Our Journey

Our Journey

Keeping Abreast

Apologies we have been a little quiet on here, please keep abreast on our social media platforms which we have been able to maintain in recent months. Once we get some technical issues resolved we hope to have all communication platforms current.

We have been busy on the final stages of a number of projects so look forward to posting casestudies on these as they complete.

We have also been working on our holistic offering through our H&S standards, Environmental Impact and Investment in People. Updates and the fruits of our labour which will hopefully shine through in the products we complete.

A focus on our #EnvironmentalImpact which is incredibly important to us. It needs to be. As a contractor we still have the opportunity to make waves and work with our clients as well as take accountability of how we price, what we use, how we operate and general best practice against our working environments and ways of working. Our ripples through our employees and communities hopefully contribute to additional wider change. One exciting initiative is that we invested in a tree planted for every employee which offsets half our carbon footprint and look to further explore strategies beyond offsetting to become #carbonneutral and beyond to reduce, recycle, reuse. In sourcing some anniversary promotional pens we also opted for ones made from recycled water bottles and mechanical pencil style as they are refillable so will hopefully outlive the branding! This video from the Federation of Master Builders is a great sum up for the industry. https://vimeo.com/642398160

Can we justify this as our reason for adding a little Christmas sparkle at HQ and we have already put our tree and decorations up this week to help add a little uplift and stretch out the festivities a little longer!

FLASHBACK

! Do you remember the sleek work our Specialist Joinery Division completed MELIÁ Hotels & Resorts https://www.melia.com/en/hotels/united-kingdom/newcastle/innside-newcastle/open-living-lounge.htm Have a look at the Professional finish of Bars, Tables, Screens, Seating and More #joinery #leisure #flasback #proud

Praise, Collaboration and Welcomes

We hope all is well with you and wanted to share some positive news.

We were pleased to hear from one of our Site Managers about the relationship built with the caretaker at St Teresa’s School where he was working for us over the Summer.  He provided positive feedback to us and back to Stan and the school regarding Stan’s voluntary commitment and cooperation to enable access everyday alongside the final weekends of the Summer to enable us to complete the works required.  Well done Stuart and the team also on successful completion and dedication to get the job done.

Stuart and Stan outside St Teresa’s School

Additionally we would like to thank another of our Site Managers Mykall and those who supported him in a tremendous team effort to turn around the progress on Egglescliffe School despite initial set backs beyond our control.  With the right support in place the team managed to turn things round and successfully deliver on the project.

The Summer has been tough with further constraints compounded by C19 within the industry with skills and material shortages so huge recognition and thanks goes out to all of our staff and supply chain partners.

In order to help support our ongoing commitment in investing in our people through communication, meaningful conversations, feedback, support, training and development we have launched a new Personal Development Programme which we hope contributes to enriching our work environment and wider community.

Welcome! As you may have seen from recent social media posts we are fortunate to be able to welcome 4 new apprentices this year to Manners making that 7 currently on programme currently within the business.  A great investment for the future.  We are also fortunate to welcome on board other recruits within the business following successful recruitment campaigns and continue to actively recruit for hard to fill Joiners (in particular Bench) if anyone knows any suitably skilled experienced labour out there hop over to our Careers Page for more info.

Our Journey

A Family Business ..

A Family Business: but what does that mean to us? We are proud of our heritage, and when we could not celebrate our 160th year in business last year (5th generation in) we have taken to community partnership opportunities to support other local businesses and charities, encourage mental health and wellbeing as well as take as much consideration into the HOW we operate as we do in WHAT we do and produce! I LOVE hearing stories from our Site Managers on how they have helped make christmas grottos to recycle and reuse for the local community of their site or leave dog bowls of water for local walkers. It is the small personal touches. Keep an eye out, we have an exciting bake off style collaboration with Fifteas Vintage Tearoom  and Sandringham Care Home  in 2 weeks time! (All employees / family encouraged to partake!) Please show your support by liking theirs and our pages and placing reviews where you can (social media platforms, google, yell etc) Thank you ???? #loveconstruction #consideratecontractor #familybusiness #LoveBishopAuckland

Critical Workers: Thank you, Stay Vigilant

At the beginning of this year the Government announced that the construction industry will remain open during the current lockdown period, with Government guidelines providing greater clarity stating “people who work in critical national infrastructure, construction or manufacturing… should continue to travel to their workplace”.  The full letter issued to the industry can be read here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-letter-to-the-construction-sector-november-2020

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our staff, our supply chain and stakeholders and everyone doing their bit to follow the guidance above and beyond in order to try and safely get us all through this Global Pandemic whilst also working hard to preserve our National Infrastructure and Economy. 

We continue to champion safe working practices with additional robust COVID related risk assessments and procedures.  Providing all necessary PPE required as well as items for best practice such as SOPs, training, temperature checks, masks, sanitation, priority testing through the NHS.  We encourage close communication and a ‘speak up’ culture to ensure full support is on hand and as our staff, and their loved ones, start to receive the vaccination we continue to adhere to the measures in place so we all can have peace of mind that we are all doing what we can to be safe for ourselves and all around us.  We recognise it takes everyone to play their part so ensure we conduct due diligence of our stakeholders and supply chain also.

We are proud of recent HSE feedback in reinforcing our safe work practices.

We have been and are privileged to be involved in essential works supporting a range of contracts including education providers, healthcare, housing for vulnerable adults, social housing, care homes as well as those marked to drive economic growth and regeneration such as retail and hospitality.

EXTRACTS OF FEEDBACK FROM

A RECENT MEDICAL PRACTICE JOB

The project was always going to be a challenge as we had to keep the surgery open during the works but the workmen were always very respectful of this and kept the site as clean and quiet as possible.

RECENT SAFEGUARDING WORKS

We have been very happy with the work, the staff and the overall arrangements in place in our recent contracts with Manners.

RECENT SMALL WORKS (IN A CLIENTS HOME)

we are absolutely delighted with the outcome and the way you have all made the process easy for us – despite all the added challenges imposed by C-19 restrictions!

 Thank you all so much, we are really, really grateful.

Support is available.  If yourself or any of your loved ones have been affected by COVID or the Global Pandemic in any way, there are lots of useful resources available for support, 

Here are some offered by the NHS:

MENTAL HEALTH https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/?WT.tsrc=Search&WT.mc_id=MentalHealthGeneric&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI44uy-er17gIVCbKGCh2S2wQwEAAYAiAAEgLfhvD_BwE

COVID https://www.yourcovidrecovery.nhs.uk/