19-12-2020
Key events in 2019
With the end of year fast approaching, it is the ideal opportunity for us to reflect on the past year, and to review our progress and any challenges faced.
2019 has been a very productive year for BRS with many different achievements, awards and significant projects undertaken. Such achievements have enabled us to continue to grow our reputation as high-quality Builders cleaners providers in the UK. Subsequently, our client list has continued to grow rapidly; we have welcomed the likes of global construction firm ISG, national housebuilders Countryside Properties, national construction firm McLaughlin and Harvey, Buckingham Group and many more, whilst continuing to gain repeat business from our existing clients such as global construction firm Laing O’Rourke, Kier Construction, Caledonian Modular, Readie Construction and many more.
2019 kicked off to a great start with us securing the Builders cleaning package at the Post Building, New Oxford St, for Laing O’Rourke, following our successful completion of Builders cleaning works at the Hinkley Point C power plant back in 2018. This ignited a positive relationship with Laing O’Rourke, who later awarded us another significant project, the Builders cleaning package at The Grange Hospital, a 55,000m2 hospital in Wales. Being trusted with a project of this size and significance is a huge turning point for us as it is our biggest yet. We commenced our cleaning works in September and works are anticipated to last for at least a year. Although this is our most exciting project yet, it is also our most challenging due to the scale of it and the high standards required for handover. However, we have one of our most experienced Builders cleaners teams there and one of our most experienced and trusted supervisors, and so we are confident that the job is in good and capable hands. We hope that we will be able to successfully complete this project to the high standards that we are becoming renowned for.
Another significant highlight of 2019 includes the two MOD projects contracted to us by one of our longstanding clients, Caledonian Modular. Both packages were awarded to us in the summer of 2019. The first package consisted of 296 studios of MOD accommodation in Lyneham, with Kier Construction being the main client, and the second consisted of 352 studios in Winchester with the main client being Skanska. Works at Lyneham are now complete whereas works at Winchester will continue into the new year. Lyneham was handed over to a high standard and the client was happy with the works carried out by our teams of Builders cleaners. Works are also progressing well at Winchester, where we hope to leave a good impression to main client Skanska who we haven’t yet worked for directly (only through their supply chain).
Other exciting projects that we have been involved within 2019 include a project for new clients, McLaughlin & Harvey in Wokingham. Works at this site commenced in the summer (phases 1 & 2) and our successful completion of these two phases led to us being awarded phase 3 which our teams have recently commenced. This site includes a Premier Inn, a cinema and various retail outlets. This is the first project that we have worked on for McLaughlin & Harvey and we are confident that this too will be the start of another positive relationship with another new client.
We are also pleased to have gained repeat business from a relatively new client of ours, housebuilder Telford Homes. We successfully completed all phases at their development at St Paul’s Way, Bow in 2018 and as a result of our strong performance on this project, we were awarded a new project with Telford, 235 apartments in Kilburn. Works at this site commenced in November and will last throughout 2020.
2019 has also been dubbed “the year of the awards” for BRS as this year saw us secure five award wins! These include ‘High Growth Business of the Year’ at the Hertfordshire Business Awards in June, Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the East of England for our director Hannah Uruci in April, National champions in the Construction and Property sector at the National Family Business awards in July, Young Entrepreneur of the year for at the Forward Ladies regional awards for London and National Young Entrepreneur of the year at the national Forward Ladies finals in December. We were also recognised as one of the top 100 small businesses in the UK out of 5.8 million small businesses across the UK when the ‘Small biz 100’ list was unveiled by the Small Business Saturday movement back in September. Our involvement with this campaign also saw us attend a lunch reception at the House of Lords early December where we were able to network with the other 99 businesses listed in the ‘Small biz 100’, inauguration of Small Business Saturday which took place on 7th December. On this day we were delighted when our local MP for Epping Forest, Dame Eleanor Laing, stopped by our office to congratulate us on our awards successes and to join in with our Small Business Saturday celebrations.
Lessons learned
As the saying goes “Learning never exhausts the mind”, and at BRS we never tire of learning and striving to continually improve via our commitment to training, career progression opportunities for our staff and investment in educating ourselves from director level down. We learn from every new project that we undertake and in 2019 in particular, we have enjoyed new learning opportunities. In October our director Hannah attended an ISO 9001 Internal auditor course which we hope will assist us greatly in our quest to become ISO 9001 accredited. We have also trained up additional experienced members of staff as Supervisors who are now SSSTS qualified. We believe that it is very important for all of our teams to be well trained and well informed, and our passion for this will no doubt continue to seep into all we do, next year and beyond.
Our people
A huge thank you is due to all of our amazing teams who work tirelessly, many of them staying far away from their homes, consistently working as hard as they can. Their effort is well appreciated and as a thank you, we recently organised our annual end of the year gather together party, where our staff had the chance to get together, have dinner and celebrate another fantastic year. A special thank you goes to our experienced supervisors/drivers who continue to deliver day after day.
Goals for 2020
We have ambitious plans for further growth and are currently in the process of upgrading our office to a larger one, with the intention to expand our office team in the new year. We also plan to add to our fleet of vans as we currently have a high volume of live projects and are currently in the process of pricing for a lot of exciting projects for 2020. Watch this space! We are also in the process of working towards ISO 9001 accreditation and aim to achieve this in 2020, wish us luck!
