Pictured: (l-r) Guy Allcock, Dee Benning and Steve Allcock,
Stafford, are presented with the Public Sector Installation Year
Award by Andy Jones, Edgetech and Frances Parks at the
G11 Awards held at the Hilton Park Lane
Stafford Aluminium has won national recognition for its delivery
of a large scale works programme to improve the energy efficiency
and at the same time restore the character of properties in
Birmingham's Bournville.
Set up in 1919 to provide housing for employees and pensioners
of chocolatiers, Cadbury, Bournville Works Housing Society
commissioned Stafford to deliver the wholesale refurbishment of
windows and doors across its 314 property portfolio in early
2011.
Representing the first large scale specification of PVC-U
windows and composite doors in Bournville, the preservation and
restoration of the character of individual properties and the area
more widely, were prioritised as part of project delivery alongside
the thermal efficiency of properties.
Now the ground-breaking project has won national recognition as
the Stafford based manufacturer, scooped the Public Sector Project
of the Year Award at the G11 Awards, held at the Hilton in London's
Park Lane.
Dee Benning, commercial sales and operations manager, at
Stafford, said: "Some ad hoc replacement of windows had been
undertaken in the Bournville area over the years most of the
original windows were still in place and in quite poor
condition.
"While these old windows didn't perform from a maintenance or
energy efficiency perspective, they did play an essential part in
defining the character of the individual properties and the area
more broadly and we didn't want to lose that. We never want to get
it wrong as a business but on this occasion I felt a lot of
additional personal responsibility for getting it right. That this
commitment has been recognised nationally is a fantastic
achievement."
The award rounds off a strong year for Stafford, which began
2011 with a £5million plus contract win to supply win to
supply new WER 'A' rated windows to Dudley Council, securing more
than 60 jobs, and creating a further 15 posts.
This and the two-year Bournville programme follow a number of
recent new business wins including Stafford College and RAF Brize
Norton in Oxfordshire.
Benning added: "A few years ago we took a conscious decision to
set in place a number of long term plans for the business. These
included plans to cut overheads, invest in quality people and focus
of the commercial sector rather than relying solely on a dwindling
retail market place.
"This change of ethos has begun to pay dividends and seen us
secure number of high profile projects including the G11 award
winning project at Bournville.
"It means that the long term future for Stafford has never
looked better despite some of toughest trading conditions the
industry has seen for years."