Design & Build : Sustainable Quality
24/7/19 : Our Colchester-based Design & Build operation, which undertakes complete design and build projects in the £2m – £15m range, in the commercial, education and health sectors, is now 5 years old and on target to achieve its 5 year business plan objectives. Paul Barnes who leads the team, reflects on the growth and progress that has been achieved.
A Strategic move that has delivered as promised
TClarke’s 2015 Annual Report says the Design & Build start up was “ a potential new revenue stream and also an area featuring high value, high quality services, innovative thinking and deeper client relationships.” Today, we have a full order book and a pipeline of work to take us into 2021 and hit our initial planned target of creating a sustainable £25 million business from a standing start back in 2014.
Since then, we have grown our in-house design and CAD team to the point where it is now 15 strong and the team comprises 40 people in total, based in our offices in Colchester. We have grown very steadily, building long term relationships both with clients and supply chain partners and the net result is a very solid, sustainable business bringing value to the group.
A culture built on relationships
Our culture has always been very straightforward; we’re open and transparent, we work hard to foster and cement relationships and we look to deliver good quality, snag-free work with minimal defects – and to deliver fast and effective responses to any defects. Repeat business has been key to our growth in these five years and that won’t change.
Delivering Innovative Design and Quality Projects
Our in-house design and CAD team produce fully co-ordinated cost effective design solutions and have recently completed Hounslow Civic Centre ,Essex University Stem Research Building, Hilton Hotel Aldgate, Reach Free School and New Covent Garden Market where we have gone on to deliver high quality installations with our supply chain partners .
This level of service has lead to us receiving repeat business from all our customers enabling us to plan our resources for 2020/21.
Sustainable quality and growth
While we are delighted to have grown so well and so steadily, we know that what counts going forward is that we keep our eyes fixed on the basics of customer service – whether that be the quality of the handover or the attention we pay to our supply chain. On 20th September we’re having our Supply Chain Day which is an opportunity to recognise their contribution and share our plans with them. Our immediate plans are to ensure our growth and quality of service; we have recently created a small board of directors and this is all part of our work to sustain this operation for the long term.