News Letter Issue 13 August 2010

THANK YOU

Along with some beautiful weather, July has brought a wonderful attitude and a great result for both Admiral Scaffolding and the Thank You Points subscribers. We had had a total of three new subscribers and four status shifts this month. Our three new subscribers are all from new companies and we are looking forward to seeing what influx their subscription brings from their colleagues.

Our first status shift was from Blue to Red this month. One of our newer companies placed a second order with us. Only one employee had subscribed from this company but Admiral had the pleasure of sending her along with her husband and two children for a fun filled day at Thorpe Park. After evaluating the initial questionnaire we ask subscribers to complete, Laura was able to conclude that this lady liked nothing more than spending time with her family and was a bit of an adrenaline junkie. It seemed best to send her somewhere that matched both criteria and Madame Tussaud’s Thorpe Park done the job perfectly. We hear the four of them had an awesome day and managed to go on every ride. Luckily, we managed to send them the tickets just before the schools broke up so they were able to enjoy a less hectic day with only small queues. We have been given a message though; the “SAW ALIVE” ride is not for the faint hearted!

Our second status shift was from Red to Bronze. One of our first subscribers sent through a payment certificate on a long running job we have had going and hit £250,047 worth of trade this month! Laura discovered that this guy was a huge music fan and goes to as many gigs as possible. It seemed appropriate with Hyde Park Festival at the beginning of July that he along with three friends should go. The four gents went for lunch at Harrods on Admiral and then went and boogied in the park along to Plan B, The Ting Tings, The Gossip and Pink! We hear they had a great time.

 Our third status shift this month was an excellent achievement and was from Bronze to Silver. This was a real cause for celebration and something special needed to be done for our client. Subsequent to liaising with him and his wife for about two weeks, they decided that they were in need of a holiday. After contemplating a list of ideas and coming up with a few of their own, they decided their chosen destination would be the South of France. They stayed in a luxury four star hotel, The Auberge de Cassagne &  Spa for a week and basked in all the glory it had to offer. It gives The Group great joy knowing we can do this for our clients – we enjoy it almost as much as they do!

The Admiral Group is looking forward to thanking more clients. If you haven’t already signed up and you fancy reaping some benefits as others have, follow this link http://admiral-scaffolding.co.uk/wp-login.php?action=register

ACTION CREATES REACTION

When driving through London, have you ever noticed how much hoarding there is? Unless you are in the industry, it may be one of those things that you see but don’t really take any notice of. The Group did a little experiment last week and found from driving to the Depot in Wimbledon Park to The Four Season’s Hotel in Park Lane, there were 46 different sites surrounded with hoarding, and that was just taking one route. It has always been a procurement method of Admiral’s to make note of these sites and either cold call or drop in to introduce ourselves. From this month onwards, we are trying to advance this method and involve the general public too. We are offering a bonus to anybody who can win us a job. The hard work doesn’t have to be done by you of course; we don’t employ Laura for nothing. All we ask is that if you happen to come across a site that has hoarding or looks like it might need scaffolding works at some point soon, make note of the Road name, the Main Contractor and a telephone number if possible (this information will usually be provided somewhere at the front of the site). Then phone Laura on 020 8971 3130 or email laura@admiral-scaffolding.co.uk with the information and your hard work is then done. Laura will then contact the company in order to try and provide a quotation for the scaffolding works. If we happen to win the job, you will be rewarded with £200! Now, as mentioned before, this bonus is open to anybody. We will keep you updated with any progress made and you can take a back seat. We are in no way asking you to visit site and attempt to win the job single handedly, sites can be dangerous and only operatives should visit. We just need the information. Let us know what you see!

Since Admiral has been going, we have always been open to any type of contract and have undertaken the typical new builds, refurbishments and decorations. We have also been open to all industries whether it is private or public, housing or education. While we fully intend to keep this running and will continue to have broad minds to a project, we are also planning on opening a special works section. This is running very minimally at the moment as we work together with  McNicholas Construction who is partnered with EDF. We plan to branch out into the world of Civil Engineering, Gas and Electric works, Airports and Railways. In order to do this, we understand that we need to gain a number of accreditations and we are working our way towards those. In the meantime, if there is an area we haven’t mentioned so far, but you are looking to make a relationship with a new subcontractor, please contact Laura and we can discuss your requirements and how to progress.

Speaking of accreditations, July brings us to the end of our CHAS and Constructionline registration. We are of course renewing and are awaiting our new certificates. We have also been informed that we are due our first audit  for our ISO 9001 and 14001. We are expecting this at the end of September so we will let you know how it goes.

Another great month for pricing requests. July brought us a total of 87 tender enquiries. The Group is becoming increasingly proud of the response rate and the speediness at which we get the quote back to the client. We have now been able to make targets for the next six months and will strive to achieve these. If these past few months are anything to go by, we shouldn’t have a problem, but we may need to employ a new Estimator!

OTHER NEWS

June brought us another great influx of operatives. We’d like to send a huge welcome to:

·        Andy Paxton

·        Steve Toms

·        Joe Elford

·        William Smith

·        Clive Brade

·        Daniel Johnson

·        Ramunas Mikuta

·        Jeremy Clarke

·        Danilis Indilas

·        Steven Price

·        Carl Heaney

It seems deciding to promote in house has worked tremendously. Both Gavin Bhandal and Steve O’Farrell have both mastered their roles and are now quite enjoying them. Gavin has taken over some of the larger contracts such as the Lycee Francais School, The Glades Shopping Centre and The Four Season’s Hotel while Steve is controlling the small jobs section as planned. Both have now built relationships with clients at a higher level and are getting used to spending a little more time in the office completing paper work. While The Group are not opposed to employing fresh blood, it just so happens that this time round, the best candidates were under our noses the whole time. We are looking forward to expanding the Group further and making Admiral the best it can be.

We feel the Group has done its part for Charity this month. We were first contacted by one of our regular clients, ITC Concepts to sponsor them for the “Mountain Mayhem Race”. Four of ITC’s employees had trained for weeks and weeks for Europe’s premier mountain bike race and we thought donate £250 to their chosen charity, CHASE. We hear they got on well, so congratulations guys!

We also received an email through from our website from a guy called James Davey who is part of the Leefest team. Leefest are non profit organizations who provide a music festival to support the Kids Company Charity. James emailed us asking if we could supply some materials at no cost so they could erect a sound and lighting  platform. We obliged willingly and even attended the event. It was a great day had by all and we hear a lot of money was raised. Well done Leefest! To view details of this event, you can visit www.leefest.org or search “leefest” on Facebook.

CONTRACTS

Well the holiday season is well and truly underway and we can celebrate with a whole host of contracts that have been won from both existing and new clients. The Fairfield Hall in Croydon is the scene of some repair work prior to its big refurbishment in a couple of year’s time. We are pleased to be helping ITC perform this work. ITC have also awarded us the refurbishment/reconstruction contract at the Atkins Centre, Epsom, thanks guys. More repeat business from 345 Interiors Ltd with work in Isleworth and the prestigious Shell Centre, Waterloo.  Welcome back to Farnrise, whom we have not worked with for 15 months and a big welcome to new clients Firmco, Arthur Waite Ltd, Bilton & Johnson Ltd – we look forward to showing our prowess. Our special works section will also be erecting a window design scaffold in Oxford Street’s Topshop in the next few days. We are looking forward to viewing the results along with thousands of other admirers. Times are not getting easier but we feel that we have re-designed our business to cope with what the market place has to offer and we are confident that together we will succeed.

DISCOUNTS

July has brought us some more long running reductions and from great places too. This month we have seen discounts from London Zoo, Halfords, Opodo, Fitbug, Boots and all of our regular stores such as Comet, Zavvi and PC World. We are hoping to gain more affiliates through out August and keep all our regular users satisfied. As we have mentioned before, we are open to suggestions and if there is anything you are looking to buy and you would like a discount code please feel free to contact laura@admiral-scaffolding.co.uk.

LATEST TRAINING SUCCESS

Keeping up with tradition, July has been another great month in the training world.

Adrian wastes no time in enrolling the new employees onto the Health and Safety test boarded by Construction Skills. Six new operatives took the test this month, including J Roberts, K Mustafa, S Chapman, George Goshivilli, John Sampson and S Hill. All six passed and are now in possession of their CSCS cards. Well done guys, you are officially on the ladder!

We would like to congratulate Anthony Cassar and Michael McCarthy. They are making excellent progress with their apprenticeships and have been on a two week course to complete their Part 1b. In 6 months time, they will take the Part 2 course where they will be tested on the content of Part 1. A portfolio will then be submitted for them followed by a one day assessment. At this point they will hold Basic Scaffolder status. We look forward to helping them along their journey and reaching their goals. Good job guys.

2 operatives who are one step further along their journey are Nicky Quirke and Jamie Hull. They have just completed their part 2 and are now awaiting the assessment of their portfolio. It won’t be long until they are holding their blue Scaffolder CSCS cards. Nice work guys!