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Case Type 1 ::Surgo
Thu 22nd Jan 2009, 10:46am
Surgo, formerly a division of the Bowey group, has seen turnover rise steadily from £18m to almost £60m since it was bought out by its management in 2002. Describing this remarkable expansion Jeff Alexander, Business Development Director, puts much of it down to their local workforce of almost 200 staff led by local directors and managers. They see themselves very much as a regional construction company but more specifically a West End of Newcastle business.
To maintain this growth the firm has moved into the expanding academy programme such as the Excelsior Academy in Scotswood. Recently opened, the Excelsior Academy was constructed on time and on budget by the Surgo team. During the handover period in August most of their directors were on-site to ensure that this was as smooth and trouble free as possible. Jeff cites this level of customer care, present in all their staff, which makes Surgo stand out from their national competitors.
Perhaps this makes it more unfortunate that although very successful in this particular area of the education market it is proving increasingly difficult to secure public sector work both from local authorities and national government due to the increasing use of national frameworks and other large scale programmes that favour national contractors. Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programmes are examples of this, where the prohibitive cost of bidding for this work in effect rules out any but the largest national companies. Surgo can employ as many as 2000 people directly and indirectly as work peaks on their contracts, the vast majority from the local area, and take pride in their relationship with many of the regions specialist contractors.
Currently it seems that our businesses cannot be seen to be given priority in public sector contracts no matter how well they support the region both in employment and community terms. In view of recent government announcements seeking to encourage more involvement of local suppliers in this type of work, maybe its time for a rethink especially for smaller firms so that bid process encourages wider participation ?