http://bethell.co.uk/ Solutions based on experience, Bethell was established in Manchester in 1865, incorporated in 1925 and is today one of the UK's most successful independent construction and utility businesses. en kellie.hadfield@bethell.co.uk Copyright 2009 2009-06-24T08:13:28+00:00 http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/aldi_and_tesco_award_bethell_major_contracts/ http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/aldi_and_tesco_award_bethell_major_contracts/ Bethell’s retail portfolio has been further enhanced this year with the award of not one but six contracts – five from Aldi and one from Tesco. Aldi has employed the company to undertake foundations, drainage and general groundworks packages on five of its stores at Shipley, Cheadle Heath, Ramsbottom, Stockton Heath, and Blackpool, while Tesco has employed Bethell to undertake section 278 general highways improvements to its proposed store development at Litherland. The six separate contracts combined amount to in excess of £2.1 million of secured work. These are the latest retail related contract gains to be announced, following on from nine others for Aldi in locations throughout the North West and North Wales, worth more than £3 million in total, the first being secured at the end of 2006. Said Gerry McCoy, Bethell Construction operations director, “We are pleased with our recent contract successes with Aldi and the opportunity it presents to further develop our good working relationship with them and successfully deliver the projects in a safe manner, within programme and budget, and to a high standard. I am particularly pleased with our more recent award from Tesco for the proposed section 278 highways works at their new store development in Litherland and look forward to demonstrating our capabilities and developing a good relationship with Tesco, hopefully leading to further opportunities in the future.” 2009-06-24T08:13:28+00:00 http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/warm_reception_from_mayor_and_mayoress/ http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/warm_reception_from_mayor_and_mayoress/ In times of doom and gloom it is especially uplifting to celebrate a good news story.  The Mayor and Mayoress of Bolton joined with Bethell staff to do just that when they officially opened the Group’s new £500,000 main office and reception facility in Kearsley earlier today. (11 May) Attending the ceremony as one of their final official engagements before relinquishing their chain of office later this week, Councillor Anthony and Mrs Maureen Connell commended Bethell for its local employment record and said how pleased they were to see a local company doing so well, especially in the current economic climate. Bethell chief executive, Tim Kilroe, outlined the company’s expansion record, having grown from 40 to over 800 in two decades.  He said:  “Our national expansion programme is vital to stay competitive within the industry but I am consistently proud of the fact that we provide so much employment for people within just a 15 mile radius of our head office here in the north west.  The new open plan offices increase Bethell’s total space to more than 25,000 sq ft and were created especially for the Group’s thriving Power and Rail divisions.  These, together with training rooms and the ground floor state-of-the-art reception area, are now fully staffed and operational. 2009-05-14T10:06:28+00:00 http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/bethell_to_introduce_salary_sacrifice_pension_contributions/ http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/bethell_to_introduce_salary_sacrifice_pension_contributions/ Bethell, the independent construction, power and rail group, will introduce salary sacrifice around its group personal pension (GPP) scheme this month. The organisation decided on the move to make cost savings. Increases in national insurance (NI) from 2011, announced at the end of last year, added to its business case. Neil Hopkins-Coman, financial director, said: “In today’s economic climate, there is tremendous pressure for employers to save on costs, and this provided an opportunity to save on employer’s NI.” Bethell will retain the employer’s NI saving it will make, and the employee’s NI saving will be added to pension contributions. “It didn’t make sense for Bethell to bank the employee NI saving,” said Hopkins-Coman. “It was an opportunity to increase the benefits package and look after the interests of Bethell’s long-serving key people instead.” To help employees understand the change, Bethell has issued a briefing document, and a pensions calculator so they can see the difference a switch would make. “We started to get one or two questions back, so we also issued a question-and-answer document,” said Hopkins-Coman. “One common question was whether other benefits that are linked to salary would be affected by the move, so we said we would keep a shadow salary pre-sacrifice, which all future awards and benefits will link back to.” So far, 50% of the scheme’s members have moved over to the salary-sacrifice arrangement. Hopkins-Coman said Bethell would run a series of one-to-one education sessions with its advisers, AWD Chase De Vere, to encourage wider take-up of the scheme. 2009-04-09T07:28:51+00:00 http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/considerate_contractor_award_scheme/ http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/considerate_contractor_award_scheme/ Bethell Power Services, part of the Bethell Group, has recently signed up to the Considerate Contractor Award Scheme with West Lothian Council.  Bethell Power Services has a substantial operating base in West Lothian to service a number of projects for Scottish Power Energy. The Considerate Contractor code of practice is designed to maintain the highest standards when companies carry out any work on roads and footpaths, ensuring that West Lothian remains a “Centre of Roadworks Excellence”. Work is inspected both by Council teams and lay assessors with all results being fed into a monthly performance table.  For three consecutive months – since joining the scheme – Bethell has received an “excellent” rating. Said Dave Thompson, planning manager for the Bethell Power Services Scottish Power contract:  “We are delighted to have received such positive results but we are not in the least complacent.  We have all got to work extremely hard and particularly remain focused on health and safety, quality and demonstrating an understanding of residents’ needs when working on their doorstep.  Feedback from the public has proved to be invaluable and we are keeping our eyes firmly on the need for continuous improvement across the board.” The code of practice includes the efficiency of informing customers before work starts, the identification of work on site, safety and protection of works in progress, courtesy and consideration for the general public, protection of the environment, maintaining quality, staff training and the sequence and method of working. Jim Forbes, utilities officer for roadworks at West Lothian Council added:  “The Considerate Contractor Code of Practice is very exacting and contractors who sign up to it have to be focused and dedicated to achieve the highest standards.  Anyone who doesn’t perform adequately is liable to censure and will, if they fail to improve sufficiently, lose their place on our approved contractors list and face other consequences. Conversely, those contractors who consistently perform well will be commended and their contribution highlighted in an annual awards event.  “Assessments are carried out by West Lothian Council Roads Network staff and also Considerate Contractor Assessors who include serving councillors and members of the public.  The results provide a random snapshot of the job and, over time, build up to form a vibrant picture of the contractor and the way in which he works.” Results for 2008-2009 will be announced on 29 May.  2009-03-16T16:04:03+00:00 http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/pre_qualification_but_now_the_hard_work_begins/ http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/pre_qualification_but_now_the_hard_work_begins/ Bethell has pre-qualified for the United Utilities’ short cycle network maintenance contract for cleanwater and wastewater operations in conjunction with its joint venture partner, H2O Water Services. The contract relates to reactive and planned maintenance of United Utilities’ clean and waste water network for a minimum of 5 years. Said Operations Director, Gerry McCoy:  “This is a great opportunity for Bethell and we are working hard to ensure that we give good account of ourselves in the tender process.” “We are fortunate in that we already enjoy a good working relationship with United Utilities.  Our management and operational teams carry with them a wealth of direct experience in wastewater maintenance and the relationship with H2O is an exciting development for everyone involved - Bethell has a long-standing relationship with United Utilities for waste water services and H2O has a current term framework contract for cleanwater operations with United Utilities so the joint venture will prove a strong alliance.” Andy Connolly, H2O’s Operations Director added:  “This is a great opportunity for both companies. We bring a fresh approach to water operations blending network skills and new technology to deliver service excellence. We are looking forward to forming this alliance with Bethell.” The team is expecting tender documents to be delivered imminently, with an appointment being announced before the end of June. It is anticipated that the contract award will be in the region of £20 million per annum. 2009-03-06T08:22:13+00:00 http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/appointment_of_dedicated_full_time_hsqe_director/ http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/appointment_of_dedicated_full_time_hsqe_director/ Health & Safety, Quality and Environment have always been given high priority within the Bethell Group – but never more so than now with the appointment of a dedicated full-time HSQE director. Ian Madden (48) was appointed to the position after an extensive nationwide search earlier this year. He joined the Group in 2001 as health and safety manager and has nurtured the company’s continuous improvement in all four areas ever since.  During this time the department has grown from 4 to 17. His first task will be to identify a structure for the whole HSQE function on a group-wide basis, consolidating, streamlining and expanding the roles of the team. Said Ian: “As a Group we have always put a huge amount of effort and resource into working together to continually improve our health, safety, quality and environmental issues, making the company an even stronger, more focused, safer business.  A new phase of development is now underway and we all have our sights set upon further developing our HSQE record.” Tim Kilroe, Group Chief Executive added:  “Ian Madden has achieved great things for the Group over the past 7 years and was the most impressive candidate from the scores of people who applied for the position around the country.  He has the Group’s full support as he continues to drive forward one of our key improvement areas for 2009.” 2008-12-10T16:22:21+00:00 http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/health_safety_seriously_improves_your_wealth/ http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/health_safety_seriously_improves_your_wealth/ Bethell is currently running a Near Miss Campaign to encourage all the team to be vigilant and seek out potential hazards to prevent accidents.  As an additional incentive, all Near Misses reported are entered into a monthly draw to win £100 of high street vouchers. Said Ian Madden, group health & safety director:  “Any suggestions from employees which contribute to further improve health and safety on site or in the office are always taken on board.  We are instilling a health and safety-conscious culture into all of our day-to-day activities and asking employees to remember that if we don’t know about it, we can’t do anything about it.” A NEAR MISS is any incident that does not cause harm but had the potential to A HAZARD is something with the potential to cause injury, damage or loss (eg defective equipment or flooring, inadequate or absent safety controls, deviation from safe working practice, poorly maintained plant and equipment …..) Hazards have now been added to Bethell’s reporting procedure, to ensure that this information is properly recorded and can directly contribute to preventing future accidents. All Near Miss or Hazard information submitted is investigated by the safety management team and the findings are always fed back to the employee who initially raised the issue, along, occasionally with a £100 worth of vouchers to spend in the high street of his/her choice! 2008-11-21T11:22:09+00:00 http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/health_and_safety_seriously_improves_your_wealth_1/ http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/health_and_safety_seriously_improves_your_wealth_1/ When one Bethell employee chose to make a suggestion to further improve site health and safety, not only did everyone else benefit but so did he to the tune of £25! Tommy Hulme (21), a trainee civil engineer, highlighted the need to fix temporary covers on newly constructed manholes on the B895 construction site in Bury.  Part of the main contractor’s DON’T WALK BY safety card scheme, his suggestion was chosen as the improvement of the month. Said Tommy:  “I joined Bethell’s as an apprentice kerber after having started my career in plastering.  I’ve now just finished my first year ONC in engineering and hope to start my HNC in about 12 months time.  Health and safety is such a high priority for everyone on site and it is obviously in all of our interests to make sure that we keep our eyes open and contribute in any way we can. “ Vinny O’Dowd, head of building and civil engineering added:  “Any suggestions from employees which can further improve health and safety on site are always taken on board.  We always encourage all the team to be vigilant in seeking out potential hazards to prevent accidents and Carillion’s DON’T WALK BY scheme is an excellent additional incentive.” 2008-10-01T15:49:42+00:00 http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/burys_newest_road_on_track/ http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/burys_newest_road_on_track/ Bury’s newest road is now officially open. Part of the massive £330 million Thornfields’ redevelopment of The Rock, the £10 million Derby Way links Moorgate to Rochdale Road – one of the main arterial routes into the town centre. The main contract is being managed by Bethell, delivering all works with in-house specialists involved from power, lighting and surfacing teams. Said Chris Cayton – Senior Contracts Manager:  “This contract gives Bethell the opportunity to confirm our position as a market leader with the ability to deliver large scale developments in-house.” This contract is more or less finished now....... 2008-09-30T23:48:14+00:00 http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/bethell_awarded_thin_surface_course_accreditation/ http://www.bethell.co.uk/index.php/news/bethell_awarded_thin_surface_course_accreditation/ Bethell’s road surfacing division has recently been awarded a prestigious accreditation to lay thin surface course (clause 942) by Tarmac, one of the UK’s leading supply chain partners in this area.  This accreditation is to lay Tarmac’s branded Masterphalt product. Bethell’s surfacing division manager, Dominic Kenzie, said: “We are delighted to have secured this accreditation particularly as we believe that there are only eleven other organisations nationally that have also been accredited at this level. This has increased the range of work that we can now carry our for clients and we are looking forward to delivering superb quality and value for them in this area.” Bethell Construction already have a similar accreditation from Cemex, another of the UK’s leading suppliers in this arena, to lay their clause 942 material which is called Viatex. 2008-09-23T20:03:29+00:00