Category: News

We are pleased to announce we have been awarded our second Gold award for Occupational Health and Safety from the UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).

The internationally recognised RoSPA Health and Safety Awards provide businesses and organisations of all types and sizes with an opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to continuous improvement in accident and ill health prevention at work.

Mick O’Brien, O’Brien Contractors’ Health and Safety Director, said: “Receiving the Gold award for Occupational Health and Safety from RoSPA is testament to the commitment we place to ensure the safety of our staff by constantly striving to raise awareness of health and safety throughout the business.”

The Gold award follows another successful year which has seen an increase in the size of our projects and workforce, matched by further investment both in new plant and in ongoing training and development programmes so that our employees are competent to work safely.

“We feel it is vital companies, and especially the construction industry, protect their employees by providing healthy and safe working conditions and by minimising the risk of accident or injury to employees and sub-contractors, as well as members of the public that may be affected by their work.”

In addition to our rigorous safety policies, our industry-leading standards have been recognised with occupational health and safety accreditations ranging from OHSAS 18001 to CHAS, Achilles Building Confidence (5 Star Rating) and Achilles Link-Up.

David Rawlins, RoSPA’s awards manager, said: “The RoSPA Awards encourage improvement in occupational health and safety management. Organisations that gain recognition for their health and safety management systems, such as O’Brien Contractors Limited, contribute to raising standards overall and we congratulate them.”

We are delighted to have agreed to sponsor two Leamington Spa based schools to help provide essential road safety education to local pupils.

From September, the way that road safety in Warwickshire is delivered in primary schools is changing. All schools have the opportunity to sign up to the Warwickshire Road Safety Club, but most will now need to pay for the road safety education they receive. However over the past few months Warwickshire County Council’s Road Safety Group have been contacting Warwickshire businesses to encourage them to sponsor road safety in their local primary schools.

Our support will enable Cubbington Primary School and Our Lady & St Teresa’s Primary School to have the complete Warwickshire Road Safety Club package, which includes the popular Warwick the Bear roadshow for 5 year olds, Kerb Safe pedestrian training  for 6 – 7 year olds and the Junior Road Safety Officer scheme for 10 – 11 year olds.  Other activities include assemblies and classroom sessions from a Road Safety Officer.

Managing Director Peter O’Brien recently visited the school to find out how road safety education can benefit the local community. Mr O’Brien, said: “Having been educated at Our Lady and St Teresa’s Primary School, along with my two brothers and company Directors, Mick and Simon, we welcomed the opportunity to play our part with Warwickshire County Council and the two schools.”

“The O’Brien family has been part of the local community since the 1950’s when our father and mother moved from Ireland and made Cubbington their home.  My father formed O’Brien Contractors over 50 years ago and the village has been the location for its headquarters ever since, benefitting from employing many local and highly skilled people.”

“The importance of road safety cannot be stressed enough and as a significant employer in the area, we welcomed the chance to get involved in the road safety scheme, ensuring the welfare of the young people in Cubbington.”

Juliet Jones, Headteacher of Cubbington CE Primary School, said: “We are absolutely delighted the O’Brien’s have chosen to fund our Road Safety Club membership.  Road safety education is vital at primary school to prevent accidents from happening and to teach children important skills that will serve them well throughout their whole lives. “

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

We’ve recently strengthened our earthworks service and plant hire division with the acquisition of a new GPS controlled CAT D6T dozer.

The new D6T will be put to the test at St. Modwen’s £100 million town centre masterplan at the former MG Rover site. This development will feature the Midlands’ largest Marks & Spencer store comprising 150,000 sq ft, a six floor multi storey, 500 space car park and an additional 45,000sq ft of retail, restaurant and café space.

We have been appointed by principal contractor, Morgan Sindall, to deliver a highways package – including earthworks, 1606m of drainage up to 6m deep and 4500m of kerbs and edgings.

The new CAT D6T takes our investment in state-of-the-art equipment and machinery up to an impressive £2.2m during the last 12 months, including: two new Volvo A25G articulated haulers, three Volvo EC140DL excavators and a CAT D6N GPS controlled dozer.

Mick O’Brien our Director, said: “Throughout the years, our expertise has grown but our aims remain much the same – to work with our clients as an expert partner and provide industry-leading staff, technology and skills to deliver end results that exceed expectations.”

“To achieve our goals, we believe we must continue to invest in our people, software and machinery to ensure we continually improve the quality of our work and the speed of installation, saving our clients both time and money.”

This latest investment is part of an ongoing diversification strategy that is transforming our business and seen us win countless awards in recognition of our innovation, including ‘Tomorrow’s Company’ and ‘Specialist Contractor of the Year’ by Construction News and ‘Contractor of the Year up to £300 million by Building Magazine.

As the industry prepares for its annual celebration at the Construction News Awards on 30 June 2015, the recognition we’ve received at previous awards has prompted us to proudly sponsor this year’s event.

Leading civil engineering and groundworks company, O’Brien Contractors, has launched a work experience programme to provide school-leavers with an insight into careers in the construction industry.

The new scheme is designed to provide young local job seekers with practical experience and skills that cannot be taught in a classroom. It will also offer them a sense of belief, demonstrate that they can be valuable members of a working team, but most importantly, provide them with a passage into an apprenticeship scheme or employment.

The latest Government statistics have found that across the UK, 963,000 people aged 16-24 are not in employment, education or attending a training scheme, with 61% classed as unemployed. It has therefore never been more important to help younger people get a foot on the employment ladder, through work experience and apprenticeship schemes.

Tony Mitchell, Operations Manager, O’Brien Contractors, said: “The company has been fortunate to have great success over the years and we are keen to ensure we give back to the community whenever possible.”

“We have set up the programme to help and inspire young job seekers in their pursuit of employment. Employers look at experience gained when interviewing potential new members of staff and attending a work experience programme will make their credentials stand out.” said Tony Mitchell.

Each placement delivers high quality on-site experience related to the person’s training requirements. They are assigned to a site supervisor, who mentors them passing on the relevant skills, introduces them to the structure of working life and demonstrates the value of working in this sector.

At the end of the week, trainees come away with a genuine learning experience, highly motivated and a better awareness of their career aspirations.

Tony Mitchell, Operations Manager, O’Brien Contractors, said: “During the recession, 400,000 skilled jobs were lost in the construction industry and an estimated 400,000 are due to go through retirement over the next five years.”

“We feel it is crucial that the industry creates more schemes, like our work experience programme, to offer hands on experience to younger people at the grassroots level and get them interested in a career in construction.”

Louis Gray from Central Construction Training was the first pupil enrolled on the scheme and experienced a week on-site at the Accident and Emergency development at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton. Louis said: “I found the work experience programme very helpful and it gave me a better understanding of what I can expect from a career in construction.  I have learnt so much from my site supervisor in just one week and I feel inspired to continue developing my skills and apply them in a career in construction.”

A second-generation, family-run business with close to 60 years of experience in civil engineering and groundworks, O’Brien Contractors is a trusted name in the Midlands construction industry.

Ambitious and forward-thinking, O’Brien believes that a strong investment in its people and technology are vital to help it to stand out from the crowd and be recognised as a leader in its field.

This has proven to be a winning approach, as O’Brien has been recognised with a host of national industry awards, including most recently being named ‘Specialist Contractor of the Year (turnover up to £25m)’ and ‘Tomorrow’s Company’ by Construction News; and ‘Contractor of the Year up to £300 million’ by Building Magazine.

O’Brien provides a catalogue of construction facilities, ranging from full design and build capabilities for projects up to £11 million, 3G sports pitches and specialist plant hire.

Over the last 12 months, O’Brien has completed 29 projects across the Midlands and continues to grow its portfolio on high-profile schemes, including the £200 million Nestlé Factory in Derbyshire and a £7 million project for Jaguar Land Rover.

New partnerships have strengthened the business and during 2014, O’Brien Contractors were appointed by principal contractor, Morgan Sindall, to deliver groundworks for the second phase of St. Modwen’s £100m regeneration of Longbridge; and also partnered with Sir Robert McAlpine for groundworks at LondonMetric Property’s £77m Thunderbird 2 scheme – a 98,700 m2 distribution centre near Kettering.

The relationship formed at Nestle’s new £200m coffee production facility has helped secure two further projects with John Sisk: a groundworks package at Alumno Developments’ £30m Student Accommodation at Eastside Locks in Birmingham; and an additional groundworks contract for three distribution units at Goodman’s Lyons Park scheme in Coventry.

These successes follow on the back of a five year initiative to place the company on a sounder footing. In 2009, with the recession taking hold and the company retracting by 40%, the directors embarked on developing a strategy to enable the business to see unimaginable growth: Principal Contractor contracts accounting for between 30% and 40% of turnover and £3m worth of secured sports pitch contracts, are just a couple of examples.

O’Brien also strengthened customer relationships by ensuring on every project, a Director has an overseeing role and assists the project delivery team.

The diversification initiatives took considerable planning and analysis with close to £1m of company money being invested, but it paid off and O’Brien is now achieving record-breaking levels of turnover. With an order book of £15m already secured for 2015, the outlook looks even brighter, with turnover set to increase to £26.6m for 2014/2015.

Peter O’Brien, Managing Director, O’Brien Contractors, said: “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.”

“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.”

Design and build contractors:

Specialists in:
• Civil Engineering
• Pre-construction services
• Groundworks
• Infrastructure developments
• Sports pitch construction
• Plant hire

When planning a construction project, make O’Brien Contractors your first choice:
T: 01926 423 918 E: info@obriencontractors.co.uk

Leading civil engineering and groundworks company, O’Brien Contractors, which was named as Construction News Specialists Awards 2015: Specialist Contractor of the Year, has been awarded a contract for the construction of a new football pitch and eight tennis courts at Gerard Buxton Sports Hub, Wootton Bassett.

The project will see O’Brien construct a 7500 m² third generation FIFA 1 Star Football Pitch and eight macadam surfaced tennis courts covering 5,500 m2 to LTA/ITF standards.

Steve Hillman, General Manager – Sports Division at O’Brien Contractors, said: “We are extremely honoured to have won this contract with Gerard Buxton Sports Association and look forward to applying our sports pitch expertise in order to provide a facility constructed to a very high standard.”

“The new 3G pitch and tennis courts are the latest phase of a new, multi-million pound sporting centre being created by Gerard Buxton Sports Association. It is testament to the growing success of our sports pitch team that the Association has shown faith in our ability to deliver this prestigious project for the local community.”

The O’Brien Sports management team has over 55 years’ experience in sports pitch construction and is one of the first large civil engineering firms able to offer turnkey solutions for a range of sports facilities, delivering projects ranging from stadiums and arenas through to rugby, football and hockey pitches.

The contractor will be installing a Greenfields XQ6A system.