Month: June 2015

We are proud to announce that we have been named ‘Company of the Year’ and also received the ‘Property and Regeneration’ title at the Coventry Telegraph Business Awards 2015.

Following on from winning Specialist Contractor of the Year in the Construction News Specialist Awards 2015, the accolades provide further recognition for creating a five year strategic plan in response to the recession, a strong investment in training our people, diversifying into new markets and targeting higher value projects.

In 2009, with the recession taking hold and the company retracting by 40%, our directors embarked on developing a strategy to enable the business to see unimaginable growth: with an order book of £18m already secured for 2015, the outlook looks even brighter, with turnover set to increase to £32m for 2015/2016.

Coventry Telegraph editor Keith Perry said: “Judging the Coventry Telegraph Business Awards was really difficult this year because of the strength and depth of the entries we receive gets better every year.

“However, once we had debated long and hard about the winners for each category it was a unanimous decision to choose O’Brien Contractors for the prestigious Company of the Year accolade.

“O’Brien Contractors showed all the qualities we needed to see, with innovation and sustainable growth in a very competitive and challenging sector and a firm commitment to their staff and the region. They are worthy winners.”

Commenting on the award success, Peter O’Brien, Managing Director, O’Brien Contractors said: “Receiving the prestigious Company of the Year and Property and Regeneration awards is credit to everyone who has been involved in the business, from the start of the economic down-turn, when we set out on our diversification journey.”

“We viewed the recession as an opportunity and planned for the subsequent upturn. In a downturn, clients are less active, they are more receptive to changes in their supply chain as they are more focused on value.”

Key to the success has been a focus on building stronger customer relationships by ensuring on every project, a Director has an overseeing role and assists the project delivery team.

In addition to our financial success, we have invested £4 million in new plant, technology and training programmes, delivering on our commitment to improve efficiency and reduce ongoing costs for our clients.

Peter O’Brien added: “We found out what organisations didn’t like about their supply chains and repositioned our business approach, aligned with their requirements. This has enabled us to understand their needs and challenges better, so that we can provide them with tailored solutions, greater operational efficiency and a higher return on investment. In many ways, the recession was good for us.”

“We are naturally delighted to receive the awards and look forward to delivering further projects across the region, based on a commitment of providing the highest customer service and excellent quality work to our clients.”

Established in 1958, we are a trusted name in the Midlands construction industry, providing civil engineering, design and build and groundworks services, as well as turnkey sports pitch solutions.

Key projects and customers include the Nestlé factory with John Sisk; the Longbridge Marks & Spencer store with Morgan Sindall; and the Thunderbird 2 retail distribution centre with Sir Robert McAlpine, Accident and Emergency Centre, New Cross Hospital for Kier Construction and SFA Beacon Barracks (Borona) for Lovell.

We are proud to announce that we have sponsored the Construction Consultancy of the Year category at this year’s Construction News Awards.

We’ve a special affiliation with the awards, having been crowned Specialist Contractor of the Year (turnover up to £25m) in the Construction News Specialists Awards 2015 and ‘Tomorrow’s Company’ in the Construction News Awards 2014.

Explaining the decision to sponsor the category, Phil Griffiths, O’Brien Contractors, Commercial Director, said: “The awards provide the perfect opportunity to celebrate the outstanding achievements made by the construction industry during 2014. From the construction site up to the boardroom, everyone across all levels of a successful team, who have excelled on strategy, vision, innovation and quality during the last year, is recognised.”

The Construction Consultancy of the Year finalists, include: Capita, EC Harris, Hill International, Inc., Mace, Mott MacDonald, Pick Everard, RISE Management Consulting and Turner & Townsend.

Phil Griffiths added: “Having previously received recognition for our business success and innovation through a number of industry awards, including Construction News, we felt it was vital for the business to sponsor this initiative and play a leading role in recognising construction excellence.”

The event is being held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London on June 30^th and is expected to attract in the region of 1,300 industry leaders to celebrate their achievements.

“This years’ finalists look to be of a very high calibre and we congratulate them all, especially those in our sponsored category, on making the final stages against some strong opposition.”

We’re delighted to announce that we have presented the Stratford-upon-Avon-based, ILEAP Charity, with a generous donation to provide four assisted holidays for disabled people with learning difficulties.

Operating in South Warwickshire, ILEAP Charity supports people aged from 4 years and upwards by organising children, youth and adult leisure activity programmes for their members who have a mild / moderate learning disability.

Among the holiday opportunities organised, there is a three night stay in Bournemouth for 8 people and 4 staff, staying in fully accessible sea front accommodation at Bournemouth University Student Village. The location will provide the opportunity to take advantage of all the traditional sea side activities and enable ILEAP Charity to work with its’ members on promoting independence through skills for living type activities.

Additionally, the charity has also organised a two night stay in Woodhouse Eves in Leicestershire, where 12 people and 6 staff will enjoy a fun filled weekend with their friends, taking part in 2 specialist activities of orienteering and archery, followed by a BBQ and Party.

Peter Bazeley, Manager, ILEAP Charity, said: “Thanks to the donation from O’Brien Contractors, we have been able to subsidise these opportunities, making them excellent value and affordable to the majority. On behalf of everyone at ILEAP, we would like to thank O’Brien for thinking of us and for their generous support.”

“As a small Charity we rely on grants and donations so that children and adults with Additional Needs, can take part in their chosen leisure pursuits, in the knowledge that they will be safe and supported. This donation will help us to empower our members so that they have the same opportunities as their non-disabled peers during their leisure time.” added Peter Bazeley.

Two further breaks have also been organised, including a Lads weekend away for 10 and 4 staff to a purpose built activity centre in Shropshire, where the group will enjoy a camp fire and indoor caving, abseiling and rock climbing and an outdoor pursuits weekend for a party of 12 and 6 staff to a purpose built activity centre with all food and accommodation and 4 specialist outdoor pursuit activities.

One of our Directors, Stuart Chamberlain, said: “Over the years, O’Brien Contractors has been fortunate to have great success and we feel it is important that we give back to the community whenever possible. We are very pleased to be able to support ILEAP Charity, who provides a fantastic service to disabled people.”

If you would like to make a donation to the ILEAP Charity you can do so easily at www.justgiving.com/ileap or by e-mailing ileap@stratford-dc.gov.uk. For further information please visit www.ileap.co.uk for details.

According to a report published by Ofsted, outside of football, a large proportion of students, who have gone on to become the next elite athletes and tennis, rugby union and cricket players, have been nurtured on the sports fields of England’s independent schools.

41% of Team GB athletes who won a medal during the London 2012 Olympics were educated at an independent school. This is quite remarkable when you consider only 7% of school-aged pupils attend an independent school in England, compared to 86–93% of the population who are educated by a state run school.

This should come as no surprise when you consider that Independent schools have embedded competitive sports into their culture and ethos. They ensure all students participate in frequent sports activities; building confidence, self-esteem, academic excellence, character building, but also providing young people with the platform to realise their sporting goals and ambitions.

Independent schools do enjoy greater financial benefits over state schools, but now the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is investing over £1 billion in the next few years to help people get fitter and healthier through a range of programmes designed to make access to sports facilities easier for everyone.

So, with grants and funding available to schools and local authorities, this is a great opportunity to get new sports pitches and facilities in place and bring competitive sport into the fabric of the education curriculum of state schools.

It is vital that schools and local authorities make the most of this opportunity because the skills adopted during physical education and through regular participation, are essential to the early development of children and young people. It can teach them key values, including: sportsmanship, teamwork, respect, mutual understanding and honesty.

Through competition, a child’s education is a far richer experience. They enjoy competition. Competitive sport encourages children to try harder. It also provides them with the experience of winning and losing and how to deal with both emotions.

Sports Pitch Specialists!

Investing in new sports facilities has to be done right for two important reasons: firstly, so that you get the best value from your budget, and secondly, so that you receive a high standard installation ensuring students can and will use them for years to come. To do it right you need to work with the best sports pitch providers you can and O’Brien Sports, who’s management team has over 55 years’ experience in sports pitch construction, is one of the first large civil engineering firms able to offer turnkey solutions for a range of sports facilities.

The company delivers projects ranging from stadiums and arenas through to rugby, football and hockey pitches. This capability is all maintained in house – with no outsourcing required – by a team of experts with a proven track record of delivering design and build sports projects to a diverse range of exacting client specifications.

The sports installations that we deliver include synthetic and Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) pitches with surfaces suitable for just about every sport and user, from professional sports teams to schools and communities, and natural sports pitches, such as those used for rugby, football and cricket.

Recent projects have included the construction of a FIFA-compliant football pitch, an Olympic-standard, eight lane athletics track (complete with long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault) and a football club (complete with 11 natural turf pitches, changing facilities, entrance road and car park). All elements of these projects were handled in house and to our uncompromising standards.

Services

O’Brien Sports offers a full range of sports pitch services, including:

• Full design and build construction projects
• Synthetic and multi-use games area (MUGA) pitches
• Pitch renovations
• Natural sports pitches
• Total solutions for sports pitches
• Infrastructure, including: access roads and car parks

The total solution…from concept to construction, we design and build all Synthetic and Natural Sports Surfaces.

T: 01926 423918

E: info@obriencontractors.co.uk