people act a lot more like joiners than shuttering carpenters. Every joint is almost like cabinet making, where you have to get it right first time, all while taking into account multiple factors. We are immensely proud of this scheme, because it is opening many doors for us.”

Honest and transparent Despite the fact that Oliver Connell’s turnover has skyrocketed over the past five years, James and his colleagues are keeping their feet firmly on the ground.

The Managing Director does not conceal that the fast growth has, at times, been accompanied with problems. It is the attitude the company demonstrates when tackling them that has enabled it to move ahead. “First and foremost, we will never walk away if something we have done, goes wrong. After all, it happens all the time in this industry. What you need to do and what we do, is hold our hands up and fix the issue. Clients appreciate that and they may even respect you more for showing your readiness to face the problem.”

Certainly, Oliver Connell’s approach to dealing with errors reflects the profound respect the business treats its customers with. It also shows something else, though – namely, that the company has respect for itself and that it has been built on the values of honesty and transparency.

It being a family organisation, founded and taken through the tumultuous first years of its history in the 1970s and 1980s by his father and uncle, James has gladly accepted it as his duty to ensure the healthy state of the business and, hopefully, pass the torch on to his three sons in the future.

“It was my father and uncle who put the real hard work in to get the business going. Back in the day, it was a lot harder for them,

because it was less mechanised and safety was not at the high level of today. Oliver Connell has come a long way since it first started, so I take my hat off to them for making it work and putting all of us on the road to having a good career. Having said that, we need to continue showing appreciation for the company and giving back to it, in order to sustain it,” he acknowledges.

“We may have increased our turnover considerably in recent years, but we are not taking money out of the business.

Instead, we reinvest it in the plant, our equipment, and, of course, our people. The construction industry has always been a tough one and there is so much competition in present times that the margins have really tightened up. Therefore, we have to put

money back into the organisation, so that we can gain a competitive advantage. In the past four years, we have spent some £10m on new kit, with nearly 80 per cent of our equipment under three years old.

Oliver Connell wants to be one of the leaders in our industry and we feel, we have to set an example and buy quality equipment, which is best suited to the requirements of modern age.”

Strategic position All of Oliver Connell’s vehicles are accredited to a FORS Gold standard. James reports that the business has just ordered a new, gas-powered vacuum excavator for £500,000, as well as high-class dual view dumpers at £60,000 each. “The clients like that. They want to see that you can move with the times and they

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profile: Oliver Connell & Son

are often willing to pay a bit extra for the best,” he adds.

When you come to think about it, the same kind of service from a provider may well vary in efficiency over time. In contrast, a product is often associated with something

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of fixed quality, which is met time and again and replicated, regardless of the number of times it is reproduced. It is then worth accentuating that in James’ words, Oliver Connell is selling a product and the company’s goal is to try

and achieve the same quality every time it takes on a job.

“To do that, we have to look after our workforce to make it a bit stronger and ensure that our people’s training is up-todate,” he reasons. “We are aware that there are different levels of seniority and experience within our staff and that it takes a while to build a team, but there is no other way forward. We have some incredibly talented younger colleagues who we are training up. It is for the sake of their career development that we are still keen on doing smaller, £300,000 projects, because this gives them the chance to dip their toes in the water and, effectively, get on the road to management. Some of our directors started as trainees and have progressed to a managerial role, so the opportunity is there

for everyone who learns and does their job well.”

It is often prescribed that a period of rapid growth should be followed by one of stability, in order for a company to settle in its newly-acquired market position.

Maintaining its strategic position is exactly what Oliver Connell is planning to do in the short-tomedium term. James concludes: “The market has tightened up, so we have to keep it tight, too, and try to build cash in the business.

The word on the street is that the

Oxford area is going to be quite buoyant in the next couple of years and we have already won five jobs there, hoping that we will be able to build on that. The London market is quite saturated and, given our geographical proximity to Oxford, it is reasonable to try and enter this less competitive market. Ultimately, our goal is to sustain the business at £100m and become the contractor of choice for many of our clients, delivering safe, on-time, and high-quality jobs for their projects.”

Boels Rental We have been a valued partner of Oliver Connell for many years prior to our acquisition by Boels Rental, and are pleased to share in the phenomenal success and growth of the business. Now that we are of one of Europe’s most successful and progressive companies, Boels Rental looks forward to continuing our relationship for many years to come. The five foundations of Boels Rental are availably of stock across our network of depots, the safety of our rental fleet and that of our colleagues and customers, sustainability and our Corporate Social Responsibility, added value and the professional service and advise we provide at the best possible cost, and the support we provide to our customers through our experienced and trained staff.

Oliver Connell & Son http://oliverconnell.com Services: Ground work, civil engineering, RC frames, architectural concrete, rail, and aviation

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profile: Complete Utilities

A reliable partner Complete Utilities assumes full responsibility of the rollout, upgrade, and maintenance of utility networks, thus keeping the process simple and cost-effective for its clients

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he world is changing.

In Steve Ryan’s opinion, fibre, 5G, and the electric vehicle boom will demand

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a new kind of connectivity, which will create unprecedented opportunities for network providers in the UK. For them to seize these opportunities,

however, Steve insists that they will need a partner they can rely on. As the Head of Business Operations at Complete Utilities, he is convinced that

the company’s fresh and flexible one-stop shop approach is best suited to the emerging realities, as it makes its service faster, more efficient, and more reliable

than what is on offer by its competitors.

“The traditional model of delivering and maintaining utility networks is inefficient,

fragmented, and bureaucratic, leading to unnecessary delays that cost utility providers both time and money,” he reasons.

“This is why we have invested

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profile: Complete Utilities

2 Rent 2 Rent is a leading supplier of specialised vehicles, plant and equipment. Being at the forefront of innovation we are exclusive distributors for the Tesmec and Marais range of equipment for UK and Ireland. Offering a full range of trenching solutions and ground penetrating radar equipment, and working with strategic partners, we have developed turnkey solutions to help telecom companies lay fibre whilst working safer, faster and with less disruption. We also carry a wide range of products such as welfare vehicles, access platforms, traffic management vehicles, along with a range of vehicles to support the utilities and fibre sectors.

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significantly in our own people and plant to ensure that we have the capability to keep the rollout, upgrade, and maintenance of fibre and communications networks on budget and on track. “As well as having control of the entire process, we plan effectively and can anticipate challenges and find solutions before they happen. In doing this, we take total ownership and do not depend on subcontractors.

Our teams on the ground are empowered to make decisions to overcome any physical or logistical barriers that may stand between our customers and their revenue streams. We have short and clear lines of communication from the senior management to the boots on the ground, and our people have the freedom to address problems as they arise,

thus keeping the project on track,” Steve discusses.

Highly skilled team In order to confidently delegate responsibility to its workforce, Complete Utilities has, in the first place, made sure that it has surrounded itself with skilled people with a can-do attitude. It is no wonder then that it specialises in a multitude of sectors alongside telecoms, including water and power networks, civil engineering schemes, specialist plant hire, and support services. The company has also maintained the understanding that it will only be successful if it provides the right support and tools to its labourers, supervisors, and managers for them to do their job, hence the regular investment and upskilling of staff.

Steve adds: “In our experience, relying on third parties only creates bottlenecks. If we take fibre-to-home projects, in particular, they are so fast-paced that there is no room for any

hold-ups. Having the ability to deliver every aspect within the lifecycle of a fibre project through competent people certainly makes our proposition an attractive one for our clients.”

An accurate representation of Complete Utilities’ capabilities can be found in the major £90m fibre-to-home project the company was awarded by Gigaclear in 2017. “Prior to this contract, we had successfully completed an earlier phase of the Building Digital UK (BDUK) project,” Steve clarifies.

“We now install an average of 60 kilometres of new fibre infrastructure running along the public highway every month. As a rapid-build type of project, our operational teams are constantly planning for eventualities and looking for the best solutions

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profile: Complete Utilities

possible. We understand the importance of fibre and how it changes people’s lives, bringing inclusivity to rural communities, and we take great pride in being able to provide that connectivity.”

It was in 2015 that Complete Utilities commenced its first major fibre-to-home project and it can be no coincidence that the years since have been particularly successful for the organisation.

As Steve is keen to note, though, the company – celebrating its 20th anniversary last year – is merely reaping the fruits of two decades of hard work and laying the foundations of the business that it is today.

“Back in the day, our owner and Managing Director, Steve Chaplin, borrowed £250 to hire his first excavator and complete his first job. Today, we own a fleet of over 150 excavators and other specialist equipment, and work with 320 people at our state-

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of-the-art offices just outside Gloucester. Our size, approach, and experience in the utilities and civil engineering sectors have allowed us to grow to the point where we are now one of the leading companies of our type in the South West. It has to

be added, though, that despite our rapid growth, we have maintained the values and ethos of an independent, family-run business.”

Ongoing investments Commenting on the reasons for the company’s continued success, Steve remarks: “Having the ability to look back over changes in our industry, coupled with our own experiences over this time, has enabled us to make better decisions for the organisation, as well as for our customers. The ongoing reinvestment into our business has also contributed to our prosperity, as we make sure that we have the latest and most reliable equipment to take on any job. Last but not least, maintaining strong relationships and trust with local councils has given us the ability to scale up when required and opened up the doors for us to trial and

test innovative new methods of excavation and reinstatement, which, in turn, has allowed us to install networks faster.”

Complete Utilities’ vision for the future is to be a sustainable business that lasts for generations.

In Steve’s opinion, more and more customers will be trusting the company to deliver the networks that will shape the future, but this does not mean that it will get on the road to becoming a corporate entity. “Quite the contrary,” he says. “We are happy with our

status of a provider of flexible services that are tailored to our customers’ individual needs. It is becoming clear that nowadays clients are looking for less bureaucracy and the fact that we choose not to use third parties, means that we hold ourselves responsible and accountable for every step in the process.

“We anticipate that our business model and ethos will allow us to continue to expand, whilst maintaining control over the service we deliver to our

customers. One thing we will not do, is sacrifice our reputation and client portfolio, and our goal is to remain surrounded by the best people within the industry who share our vision and values,” Steve concludes.

Complete Utilities https://www.completeutilities.co.uk Services: Directional drilling; fibre optic; trenching; reinstatement; aggregate and washplant; plant hire; and traffic management

Emtelle Emtelle, the global manufacturer of pre-connectorised, blown fibre cable, and ducted network solutions is at the forefront of the fibre-to-the-X industry, having assisted all the key players with quality and reliable fibre, and duct solutions for deployments worldwide.

With operations in the UK, Germany and Denmark, as well as sales offices in The Netherlands, Sweden, Eastern Europe and Malaysia, Emtelle serves over 100 countries globally to multiple sectors including telecommunications and power. Emtelle’s experience is unrivalled, proven by the company’s continuous innovation and growth of the well-renowned solutions that continue to be deployed in networks globally.

Having dominated the blown fibre and ducted solution manufacturing space since its inception, Emtelle has pioneered some of the most innovative solutions within the industry as the company has advanced over the past three decades. These manufactured solutions focus on creating best value, reducing total project costs, and minimising installation time and disruption.

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profile: CEMEX Mortars

Understanding mortar

Factory produced for consistency and reliability, the high-quality mortars made by CEMEX Mortars are a principle ingredient in major housing and infrastructure projects throughout the UK and Europe

A

global powerhouse in the building materials industry – with more than 40,000 employees worldwide and a turnover of some $15 billion – CEMEX is a name known throughout the construction world. In the UK alone, the company generates around £775 million in annual sales, and in addition to being a market leader in readymixed concrete, cement and aggregates, it is also an authority when it comes to the supply of

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screeds and mortars. In the case of the latter product category, the company has a proven track record of delivering consistently high-quality readymixed, dry silo and coloured mortar – as well as related products and services – that all confirm to British and European standards.

It is CEMEX’s mortars business that has also undergone some of the more significant changes in recent times, as Michael May, Sales Manager Mortars Europe, explains.

“CEMEX Mortars has been a stand-alone business for as long

as I can remember, but arguably the biggest development in its recent history was the decision taken in October 2018 to separate the dry silo mortars element from the rest of CEMEX Mortars’ offering to create a Europe-wide division.”

So, what was it that spurred this decision? “In the past, CEMEX’s European operations were run as individual country units, and while this structure worked well to a point, it was determined that there were significant advantages to be had by finding a way to

seamlessly leverage best practice between countries,” Michael states. “Prior to October 2018, best practice in, say, the UK or in France was not easily transferable to other countries, simply due to the structure of the business.

What we have done is take an in-depth look across our European business in order to highlight what we do well, what we can improve upon, the products we sell and the specialist knowledge we possess, and with a shared structure now behind us we can transfer learning much easier between countries, to the benefit of all.”

Sprayed concrete In the UK, CEMEX Mortars has three plants – two dedicated to mortar products and one to sprayed concrete – while in Spain it has four facilities currently operational, with a fifth due to be brought back online in 2020 to meet specific regional demand. Meanwhile, the company continues to attract large volumes

of work in Poland, a market that Michael describes as having been “booming” for the last three years. Such is the country’s importance to the company that initial discussions have taken place about establishing a physical presence there in near future.

“Here in the UK, mortars represent one of, if not the most profitable business units that CEMEX possesses anywhere in Europe,” Michael enthuses. “This is as a result of several factors, not least of all the increase in house building that the country has seen in recent years, which at the same time has resulted in the scaling up of our own production capacity and investment in people and equipment.

“The UK has also been the source of an increase in demand for mortars of colour – particularly white mortar – and the growing demand for decorative mortars has driven a rise in higher value products being brought to market. Last, but not least, we are

in the process of bringing into the business a Specialist Products Sales Manager to sell bespoke products for large infrastructure projects, initially in London, but with a view to rolling this out across the rest of the country.

So, as you can tell, the UK has performed exceptionally well in terms of volumes in recent times.”

Five years ago, CEMEX would add to its UK operations the above mentioned sprayed concrete plant, located in Doveholes, Derbyshire, and as Michael goes on to reveal, this business has gone from strengthto-strength since. “CEMEX recognised that, with the many tunnels that are being dug, or are planned to be dug, across the country, there would be a massive requirement for sprayed concrete tunnel lining. Traditionally, such a product is made away from a project’s location at a readymix plant or via a dedicated on-site spray plant that requires space to operate. What we did, was create

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profile: CEMEX Mortars

a system that allows us to make sprayed concrete and supply it to silos – similar to the way we supply mortar – which can then be delivered straight to the site of a project. It means that our customers gain access to readyto-use sprayed concrete at the flick of a switch, 24 hours a day.

“The success of this business unit has seen it go from being a start-up operation to representing around 20 per cent of CEMEX’s UK mortar business turnover in an incredibly short space of time.

With the sheer size of some of

the infrastructure projects on the horizon that will require tunnelling – such as HS2, Cross Rail 2, the

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Lower Thames Crossing and London Power Tunnels – there will continue to be a huge demand for sprayed concrete in the years to come, which will drive much of CEMEX’s UK mortar division’s growth going forward.”

Future positivity Speaking of the future, Michael – and many others within the construction sector for that matter – admits that immediate outlook for 2020 is difficult to predict, particularly in the UK where, at the time of our discussion, a General Election campaign is in full swing.

Longer-term, however, things look promising. “In terms of mortar demand in the UK, there is enormous pent-up demand for new homes to be built and political will on all sides to build

up to 300,000 new homes,” he adds. “Under the right circumstances, I believe that after the first quarter of 2020 we will see a release of some of this demand, house builders will pick up production and that will make this year a very good one for mortars. On top of that we have the sprayed concrete business which, as previously discussed, we are very optimistic about.

“From a personal perspective, I have never worked in a business where I can see so much future

positivity as that which I can see for CEMEX Mortars and CEMEX’s sprayed concrete activities. With the many positive factors that we have discussed coming into play over the coming months and years, I am absolutely convinced that this is a business that is set to be extremely buoyant into the 2020s and beyond!”

CEMEX Mortars www.cemex.co.uk/mortars Products: Mortars and related services

NORMET UK You are managing a sprayed concrete project and when you are not racing around firefighting issues on your site, you let yourself dream of the day when life could be a lot easier ... the day when the sprayed concrete works at the press of a button, there’s no need for long expensive testing, you have spraying robots that are reliable and pulsation free, and send quality reports and 3D scans of what you are constructing, real time, direct to your team. All this from one supportive team based in the UK. NORMET UK is dedicated to underground construction and specialises in sprayed concrete solutions through an effective partnership with CEMEX dry silo solutions. We offer a readily available fleet of spraying equipment for all sizes of tunnels, and production and supply of all construction chemicals in the UK. As tunnelling relies on capable people, we have an expert UK team ready to mobilise for you.

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profile: ilke Homes

Property pioneers ilke Homes is pioneering modular home building and offsite construction by using modern methods to deliver high-quality, energy-efficient homes in half the time of a traditional new build

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he UK is in the midst of a housing shortage. That is a fact that few, if any, people will argue and resolving this issue is one of the great challenges currently facing the construction industry in this country. The importance of the issue is such that local authorities, house builders and developers are increasingly turning to innovative solutions providers to meet demand. One of those companies that is working to revolutionise the world of housing is ilke Homes which, by using modern construction methods, is delivering precisionengineered modular homes to provide additional capacity to the housebuilding sector.

The genesis of ilke Homes – which was incorporated as a standalone business in 2017 – comes from an amalgamation of the modular manufacturing expertise of Algeco (one of the largest modular space businesses in the world) and the UK residential construction skills of Keepmoat Homes. A leading offsite construction partner using volumetric manufacturing built on a digital platform, it can install up to six high quality, energy efficient homes per day onto its customers’ development sites at faster rate, at a lower cost, and with a better build quality than traditional methods.

“At the heart of what we strive to do as a business is a desire to not only produce homes at a speed that we believe is key to addressing the housing shortage in the UK, but to produce homes that meet the quality standards and expectations that people expect in the 21st century,” begins ilke Homes’ Executive Chairman, Dave Sheridan.

“Through our connection with Keepmoat Homes and our design heritage, we have a strong understanding of the things that homeowners want, and we

apply this knowledge throughout our design-led and customerled approach. Meanwhile, the precision and quality that we are able to deliver during the manufacturing phase means that said customers encounter fewer defects or snags down the line.” ilke Homes delivered its first two homes in December 2018. In the 12 months since this has risen to more than 100 and, as one can imagine, a number of important lessons have been learnt along the way. Indeed, those first homes took some 46 days to travel down the company’s factory lines to the point where they were ready to be installed to site. Today, this process takes no more than seven days!

“We have learnt an awful lot about delivery and installation, and also about how to manage a site more efficiently,” Dave explains. “We have worked hard to bring together the best of construction, manufacturing and engineering to efficiently deliver modular homes to site, and we have learnt to work closely with the relevant utility companies to ensure that we have homes up and fit for living as soon as possible.”

Vote of confidence ilke Homes’ range of house types is designed to serve the needs of modern living through flexible layouts, coupled with a variety of external finishes. “We offer nine base products, each of which can be dressed in a range of both traditional and contemporary external finishes with rooflines to suit the local vernacular. This provides for over 100 different potential outcomes,” Dave continues. “It is certainly a unique feature of the company that, while at one time we are working to standardise the steel design of our homes, we can also take the time to incorporate more unique internal features such as en-suite bathrooms, high-design kitchens,

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profile: ilke Homes

open or closed plan layouts or large feature windows that appeal to the buyers of today.”

It is fair to say that the activities of the company have caught increasing numbers of eyes over the past 12 months.

A great example of this was in evidence back in May 2019, when Places for People – one of the UK’s leading place making organisations – announced a pioneering joint venture with ilke Homes to deliver hundreds of modular homes. In the largest deal yet for Britain’s modular housing sector, Places for People will purchase 750 units from the company, including 500 for sites it already owns and 250 for new schemes it will partner on to develop affordable and marketpriced housing.

“The executive team of Places

for People share our belief that the only way to the deliver the volume of homes that the UK requires is to adopt modern methods of construction (MMC),” Dave adds. “By partnering with a proven modular business in the shape of ilke Homes, it is able to place its faith in a reliable supply chain that will accelerate the delivery of its homes, cut costs, but still provide its customers with unrivalled choice and quality.

This agreement with Places for People is a huge vote of confidence in modular housing, and represents a true win-win for all parties involved.”

Healthy pipeline The exciting news did not end there for the company, however, with November bringing with it confirmation of a £30 million investment from Homes England to boost its factory’s production capacity. The deal is the first time that the UK government agency has ever invested directly into a modular housing factory, and as a result of the additional capital ilke Homes will be able to boost production capacity to 2000 homes a year by 2020. “Homes England has proven itself to be another great supporter of MMC, and it sees our factory as being a route to accelerate housing delivery and to bridging the gap that currently exists in delivering volume of housing,” Dave adds.

“It has a huge amount of faith in our product and vision, and this capital will allow us to invest in the things we need in order to push the envelope even further on what we can deliver in the future.”

When it comes to the immediate future, the company’s next goal is to reach 1000 homes delivered, a feat that it looks well on track to achieve in 2020 with a healthy pipeline of work ahead of it. “In addition to reaching that milestone, we also want to make certain that we have the two

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factory shifts working efficiently and to ensure a regular heartbeat throughout said facility, before then scaling up to the challenges we are set,” Dave enthuses.

“Within five years, we want to be producing over 3000 homes per year – taking us into the top ten housebuilders in the country, and in ten years’ time we want to be at 10,000 homes-plus. As far as making that a reality, we are well on track in terms of building up the volumes necessary, in terms of re-skilling the factory, and ramping up production. When all put together, it makes for a really exciting period of time for us.”

ilke Homes www.ilkehomes.co.uk Services: Leading offsite construction partner

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profile: Chandler Material Supplies

A family legacy Renowned for stock reliability and customer service, Chandler Material Supplies is an Essexbased, independent builder’s merchant with traditional family values at the heart of its culture

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he Chandler family name is one that is synonymous with the construction and civil engineering sector in the county of Essex. It is here that, since the 1950s, multiple generations of the family have served its residents with builder’s merchant services. Julie Chandler represents the third generation of this dynasty and today holds the position of Managing Director of Chandler Material Supplies.

The limited company that bears the family name was established in 1980, and today operates out of a three-acre site in Widford, Chelmsford. From here, the company provides building, plumbing and bathroom supplies to the trade and general public.

“The foundations of the business were laid when my grandfather moved to the site in the 1950s to operate his building business,” Julie begins. “The large

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yard that he acquired meant that, in addition to storing his excess building materials, he could also rent out garages to smaller builders. It was in turn their interest in buying the extra materials he had available that led him to start selling.”

It was Julie’s uncle who set up the limited company, and she would first join its ranks in 1981, initially as a typist. “In those early days, the company was made up of one lorry and a driver, one forklift truck and an operator, and my uncle,” she recalls. “From there, it was very much a case of gradual progression, adding a new member of staff as we grew at a steady, controlled pace, predominantly through strong word-of-mouth.”

That progression continued to gain momentum over the subsequent years, taking in Julie’s ascension to the position of Managing Director in late 2006 with her brother Charlie and

cousin Simon as co-directors, and has resulted in a company that today employs more than 50 knowledgeable, approachable staff, with over 400 years combined experience, who are always willing to go that extra mile for their customers. However, while Chandler Material Supplies may have grown in size, the traditional family values at its heart have remained the same, as too has the pride it takes in its stock reliability and service levels.

“One thing that grandad absolutely knew to be true was that the customer is always right, and this is a fact that he made sure to instil in the minds of his children. They in turn passed this down to my generation and we are doing the same with not only our own children, who are now making their own way through the business, but every one of our employees,” Julie enthuses.

“Our customers, and the service

we provide them with, are always at the forefront of what we do on a daily basis. We understand the way they operate and how, in the building industry, time wasted is money lost. That is why we strive to always have to hand an extensive range of materials from major manufacturers, together with advice and product information, and to deliver the highest levels of attention to detail, from quote level to collection or delivery.”

Reflecting on the impressive growth of the company, Julie also pinpoints a couple of vital points in its recent history that she considers to have been fundamental. “The first catalyst for our success in the last decade came in 2011, when we joined the National Buying Group, taking our place alongside a consortium of merchants

working together to buy from manufacturers at better rates. This has certainly helped us to become more competitive and allowed us to grow at a faster rate than before,” she states. “The other key event came when my cousin Ben came on-board in 2013 as Finance

Director. As a fully qualified management accountant, he was not only tasked with overseeing our expanding balance sheet, but also making the company fully computerised, all of which has helped to take Chandler Material Supplies to where it is today.”

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Another good gauge of the strength of the company is the successful year it has had in 2019 when it comes to receiving industry recognition. The high point of this arguably came back in May 2019 at the Builders Merchants Journal (BMJ) Industry Awards. It was here that Chandler Material Supplies picked up three coveted awards in the merchant categories, namely Independent Merchant of the Year, Merchant Marketing Campaign of the Year and Merchant Showroom of the Year.

“2019 was brilliant from this particular perspective,” Julie adds. “The thing is that, we have always known that we have a really good company here and one that serves its customers so well, but what we have never really done before is shout about it. Today, we have someone within the business who works on our marketing full time – my daughter in fact – and she is doing an excellent job in spreading the word about our work and getting us recognised accordingly. The added positive

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profile: Chandler Material Supplies

of such recognition is that we can then advertise it to our customers and give them the renewed confidence that they are purchasing from the right company in what is an ever-more competitive environment.”

Reinforcing customer loyalty is one of Julie’s prime objectives for the coming year, and she and the rest of her team know that said loyalty can never be taken for granted. In the meantime, her thoughts can also turn to the possibility of future expansion, with the addition of a second depot site being very much on the company’s radar. “I like to

think of my current generation within the company as being the custodians of Chandler

Imperial Bricks - New ‘dual-faced’ Burwell Gault brick The Weathered Burwell Gault is a new ‘dual-faced’ brick from Imperial Bricks.

A hard-textured, handmade brick with golden/buff and grey shades, it’s traditionally seen in Cambridge, Suffolk, and other Southern counties.

“This brick is the second in our dual-faced range, with one ‘clean’ face/header and one with heavier weathering,” explains Jason Hughes, Managing Director of Imperial Bricks. “Unique variations can be created. With both faces and headers of the brick to choose from, different bond patterns can be used to make a project stand out, or match existing brickwork. This option also means builders and developers can order one product line to serve two purposes, while merchants require less stock.”

CE-marked and fully frost resistant to F2, the Weathered Burwell Gault is available in 68mm imperial sizing, or standard metric for new builds.

Material Supplies, and a massive responsibility associated with that role is making sure that when the time is right for the next generation to come forward and take the reins that what they inherit is a strong, healthy business,” Julie declares. “What we have here is a family legacy that has been built up over the past 40 years and I would love to see that continue for another 40, and more!”

Chandler Material Supplies www.chandlermaterials.co.uk Services: Builder’s merchant

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profile: Quintain Ltd

Transformation expert Quintain Ltd is the driving force behind the evolution of Wembley Park – one of the most exciting destinations in all of London – and the UK’s largest Build to Rent property development undertaking

Matt Voyce

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ormed in 1992, when it was initially focused on shortterm leasehold assets, Quintain

has since gone on to establish itself as a leading developer of major regeneration programmes in some of London’s most exciting destinations. A vertically

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integrated entity specialising in land acquisition, masterplanning and design, development, delivery, management and place-making, Quintain identifies opportunities to transform property and places in the UK’s capital city and beyond into highly-attractive assets and locations. Quintain recently launched its Irish subsidiary; set

to develop over 9000 homes and 600,000 sq ft. of commercial space at four sites, over 460 acres of prime development land, in Greater Dublin.

Historically, Quintain was an instrumental player in the conception of Greenwich Peninsula, a 15,000-home development around The O2 Arena

in South East London. Today, however, its most famous project is Wembley Park, the company’s 85-acre development surrounding the UK’s National Stadium in North West London, where to date it has completed more than 2000 homes and mixed use development, including London’s first designer outlet centre, a 361-bedroom

Hilton Hotel, 295-bedroom Premier Inn, Boxpark Wembley and the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre.

The Wembley Park scheme commenced in 2002, following Quintain’s acquisition of approximately 44 acres of exhibition land and car parks found around the stadium.

Subsequent land purchases helped to create one of the largest urban regeneration sites in Europe, with Quintain currently having consent for a total of 8.8 million square feet of development, including 8000 new homes for London. Amongst these new homes will be 5000 built-to-rent properties, making

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profile: Quintain Ltd

Wembley Park the largest singlesite purpose built ‘Build to Rent’ development anywhere in the UK. These are in turn operated

by Quintain’s Build to Rent management company, Tipi, which offers an all-inclusive lifestyle focused rental scheme.

“While we have been developing Wembley Park since the early 2000s, it was in 2015, when the company was taken private by American private equity firm Lone Star Funds, and received a significant injection of equity cash, that we were really able to accelerate our delivery of new homes. This has resulted in a scenario where we currently have over 3000 apartments under construction,” explains Quintain’s Executive Director of Construction, Matt Voyce.

Key contractors A quantity surveyor by background, Matt has been a part of the construction industry for the best part of three decades, joining Quintain in 2007. Today, he leads the project management

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team at Wembley Park, with specific responsibility for design management, procurement and construction. His role includes the establishment of the company’s contractor framework, the commercial and contractual negotiation of contracts, programme and quality management, and the implementation of its site wide logistics strategy.

“At Wembley Park, we have awarded construction contracts to four key contractors, these being Wates, McLaren, John Sisk and Son, and McAleer & Rushe,” Matt continues. “The framework we put in place when securing these contracts allowed us to guarantee capacity in the market, whilst also ensuring that construction could be completed at pace. As a business, we have always understood that while we possess our own strengths and talented people, our main contractors and the wider supply chain will undoubtedly have individual skill sets that Quintain may not, and we are never afraid to embrace that fact. For us, it is

purely about identifying the right people with the right skills to do the job at hand.”

A highly collaborative approach permeates across the entire Wembley Park site, with Quintain and its contractors working closely with one another through all manner of tasks, whether it be site logistics, health and safety initiatives, access arrangements and so forth. This approach pushes all players to operate to the highest levels and provides everyone involved with greater opportunities to add value and succeed. As a consequence of this, the project continues to deliver buildings on time, to budget, and to the utmost levels of quality, and does so with an exemplary health and safety record that exceeds industry averages.

Wembley Park is taking shape at an interesting time for the construction industry as a whole, as it faces up to the need to evolve and embrace new, innovative ways of building.

However, as Matt goes on to detail, one of the keys of success

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profile: Quintain Ltd

today is pairing fresh thinking with tried and tested traditional build methods, and a clear strategy.

“For me, it is the ability to plan and engage properly, to have honest conversations at all stages of a contract, to bring together skill sets, and do one’s job properly, which helps to unlock the potential of the market,” he says. “Long before work commences on our projects, we plan for success, and that is what we are delivering. I think what you see in and around Wembley Park today is a huge testament to this approach and our efforts.”

Today, some 3000 people and a massive number of vehicle movements occupy the project site, with Quintain spending between £45 million and £50 million construction capex per month. Meanwhile, the area of

through the early stages of the masterplanning process, before leading into detailed design,” Matt states. “The consultancy teams are now in place, and we will soon be engaging with our main contractors to discuss how we can bring these homes to site in a leaner, greener way, in order for the existing Wembley Park residents to continue enjoying their experience in the area without the disruption of some of the more conventional building techniques often used.”

Identifying new opportunities focus that the company will soon be turning its attention to will be the next wave of residential Build to Rent construction, due to begin in 2020, and comprising up to 2500 new homes. “This phase of the project is now passing

The plan as of now is for work at Wembley Park to be fully complete by 2027. So, what will the future beyond this hold for Quintain? “What Lone Star Funds understood when acquiring Quintain – and in the process

Europe’s first multi-storey steel coach and car park takes place of pride at Wembley Park On 21 November 2019, Quintain, the project developer, and Huber car park systems celebrated the opening of the £41 million ‘Pink Coach and Car Park’.

The complex consists of two parking levels for coaches featuring 290 parking bays, as well as a five-storey car park with 734 parking bays. At full capacity, it can accommodate up to 16,500 visitors. As the suspended deck also allows for the positioning of broadcasting vehicles, Wembley Stadium intends to use the facility as a media park during Euro 2020.

Safety and technology are top priorities Pink Coach and Car Park is implemented with a 120minute fire protection strategy: the steel construction of the coach parking area is enveloped by chambered concrete, which is highly effective in the construction of mobility hubs, and a dedicated sprinkler system.

An elaborate wayfinding system, including digital signage, assists the marshals and stewards when managing the crowds on event days. Furthermore, there is a public-address system and camera monitoring system throughout the complex. The innovative technology installed assigns coaches to free parking bays according to their length and size. ANPR automatically registers all vehicles at all entrance and exit points.

Art Façades: Pride of Wembley Inspired by Olympic pictograms, large simple silhouettes of stars renowned for their Wembley performances, lit up by pink LED tube lights, decorate four of the ten stair core elevations. The intent of the design is to encourage the next generation of idols to become part of Wembley history.

www.huber-carparksystems.com

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Tipi as well – was that the value of our proposition is significant, and that what we offer is an opportunity to expand this much further afield than just Wembley Park,” Matt says. “With this in mind, we are increasingly turning our attention to where we can add value to other major cities in the UK, we’ve just announced the launch of our Irish subsidiary to work across prime development sites in Greater Dublin and we will possibly look to mainland Europe in the future. We are excited about growing our platform, and Lone Star Funds has been extremely supportive of our ambitions. It is now upon all of us at Quintain to work hard to identify the opportunities that meet our business case drivers. By doing so, there is no reason why we can’t look forward to a scenario where –

Marshalls Marshalls is the UK’s leading hard landscaping manufacturer and has been supplying superior natural stone and innovative concrete products to the construction, home improvement and landscape markets since the 1890s.

Marshalls has become synonymous with quality; supplying prestigious landmarks such as Trafalgar Square, whilst also caring for the environment and communities in which it operates. Marshalls believes that the better our environment, the better we can be and strives to create products that improve our landscapes and create happier and healthier communities.

in the not-too-distant-future – we see several more Wembley Parktype developments taking shape in different locations across the UK, Ireland and beyond.”

Quintain Ltd www.quintain.co.uk Services: Property developer

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profile: Collard Group

A quarter century of success

Over the course of 25 years, Collard Group has evolved into a multi-discipline business, and today it confidently offers all of the necessary demolition, remediation and waste management solutions to meet the needs of its customers across the South of England

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or Collard Group, 2019 marks the 25th anniversary of one of the leading demolition and waste management companies in the South of England. Established in 1994 to provide haulage services to local construction companies, today it possesses the capacity to process over one million tonnes of waste and recycling per year, and has diversified to also become a provider of recycling services, skip hire, aggregates, earthworks and ready-mixed concretes. A family-run business, Collard Group now employs more than 400 full-time staff, has more than 4000 skips at its disposal,

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a fleet of some 225 vehicles – around 150 of which are HGV class – and a turnover in excess of £50 million.

Reflecting upon the company’s success over the last quarter of a century, Founder and Managing Director Rob Collard attributes it to several factors. “First of all, I put our success down to hard work,” he states. “We have put together a very strong team of people here who, not only share the same principles as myself, but who have a diverse range of skill sets and experience, which has allowed us to diversify into a number of different sectors and specialisms. Equally as important, is the fact that we remain very

much a family-run business whose values revolve around being a quality service provider to customers of all sizes, whether that be a homeowner wanting a one-off skip on their driveway, or a company embarking upon a multi-million-pound demolition and earthworks contracts.”

From its headquarters in Hampshire, and its supporting depots there and in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey, Collard Group is able to offer an endto-end suite of services to the construction industry and to domestic customers. Regardless of the type of project it takes on, the company’s commitment to the highest standard of delivery

able to collect whatever kind of general or recyclable waste that needs collecting and ensure that it is dealt with in the most environmental friendly way possible. “With our waste services, we have made it a point to establish a network of nine strategically located, commercially viable recycling depots – typically no more than 15 miles apart – and this has been absolutely key to the growth of Collard Group,” Rob enthuses. of our aggregates, waste skips and tipper lorries.”

The company has also had notable success as a result of its ever-expanding waste management and collection services. By combining industryleading equipment with years of experience, its teams are

Expansion plans Among its network of recycling depots, the three most recent sites to fall under the company’s umbrella come as a result of a hugely significant acquisition made in October 2019, namely that of Raymond Brown Waste Solutions (RBWS). Said acquisition

remains unwavering, while its integrated demolition, waste management, haulage and recycling systems enable it to provide sustainable, closed-loop solutions to the circular economy of the South East of England.

“In the last several years in particular, we have witnessed a high level of growth in house building in the region, and this has seen us working extensively with some of the big building companies such as Berkeley Group,” Rob explains, when asked about some of the recent sources of activity for Collard Group. “An extension of that work has also seen us work with groundworks businesses that are massive users

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profile: Collard Group

marked a major milestone in the Collard Group’s history and brought together two successful businesses and brands with long, proud histories in the waste sector.

“We were initially approached by an agent working on behalf of RBWS, not long after the business was put out to market,” Rob details. “Following a period of dialogue, and with the support of the banks to secure the necessary funding, we completed the acquisition, which marks the fourth major purchase of waste-related businesses in the past ten years.

Liebherr For over 50 years, Liebherr has been successfully designing and manufacturing high quality material handling machines for the waste and recycling industry. Liebherr offers highly efficient machines for handling large volumes of material across numerous applications.

The company’s diverse product range includes material handlers, wheel loaders and telehandlers, and maintains a strong focus on its ability to deliver bespoke machines designed specifically for a customer’s site, application and process. With an unrivalled focus on build quality and aftersales excellence, Liebherr’s customers include many of the UK’s best-known waste and recycling businesses.

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“I truly believe that the acquisition of RBWS represents a real statement of intent from Collard Group, one that extends our reach and ability to provide waste disposal, skip and other associated services from M25 down to the south coast, and it does not end there. Our plan is to grow this business into one that commands an annual turnover of £100 million, so there are many more highlights yet to come!”

Strong momentum The last five years have also bore witness to the company making significant investments in plant and equipment, including a stateof-the-art wash plant and a new ready-mixed concrete plant. The wash plant in particular, has great long-term potential as Collard

Group is one of the first major companies to be experimenting with using washed, recycled aggregates into ready-mixed concrete. “There is huge potential for growth in this field, and we are investing heavily in creating a BS standard concrete made with recycled products, and we want to be the first in the UK to achieve this,” Rob reveals.

Turning our conversation to the topic of what the future holds for the company, Rob expects 2020 to be an interesting year, to say the least, but one where – under the right circumstances – the economy can gain some strong momentum once developers begin to increase their activity levels in the new financial year.

“I personally feel that, with the acquisitions and investments that we have made to date, we find

ourselves in the perfect place to expand Collard Group further still,” Rob concludes. Indeed, from what we have seen from the company in recent times, there is every reason to believe that the foundations are in place for the next 25 years of its life.

Collard Group www.rcollard.com Services: Demolition, waste management, aggregates, earthworks and ready-mixed concrete ISYS Interactive Systems ISYS Interactive Systems and our software applications Weighsoft5 have been instrumental in providing R Collard Group with the flexibility for expansion, whilst delivering a solid software platform across head office and multi-depot operations.

ISYS continues to provide our project management expertise to carefully manage new business requirements and look forward to supporting R Collard Group through the Raymond Brown Waste Solutions acquisition and rolling that through the existing business.

ISYS has a long-standing working partnership with R Collard Group and we continue to provide our quality services in conjunction with the R Collard Group’s senior management team.

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profile: CEMEX Readymix & Aggregates

South Coast standard-bearers Growing its South Coast business in the UK is a key strategic goal for CEMEX, and at the heart of this is the work of its CEMEX Readymix & Aggregates division

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n the field of aggregates, CEMEX – a leading provider of building materials and associated services – provides a wide range of products, from decorative and high-PSV aggregates, to limestone, rock armour, and sand and gravel. Its extensive national network of quarries, plants, depots and wharves combine the widest possible product range with excellent availability, while its dedicated marine division, CEMEX Marine, operates a fleet of dredgers supplying sand and gravel to the construction industry and beach replenishment projects.

“On the South Coast of the UK, our marine business is a huge strength for the group, with our ships and wharves acting as the backbone of our supply chain along the coast, feeding our Readymix and Building Projects plants as well as our external customer base,” explains Adam Leverett, General & Commercial Manager of CEMEX’s South Coast Materials business. “Given that we have both wharf and quarry facilities present in the south, plus rail access to other materials, we can produce a range of concrete and building product solutions that I strongly believe give us a competitive advantage over the majority of our peers. CEMEX has also recently aligned its UK Readymix and Aggregates divisions under one Materials business, which allows us to work more collaboratively and be much more customer focused.”

Significant upgrades Product wise, CEMEX’s marine aggregates, sharp washed sand, 10mm and 20mm gravel, and ballast, for instance, all remain perennially popular, as do its quarried materials.

Its most innovative solutions, however, are arguably to be found in its newer range of solutions marketed under its neogem portfolio.

These are special materials including sands dedicated to the sports industry, specialist path gravels, premium quality screeding sands, and decorative aggregates that

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profile: CEMEX Readymix & Aggregates

provide tailored solutions to each segment of the market.

CEMEX’s long-term confidence in its Materials business becomes all the more evident when we begin to document some of the significant investments that have been made here in recent months, particularly as it relates to the group’s wharfs and its shipping capabilities. “One of the highlights last year occurred in early 2019, when we officially opened a multi-million pound new dry discharge facility at our wharf in Northfleet, Kent,” Adam continues. “Meanwhile, the Port of London Authority’s decision to invest in a new conveyor and infrastructure as part of its own investment plan has enabled CEMEX Marine’s dredgers to turn around faster as the discharge of sand and gravel for processing has become significantly more efficient.

“We have also recently invested significant Capex into our wharf at Shoreham, which will greatly improve our production efficiency, traffic management, and site safety and welfare facilities. The phased works here are underway and will be completed in the first quarter of 2020, while at the same time we continue to upgrade and improve both the aggregate and on-site readymix plants at our Southampton and Poole wharves.”

the decision was taken to invest in this new ship, which will be in the water by the end of the first quarter of 2020,” Adam states.

“This new ship will provide us with greater flexibility in how we offload material onto our wharves, and therefore some of the redevelopments being made are to facilitate larger cargoes, which in turn will provide us with greater storage capacity and improved efficiency in the ergonomics of each site.”

Across the UK, each of CEMEX’s sites are certified to the ISO140001 standard, while all of its products are responsibly sourced in line with BES6001 standards. In addition to this, CEMEX today also boasts an alternative fuel rate of 56 per cent plus, 90 per cent of its concrete contains by-products and admixtures that reduce embodied carbon dioxide, and 87 per cent of its quarries have rehabilitation plans and third party biodiversity certification.

As part of its sustainability efforts, the group also recently ran a global ‘Smart Innovation’ competition that was open to all employees in order to generate disruptive ideas. In total, some 1250 ideas were captured, with around 100 being identified as having high innovation potential for testing or execution.

Industry first Efficiency & environment The above-mentioned works at CEMEX’s Shoreham wharf are intended, at least in part, to better accommodate the group’s new £30 million, 340-foot-long dredger, the CEMEX Go Innovation. “Marine aggregates are the lynchpin of our business on the South Coast, however the age and cost of continuing to operate our existing vessel was becoming unsustainable. Hence,

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CEMEX, as an organisation, also finds itself in the midst of a digital transformation, one that resulted in the launch of a new digital platform, CEMEX Go, in 2018. “CEMEX Go represents the industry’s first end-to-end digital solution,” Adam enthuses. “Using this tool, our customers can request quotations and mix designs, place orders, track deliveries, instantly find electronic proof of deliveries and invoices, and

make payments, and we continue to roll out new functionalities via regular updates.

“For me personally, I believe the tracking element of CEMEX Go is a real digital ‘game changer’. Our customers have full visibility of where their materials are at any point in time, such as when the product is loading, when it is on its way to site, or when it is being offloaded.

Having this instant access to information of the whereabouts of ones’ materials allows our customers to be more efficient with their staff on site, while being able to provide this level of transparency ultimately also creates more trust between the supplier and the customer.”

Moving on the subject of the future, Adam first reveals the fundamental daily goal of the

business, before imparting upon us his expectations for 2020.

“Our main objective has always been, and will always be, to achieve zero harm in what we do. Getting everyone home safe to their families comes before any commercial objective, and this mantra runs throughout the business from our CEO down to the local workforce. Pleasingly, we had no lost time injuries or recordable accidents in the South Coast area last year and we will be focused on keeping this positive trend going.

“As it relates to our expectations for 2020, we certainly anticipate there being a growing demand for our materials once the country has some certainty regarding Brexit, and I believe our recent and continued investments demonstrate our commitment to being the best construction solutions partner on the South Coast.”

CEMEX Readymix & Aggregates www.cemex.co.uk Products: Aggregates

Vision Groundworks Vision Groundworks is a groundworks/civil engineering company which specialises in providing construction services to the aggregate/ quarrying industry. Since starting business in 2012, it has rapidly expanded its client base to include all the national aggregate suppliers, recently completing work for Cemex at its Jarrow Wharf. The company is currently carrying out re-development work for Cemex at its Brighton Wharf depot, along with several other large-scale projects within the aggregate sector. Vision Groundworks has expanded its business to provide services to the waste industry, completing works for two of the leading waste industry companies this year.

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profile: Infrastructure Gateway

Being the best Infrastructure Gateway Limited (IGL) works on behalf of some of the UK’s largest house builders to procure water, gas and electricity mains and services

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hen a development company is working on a project that requires new utilities services, it has two options. It can ask the local utilities company to install the pipework/cable, or it can choose its own contractor to do the work, which is known as Self-Lay. When electing for the second option, increasing numbers of blue-chip house builders and developers are approaching Infrastructure Gateway (IGL) - an expert in Self-Lay, and a key Self-Lay organisation that offers project management from inception to construction. IGL offers a flexible, high-quality service, and thanks to its strong focus on consistent delivery, it has maintained and grown its position to become one of the biggest

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Self-Lay organisations in the UK. “First and foremost, our core business – is water networks,” began IGL’s Managing Director, Steven Draper. “We are unique in the fact we have so much water expertise within our company as most multi-utility companies struggle with this aspect.

“Competition was introduced into the water industry via the Water Industry Registration Scheme (WIRS) over a decade ago, and we at IGL were only the third company in the country to explore this arena back in 2008. Since that time, we have always striven to stay ahead of the curve in order to deliver the most up-to-date packages to our customers and stay in front of our developer demands. We are WIRS accredited for all works in England, and our geographic focus in the Midlands is a great

advantage with the major water companies, and we now have a proven track record of consistent delivery with the foremost players in the development market,” he added.

While 2019 was characterised by political uncertainty in the UK, IGL hasn’t found this has negatively affected the business – in fact, Steven reports seeing ‘good confidence’ in the construction and housing sectors with many large, highprofile projects still progressing.

Furthermore, since the General Election in December 2019, the market has showed increasing levels of activity.

“The market regulator for the water industry (OFWAT) is really pushing ahead with opening up competition in what is historically a monopoly market. There are more companies entering the Self-

Lay and multi-utility market with increasing numbers of companies moving into ownership of water, energy and telecoms networks,” added Steven. “We are keeping an open philosophy on partnerships with clients and incumbents to give our developer customers all the benefits of adopting private network operators should they need more flexibility. With new adoption codes and simpler charging rules coming into force in April 2020 we are planning to offer more contestable activities than ever before to our clients to improve to service they get.”

“From an operational perspective, it is fundamentally about making commitments and keeping those commitments,” emphasised IGL Operations Director, Matthew Taylor. “The developers need to do an awful lot of other activities that depend on our work, so they have to be confident that we are going to turn up when we commit to doing so, and we are going to get the

job done right first time, so they can crack on with the rest of the work they need to do; and that is what we mean by the quality of service that we offer.”

“Helping our clients achieve their targets is our priority,” Ben Brownbill, IGL’s Technical Director, takes over the conversation. “Over the last 12-18 months we have picked up projects for our clients, where the previous operator had

Total quality With water Self-Lay as the core activity for the business, it also installs gas, electricity and fibre networks, and what unites them all is the company’s dedication to quality. “From when the company was founded, we have always seen delivering quality as our primary goal,” confirmed Steven.

“It is not just about quality in the sense of manufacturing quality either, it is about a quality as a level of service – and the amount of repeat work that we get from a relatively small base of developers bears out our success in this area.”

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profile: Infrastructure Gateway

failed to deliver its commitments and we’ve stepped in to keep the project on track. This is even in the case where the projects are not some that we would have typically walked into, but we have taken them on to help our clients.”

Another feature of the unique, client-centric approach taken by IGL is the small team that works in the background, and whose job it is to prevent problems before they arise. This sets IGL apart from its competitors who are much more reactive. “We would rather work on avoiding issues in the first place. That is fairly different in this industry, even though it is pretty obvious, but not a lot of people actually do it – they would rather stick to the mantra that ‘we will always solve your problems when they arise.’ But, wouldn’t it be nice if the client didn’t have to deal with the problems in the first place?” asked Steven.

“Our team monitors our developer’s information, their CML details and everything they do to make sure that they don’t miss anything. This is to make sure that our clients don’t miss their dates, and the end-user, the house buyer, still gets their house on time!”

Indeed, it would be fair to say

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that IGL has created an entire company culture that reinforces this focus on quality and value.

“We also invest in the right IT solutions, with technology such as AI and robotic process automation, and these choices are all based around how we can just keep adding value to the process,” Matt continued.

Controlled growth Steven went on to explain the further benefits of these investments. “In the early stages of 2020 enhancing these solutions will let us free up the existing staff to increase value, rather than doing input jobs. So, rather than increasing the level of staff, we can improve the people we already have. We already have a strong core of incredibly knowledgeable staff of which we are very proud, but when it comes to bringing new people into the business, there is no shelf out there in a recruitment agency where you can go and pick up someone who is proficient in utilities. It doesn’t work like that, rather you have to employ new entrants into the market and train them, which usually takes a good 18 months. It has taken time to

perfect the water aspect of our business, so we have to take the necessary steps to recruit highly skilled and experienced people to support the move into adjacent service lines.

“We always work to improve upon our offer, and alongside water, gas and electricity, we are now getting involved with other markets such as fibre.

We recognise that this will be a necessity for our clients, and we have been looking at it now for about 18 months, completing several projects, and we will probably edge forward on this in 2020. Houses still need to be built, and following the recent election we expect a fast start to 2020, so we are gearing up for another year of growth.

“We have no plans to be the next national multi-conglomerate utilities company, rather it is about organic growth. I would like to continue in that way, as we like the things we do and we want to walk before we run. Therefore, we always look to grow into new service lines in a controlled way. We concentrate on doing what we do really well and never overstretch ourselves purely in the interest of growth.”

Ben added: “We want to serve those key players in the market, maintain our quality levels and be respected as a key quality player ourselves.”

Steven concluded with some thoughts for the future: “We will continue to take pride in offering our best to our clients and to the market! Whatever the external influences are, what will remain constant is our focus and discipline around the areas where we know we can make a real difference.”

Infrastructure Gateway www.igl.co.uk Services: Utility company, specialising in water, with additional services in gas, electricity and fibre

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