Quality Matters

Offering a high quality and competitive service has always been important to Herbert T Forrest no matter what the economic climate and the company is continuing to do what it does best in these trying times

The Lancashire organisation has already spread its wings beyond its native north -west with a new base in Morley, Yorkshire, and is now looking towards expanding into the North East and Midlands.

Herbert T Forrest has a reputation that is synonymous with quality which has contributed to the growth of the company and resulted in high levels of customer retention. Forrest has an impressive client list for which they have delivered a diverse range of projects on time, on budget and with zero defects.

Decent Homes work has always been a large part of the company’s operations and it has ongoing contracts to undertake whole house improvements with a number of housing associations, for example Salix Homes and Parkway Green through the North West-based regeneration company GM Procure.

As managing director Tim Forrest explains the company is known for giving value for money with a professional service. “We do what we say on the tin,” he says.

But this company is not about standing still and is always looking to add new strings to its bow. One such string is the ‘Elemental Division’, launched at the end of 2007 to provide direct delivery of electrical, mechanical, roofing and painting services for the company’s clients.

It has gone from strength to strength and is on target for a turnover of £6 million this year.

The division initially became an internal ‘subcontractor’, undertaking packages of repetitive work on long term capital works programmes. The division is now of sufficient size that it is securing work in its own right.

It is hoped that this ever-growing division together with the geographical development will put Herbert T Forrest in a strong position when the Decent Homes programmes come to an end.

“Geographical expansion will provide increased opportunity and potential growth as will the expansion of the day-to-day responsive maintenance service,” says Forrest. “We are aspiring to becoming a one-stop shop for our clients by building up relationships and the volumes of work that we have with our existing customers. So hopefully we can bid for other works from clients that we have been undertaking capital works for.”

The company is also using the expertise that it has gained through its Decent Homes work in its new build social housing projects. It has undertaken several small-scale schemes ranging from five to 30 properties in Blackburn with Twin Valley Homes and is currently working with Eaves Brook Housing Association on a scheme of six houses in Accrington.

“We see there is a market where the larger housebuilders might not be interested where we can offer a bespoke service,” says Forrest. “That is a niche market for us.”

He is under no illusions that these are difficult times for everyone and admits that like most companies Herbert T Forrest has had to pull back on some of the projects that it had in the pipeline.

“I think it is fair to say that our plan in 2007 was to make some significant inroads into the social housing new build sector,” says Forrest. “But with the competitiveness of the market place and the reduced number of schemes being built this is going to be a lot harder than we thought. We are no different to anybody else in that respect.”

He added: “We are tendering in a very competitive environment and our conversion rate of tenders to contracts has lowered as is the case, I think, with everybody.”

Herbert T Forrest is committed to the future of the construction industry and as well as offering training for its staff, is doing its bit for the construction sector workers of the future by mentoring students on the construction and built environment diploma course in Bolton. The diploma, which is in its first year, is open to 14 to 19 year olds and aims to teach youngsters the skills to take on professional roles as well as trade positions.

The company has been applauded by Ofsted in January 2009 for its contributions to the diploma. Staff including the plumbing, heating and contracts managers, as well as surveyors and architects are scheduled to address the pupils, talking to them about their careers. The youngsters will also make regular trips to the new build development in Accrington, following the progress of the scheme and learning about the working methods of constructing new build houses.

Not forgetting Herbert T Forrest’s in-house training opportunities, it has got 80 apprentices on its books, across all disciplines from plumbers to painters and a reputation for training, which has seen people rise through the ranks.

In fact, one of the current directors Andrew Cross, started the company as an apprentice joiner and another apprentice joiner, Jack Pyle, has been making a name for himself. The youngster who works under the framework agreement with Bolton at Home won the regional final of the prestigious Skillbuild competition and represented Herbert T Forrest in the national finals.

In many companies training seems to trail off as people get higher up the career ladder, an issue what Herbert T Forrest has seen fit to redress with its latest training scheme.

Forrest explains that a gap had developed between the knowledge and skills of the board of directors and middle management, so a decision was made to send 20 “movers and shakers” on a 12-month training course to give them the necessary skills to move up within the organisation and towards promotion to the board.

“Their strengths and weaknesses are mapped out initially and the marks recorded,” explains Forrest. “They then go through mentoring in two chosen areas, for example delegation or management skills, where they have been mapped out to be weak before being reassessed at the end of 12 months.
“The feedback from the managers is that it has been really good training and has made them realise some of their shortcomings and where their strengths are. From a board point of view it has given us a further insight into what potential we have got in our middle management team. It has been very positive and it will be interesting to see the results of the assessment at the end of the 12 months.”

The external training scheme is run by Metricate and Herbert T Forrest took advantage of grants available through the National Federation of Builders, to fund the course.

“Training apprentices to get a formal qualification is the norm,” says Forrest. “But very often training is ignored from that point onwards and really it is a case of continuing professional development.”

It is not just staff investment that is high on the agenda for Herbert T Forrest, the company has recently unveiled a new fleet as part of its green agenda. The ongoing renewal programme will eventually see 150 new vehicles on the road. “As technology moves on we get cleaner vehicles and better fuel economy so it makes sense to renew them,” says Forrest.

It is very rare, if not unheard of, for a company to come through a recession unscathed but with a strong base and willingness to expand and try new ideas Herbert T Forrest is in a good position to withstand these turbulent times.

“I think it is a brave person who predicts when the recession is likely to end, we are in trying times and there are tough decisions to be made, however I believe that we should not compromise on service or quality of end product,” says Forrest.