Category: News

Construction News Magazine – SME Spotlight 16/01/2015

With order books filling up and the financial situation for many businesses is looking rosy, it’s clear to see why 2015 is predicted to be the year when the recovery of the construction industry gets well under way. Looking towards the year ahead, there are a few key elements that we need to ensure take place in order to maintain a stable and prosperous market.

Above all else, investment in our current pool of workers and development of succession planning should take centre stage. Ensuring the upskilling of employees so that they contribute towards plugging the skills gap and helping to realise their career objectives is, a crucial factor in delivering continued business growth and improvement.

With 400,000 skills jobs lost in the construction industry during the recession and an estimated 400,000 due to be lost through retirement over the next five years, it is imperative that we put in place schemes to get the message to younger people at the grassroots level, demonstrating that careers in construction have a clear path to progression. By starting a drive towards recruiting more apprenticeships now, businesses will guarantee that in five years’ time they see the benefit of having a knowledgeable and confident professional who has been developed through their organisation.

The Health and Safety Executives’ revisions to CDM 2007, driven by the need to align the UK’s interpretation of CDM with the EU’s Temporary and Mobiles Construction Sites Directive (TMCSD), are expected to come into force during 2015. Whilst I support change which is designed to increase efficiency while reducing bureaucracy, we have an obligation to make sure the new regulations are implemented and remain mindful that the final outcome is a far safer environment for our staff to operate in.

The Government’s planning reforms, designed to make the system easier to implement and get the country building once again, have now been in operation for some three years. In many regions, like the Midlands, greater governance is required so that local authorities undertake their obligations and support neighbouring councils who have a land capacity issue. This will enable the unlocking of more land for much needed housing and employment to further boost the sector’s recovery. Should we see a change of leadership during the next election, any change in policy needs to be for the greater good, rather than a kneejerk reaction.

From SMEs to large blue chip organisations, we all have a commitment to guarantee that alongside our commercial aims, we take our responsibilities to the environment, our employees and the wider community more seriously than ever before. This should be the year where we introduce a record number of initiatives and introduce more efficient technology to ensure operations are as sustainable as possible.

O’Brien Contractors, winner of Construction News Awards 2014: Tomorrow’s Company, has partnered with leading European sports pitch specialist, GreenFields UK, for the installation of a new playing surface at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

The sports contractor secured the contract with GreenFields UK through its track-record of providing successful pitch installations for organisations, including: Oswestry School, Eastbourne Hockey Club, Kewford Eagles FC and Aston University.

The project at the Ricoh Arena involved site preparation works to remove the existing 8000m2 playing surface before GreenFields UK installed the new natural turf, farmed in the Netherlands. Works started on 5th December and was completed ready for Coventry City’s home league game with Fleetwood Town on 20th December.

Aviva Premier League side, London Wasps, had initially announced its intentions to replace the current pitch during the summer to provide a playing surface suitable for the demands of both rugby and football matches, however, following a consultation, the rugby club decided to lay an interim pitch to ensure both Coventry City and London Wasps had a surface required to give them the best chance of success.

O’Brien Contractors is the first and only large civil engineering firm able to offer turnkey solutions for a range of sports pitch installations, delivering projects ranging from athletics tracks, football pitches though to hockey and rugby 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 natural sports pitches, such as those used for rugby, football and cricket, and 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.

Leading groundworks and civil engineering contractor, O’Brien, has been appointed to work on the second phase of St. Modwen’s regeneration of Longbridge.

In the second phase of the masterplan for the delivery of a £100 million town centre at the former MG Rover site, the development will feature the Midlands’ largest Marks & Spencer store comprising 150,000 sq ft, a six floor multi storey and 500 space car park and an additional 45,000sq ft of retail, restaurant and café space.

Appointed by principal contractor, Morgan Sindall, O’Brien will deliver a host of ground works – including construction of access roads, in situ concrete retaining walls, gabion walls and public realm works.
Phil Griffiths, Director, O’Brien, said: “The Longbridge redevelopment is one of the most high profile schemes currently taking place in the region and we are naturally very pleased to be chosen to deliver enabling and ground works to St. Modwen on this project.

Click below to watch our progress footage

“We are working to a really tight delivery programme to ensure that the Marks & Spencer store opens on time and it is paramount to the success of the scheme that our tasks are completed on programme.”

Mark Batchelor, St. Modwen construction manager, said: “Construction on phase two of Longbridge Town Centre is in full swing with 3,745 tonnes of steelwork going up for the new M&S store which is on track to open in time for Christmas 2015.

“More than 500 jobs will be created with the construction and opening of this second phase, adding to the 3,500 jobs that have already been created since we began regenerating Longbridge in 2003.”

Established in 1958, O’Brien Contractors is a second generation, family-run business that has gone from strength to strength and expanded into a range of new sectors.

From commercial units and Olympic-standard sports facilities, to railway stations, hospitals, universities, highways and commercial housing developments, O’Brien’s extensive experience consistently leads to the delivery of class-leading solutions.

Phil Griffiths added: “Some 85% of our work is repeat business and many of our new contracts come about because of referrals so it’s vital that we deliver the very best solutions at all times, either as principal or sub-contractor.”
To date, O’Brien has delivered projects for a range of top quality clients, including Jaguar Land Rover, Nestle, the National Trust, Morrisons, Aston University, Kier Construction, Wates and John Sisk.

St. Modwen, the UK’s leading regeneration specialist, aspires to create 10,000 jobs through the £1 billion Longbridge project which covers 468 acres.

Sports Management Magazine – Vol 18 issue 4 2014

As the UK obesity statistics soar, 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.

These investments are crucial in getting people more active as a report released by the Institute of Economic Affairs in August 2014 revealed that Britain’s obesity problem is more to do with lack of exercise than with eating too much, or eating the wrong things. So, with grants and funding available to schools, sports clubs, community groups and local authorities, this is a great opportunity for neighbourhoods all over the country to get new sports pitches and facilities in place and get people more active.

With the latest statistics showing that 64% of UK adults are overweight or obese, as are one in every ten children when starting primary school, it’s vital that schools and communities make the most of this opportunity.

Pitching It Right

Investing in new sports facilities has to be done right for two important reasons: firstly, so that this crucial funding is put to best use, and so that people 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 Contractors is the first and only civil engineering firm in the UK able to offer turnkey solutions for a range of sports pitch installations.

The company can deliver projects ranging from stadiums and arenas through to sports tracks and football pitches, tailored to meet your individual needs. O’Brien’s team of experts has a proven track record of delivering design and build sports projects to a diverse range of exacting client specifications and all of the work is completed in-house with no outsourcing required, meaning you get better value for money and projects are always delivered on time and on budget.

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

Recent projects that O’Brien has completed include the construction of a FIFA-compliant football pitch; an Olympic-standard athletics track complete with long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault and a 400m running track; a football club with 11 natural turf pitches, changing facilities, entrance road and car park; and a full size sand dressed synthetic grass Hockey pitch, installed upon an insitu rubber shock pad on an engineered base for Oswestry School.

“From my perspective, it was a delight to work with O’Brien Contractors and would not hesitate to recommend you to anyone. One of the reasons for choosing O’Brien was the fact that we were dealing with the top management from the start (Mick) and because you are the actual contractors rather than a middle man. The construction itself wasn’t straight forward due to a large cut and fill exercise, but the end result is spectacular and we are very pleased with the outcome. In addition, all of the subcontractors used for the specialist areas (floodlights, fencing, and pitch surface) were very reputable with no shortcuts in quality once the contract had been won. Overall, we are very pleased.”
Phil Bowd – Bursar at Oswestry School

Building Magazine – SME Profile 28/11/2014

SME profile: Midlands-based O’Brien Contractors has surpassed its pre-recession revenue peak

Fast-growing small contractor O’Brien Contractors is forecasting it will boost revenue by 40% in this financial year.

The firm expects to turn over £24.5m in 2014/15.

“It may seem like an overnight success, but to us it’s not felt like that,” says Peter O’Brien, managing director of O’Brien Contractors.

The Midlands-based firm has grown revenue 68% over five years to post revenue of £17.5m in its last financial year.

After contracting by 40% in just one year in the throes of the recession, in 2008-09, the firm has since recovered quickly and raced past its pre-recession revenue peak last year. These positive financials helped the family-owned firm win the Contractor of the Year under £300m turnover at the 2014 Building Awards.

But O’Brien (pictured inset) prefers to characterise the firm’s success as “methodical” rather than “overnight”.

“It has been strategic, planned and the culmination of years of improvement through hard work,” he says.

Reinvention

As the recession took hold, O’Brien embarked on a strategy to reinvent the business, turning it from a groundworks specialist to a principal contractor offering everything needed for a civil engineering project. It also upped investment in training and skills “rather than cutting it”, retained its directly-employed labour force and made a big marketing push to reach new clients, O’Brien explains.

Leamington Spa-based O’Brien was founded in 1958 by Tom O’Brien and is now owned by the second generation of the O’Brien family, brothers Peter and Mick O’Brien, with Stuart Chamberlain and Phil Griffiths becoming shareholding directors in 2012.

It operates across the Midlands, taking on jobs valued between £250,000 and £10m, and offers pre-construction services, design and build, sport pitch construction, traditional contracting and plant hire.

The firm primarily works in education, leisure, commercial, manufacturing and infrastructure.

O’Brien’s work as a principal contractor now makes up 30-40% of the firm’s turnover, according to O’Brien. This work is typically design and build infrastructure and public realm improvement jobs.

“We viewed the recession as an opportunity and planned for the subsequent upturn,” O’Brien says. “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 we attained new clients that we have developed strong and long-term relationships with. In many ways, the recession was good for us.”

The firm now deliberately targets “larger value contracts” and is also an advocate of “early contractor involvement”.

“Long-term relationships bring trust and collaboration which is essential if project objectives are to be achieved,” O’Brien says.

Despite its diversification into principal contracting in recent years, traditional subcontracting remains 50-60% of the business, and its largest contracts remain in this area. These include an £11msubcontract on John Sisk & Son’s £200m coffee manufacturing centre for Nestle in Derbyshire and a £6m subcontract for Morgan Sindall’s 150,000ft2 Marks & Spencer store at Longbridge. Meanwhile, the firm’s specialist sport pitch construction division generates 10% of turnover.

Local investment

O’Brien has invested more than £4m in training, plant, equipment and technology in the past four years, according to O’Brien.

He says the firm carries out most of its work using directly employed workers, rather than subcontracted labour. “For us, it’s all about continual improvement,” he says. “To be a leader in your field, we believe you should focus on your core competencies and you need the best workforce.”

He’s bullish about prospects for the Midlands market, and particularly its manufacturing sector. He says: “The Midlands market is looking buoyant. There seems to be more confidence, we are securing more high-value contracts and receiving far more live jobs than tenders to price.”

O’Brien is not tempted to join the stampede of regional contractors to London. “We don’t need to go into London where we don’t have the relationships,” he says. “You need those local relationships to get the best service, the best procurement deals and innovation through suppliers. We want to be the best SME in the Midlands.”

Seddon Construction has awarded O’Brien Contractors Limited, a leading Midlands-based Civil Engineering Contractor, an Earthworks and Groundworks package for the Westcliffe Extra Care Retirement Village in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

The regeneration of the former hospital is part of a £100m investment to deliver three new retirement villages at sites across the city, namely: Blurton, Abbey Hulton and Westcliffe. The villages will provide 390 new care apartments for people over the age of 55.

The works to be undertaken by O’Brien, include: a Cut & Fill remodelling of 17000m3 of the existing ground profile, with 11000m3 of the earthworks arisings being disposed off-site; mass fill concrete foundations; reinforced concrete retaining walls and associated storm and foul drainage – including a large storm water attenuation tank.

The remodelling design works have all been carried out in-house with the control information being fed directly to the GPS guided Earthworks plant. This technique ensures accurate excavation of foundations to the required formation levels, without the operative having to leave the cab of the excavator.

O’Brien’s experience of working on active developments will come to the fore in this project as connection to an existing surface water manhole within the adjacent highway, as well as extensive services installation works, are contained in the package.

This win comes on the back of a successful year in which the contractor picked up a number of high-profile projects, including: a £6.5m Marks and Spencer civil engineering and groundworks package with Morgan Sindall at Longbridge in Birmingham; a £5.5m roads and sewers contract for new service personnel housing at MOD Stafford with Lovell Partnership; and £2.5m groundworks for Kier Construction at the New Cross Hospital Emergency Department, Wolverhampton.

O’Brien Contractors Director, Stuart Chamberlain, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to partner, once again, with Seddon Construction on such a prestigious development for Stoke City Council.”

“As with all our projects, we will ensure that the scheme receives the highest attention to detail and utilises the latest in construction technology and skills, saving both time and money for our client,” added Stuart.

Work on the retirement village started in September 2014 and is expected to be completed during 2016.

O’Brien Contractors, winner of Construction News Awards 2014: Tomorrow’s Company, is on the verge of completing two flood alleviation projects, both for specialist sports turf construction and drainage firm, Turfdry. O’Brien’s sports division has carried out a £60k project at The Rayleigh Club’s championship golf course, which has seen the excavation of a number of new ponds and the formation of bunds with the arising’s.

The contractor is also set to complete a £75k river restoration scheme at Firs Farm Playing Fields for Enfield Council. The works involved the excavation of a watercourse stretching between the north-west and north-east corners of the park.

O’Brien Contractors, the first and only large civil engineering firm able to offer turnkey solutions for a range of sports pitch installations, secured the contracts with Turfdry through its investment in cutting edge surveying equipment and state-of-the-art excavators and bulldozers; equipped with GPS control systems which are linked to the design software. This technical capability was pivotal to carrying out the works and assisting in the concept, in terms of creating cut and fill balance on complex earthworks. It also ensured our expert operators delivered the design to the exact client specifications in the most efficient method possible and with minimal disruption.

Our team of experts have a proven track record of delivering design and build sports projects to a diverse range of exacting client specifications. Recent projects have seen us construct a synthetic grass hockey pitch for Oswestry School, 11 natural turf pitches at Kewford Eagles FC in Kingswinford, a synthetic grass sports pitch for Parklands School in Chorley, as well as a synthetic “Mondo” 6 lane 400m IAAF and UK Athletics track with an infield, full size FIFA compliant football pitch at Eastwood School in Essex.

It is an unavoidable fact that we are currently facing something of a skills shortfall in the construction industry, driven by a combination of the estimated 400,000 jobs lost during the recession coupled with a further 400,000 due to be lost to retirement in the next five years.

It has therefore never been more important to promote the construction industry as a viable and rewarding career and it is more important than ever that we demonstrate the value of working in this sector.
The industry suffers from a perception that working in construction means that you’re poorly paid and spending your days out in the howling wind and rain, when in reality well trained professionals can earn in excess of £100,000 a year.

This is a message that we need to get out there: that the construction industry can offer substantial benefits and that careers in construction are for highly skilled, intelligent people, who can earn big money.
It is apparent that we have to do more to spread this message to younger people at the grassroots level, demonstrating that careers in construction have a clear path to progression. Our core target group has always been school leavers, but the approach here could do with being refreshed, changing the image of construction from the ground-up.

Primarily, we need to utilise the existing young talent that we already have in the industry to prove first-hand that there are significant benefits and opportunities available throughout the sector. We need to understand what’s going to drive 17 and 18-year-olds and this can be more successfully achieved if we have a successful 22 year-old ex-apprentice standing in front of them who has already been through the process. They’re far more likely to take notice of someone like this than if we roll out a 60-year old managing director.

Secondly, we need to demonstrate that, once apprentices have been taken on, they’re being professionally developed rather than left to make the tea.

Every company has its own idiosyncrasies, however from our own experience if you take a young person and put them on-site with a surveyor for four days and on a college course for one day a week, in a few years’ time, they have vastly increased their knowledge and hands-on experience of the role and will also be earning around £20,000 more than they were previously.

Rather than trying to provide every apprentice with experience in every sector of the industry, we identify an individual’s strengths and evaluate where in the company they would best fit, helping them to develop in a specific discipline while nurturing their individual skills.

This isn’t a quick fix and it requires a commitment of some three to four years to truly make the most out of it, but at the end of this process, you will benefit from having a knowledgeable and confident professional who has been developed through your organisation.

This is, of course, more easily said than done, with many companies still recovering from the recession, when austerity led to scaled-down operations that left businesses without the structure or function to allow for the development and stewardship of apprentices. It needs to be made easier for businesses to take on apprentices through financial incentives such as government grants, although whether this is just pie in the sky thinking is another question.

There isn’t a simple one-size-fits-all solution that we can slot into place to solve the skills problem in construction, but with a more committed and focussed approach we should be able to go some way towards meeting the demands of a market that is back on the upswing.

Leading midlands based civil engineering contractor, O’Brien, has invested a further £360,000 in its machinery, taking delivery of two Volvo A25G articulated haulers.

The acquisition takes O’Brien’s investment in state-of-the-art software, equipment and machinery, during the last 5 years, to an enviable £2.5m, allowing it to expand services, improve efficiency and reduce costs for its clients.

The overall venture is part of an ongoing diversification strategy which is transforming the business and seen the contractor win countless awards in recognition of its innovation, including ‘Tomorrow’s Company’ by Construction News and ‘Contractor of the Year up to £300 million by Building Magazine.

Director, Michael O’Brien said “This outlay comes at an exciting time for O’Brien Contractors, as we secure a number of high profile projects, including Marks and Spencer’s in Longbridge and New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton.

To maintain this success, we are committed to offering our clients the most efficient and cost effective service available at all times. We believe to achieve this we must continue to invest in our people, software and machinery, a strategy that has paid dividends in recent times.”

The new haulers will go straight into action at O’Brien’s latest contract win with Morgan Sindall, enabling and groundworks for a new Marks and Spencer’s development in Longbridge, Birmingham.

O’Brien Contractors Ltd, winner of ‘Tomorrow’s Company’ at the Construction News Awards 2014, are delighted to announce they have secured a new contract with RG Group.

The project will see O’Brien undertake the enabling works, substructures, associated drainage, along with the external works for the service yard and car park. The section 278 road works are also included in the O’Brien Contractors package.

As part of the contract, O’Brien’s have recommended a number of value engineering alterations that result in a large saving from the original disposal service, including the re-use of excavated materials in drain and service trench backfills and a potential redesign of the attenuation tank to minimise excavation and off site disposal.

Director of O’Brien Contractors, Stuart Chamberlain, sees the contract as further evidence of their proven ability to reduce costs whilst providing the highest quality and level of service possible “We pride ourselves on our flexibility and our ability to work with our clients regardless of the size, diversity or complexity of the project.”

“Our on-going commitment to using innovative new technologies allows us to continually im-prove the quality of our work and the speed of installation, saving our clients both time and money.”

The new Sainsbury’s supermarket is part of the £84 million regeneration of the former Wellesbourne Industrial Estate, designed to deliver new employment and residential opportunities.

Construction commenced in September and O’Brien will be on site for 20 weeks.

Key aspects of the project include:

• The installation of a reinforced concrete slab floor and foundation work, including ground beams.
• Car Park approx. 6,500m2.
• Reinforced concrete service yard approx. 3500m2.
• Below car park attenuation system of 864 m3 approx.
• Drainage up to 4 metres deep below car park and service yard.
• Civils works including duct trenching and boxes for water, gas, telecoms and electric service installations.
• Provision and installation of street furniture including anti-ram raid bollards, bus, trolley and cycle shelter, lockers and trolley bays.
• Slab and block paving.
• Section 278 highways improvements including footpath, carriageway works, pedes-trian refuges, bollards, beacons, street lighting and bus shelter.