After 38 years with Bethell, Vinny O’Dowd will be retiring at the end of March following an extensive and celebrated career in the industry.

Vinny joined the industry straight from school as a Trainee Site Engineer working with Wimpey, one of the industry’s most renowned major construction companies of the time. He then joined Kilroe Building as a Site Manager in 1986 to further his career, eventually transferring to Bethell in 1991 when the Kilroe Group acquired them.

From the outset at Bethell, Vinny has been a key influential senior manager working from Contracts Manager to Operations Manager, Contracts Director, Estimating Director and then the role of Managing Director from 2010 to 2021. Throughout this time he has contributed towards countless infrastructure solutions whilst amassing extensive knowledge of innovation of safe working practices that he has continued to distribute within the Bethell team. This contribution to the industry was recognised by CECA North West with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023, underlining Vinny’s input over his nearly four-decade tenure.

Vinny played a lead role in launching Bethell’s renowned Apprenticeship Programme in 2004, providing over 200 employment opportunities to young people, and demonstrating a clear commitment to developing engineers for the future supporting strong social value ethics. After his tenure as Managing Director concluded, Vinny moved to a part-time Director role, where he provided key support to Bethell’s estimating and pre-construction function.

Being pivotal in moulding Bethell’s reputation as a leading civils provider in highly regulated environments such as airports, petrochemical, nuclear, private industry, highways and water utilities, Vinny led Bethell in securing a place on Manchester Aiport Group’s (MAG) Civil Engineering Framework and becoming a key partner in MAG’s £1bn Airport Transformation Programme.

Additionally, Vinny was heavily involved in Bethell securing a place on United Utilities’ Asset Maintenance Period (AMP7) Framework which will see Bethell delivering major projects up to the end of AMP8 in 2030, and hopefully beyond, having led a strong working relationship with UU since the early 1990s. Vinny has built and maintained Bethell’s reputation as a trusted delivery partner; successfully completing projects with numerous blue-chip clients such as INEOS Inovyn, Aldi, Storengy, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), and numerous educational establishments and NHS Foundation Trusts.

Group Chief Executive Tim Kilroe said: “It has been an absolute pleasure to have worked with Vinny for over 30 years. His loyalty, dedication, trustworthiness and hardworking ethics are a ‘10 out of 10’ on all counts and there is no doubt that in my opinion, he is one of the most talented individuals in the industry.”

His loyalty, dedication, trustworthiness and hardworking ethics are a ‘10 out of 10’ on all counts and there is no doubt that in my opinion, he is one of the most talented individuals in the industry.

Tim Kilroe, Chief Executive, Bethell Group

As Vinny embarks on a new chapter in his life, his departure will serve as a poignant reminder that true excellence extends far beyond the confines of achievements on paper: it lives on through the lasting legacy created, not only for the organisation but across the construction sector, providing innovative solutions. A legacy that will drive forward Bethell’s continuous growth as it continues to exceed customer expectations and deliver works in line with its core values, underpinned by the culture he established.

Thank you Vinny, from all of us at Bethell, with best wishes for all future endeavours!

Bethell joined Mayor Mohammed Ayub and MP for Bolton West & Atherton Chris Green for the inauguration of Elizabeth Park, which we played a key role in delivering as part of Bolton Council’s wider plan to regenerate the town centre into a vibrant and attractive place to live, work, and visit.

Named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, Elizabeth Park occupies a key site in the town centre where the former Odeon cinema once stood and is Bolton’s first new park in more than 100 years.

The park will feature seating areas, picnic tables, illuminated trees and a public performance space, supported by an exciting programme of events and activities.

(Left to Right) Malcolm Fairhurst, Bolton Council; Gary Hunt, Bethell Construction; Chris Green MP; Geoff Butterworth, Bethell Construction; Vicky Twist, Bolton Council; Olivia Barnes, Bolton College

Bethell invited four local schools to get hands-on during the development of Elizabeth Park, inviting pupils to plant bulbs to fill the park with colour and become part of Bolton’s history.

Gary Hunt, Contracts Manager, said: “I would like to thank all of the project team for their hard work, enthusiasm and dedication, ensuring this prestigious Town Centre project was delivered and ready for the grand opening.”

I would like to thank all of the project team for their hard work, enthusiasm and dedication, ensuring this prestigious Town Centre project was delivered and ready for the grand opening.

Gary Hunt, Contracts Manager, Bethell Construction

In addition to the opening of Elizabeth Park, we also commemorated the opening of Bolton Market’s new food hall, located adjacent to the park.

The opening of the park closely follows the completion of major highway improvements to Ashburner Street, delivered by Bethell on behalf of client Bolton Council, creating a vibrant public realm space within the town centre.

Bethell, in conjunction with Salford City College supported by the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG), continues to set the standard for construction apprenticeships with the official opening of Salford City College’s brand-new Highway Maintenance Skills Academy!

We joined Salford City College, LCRIG and key partners at Friday’s Launch Event to celebrate the official opening of the Academy.

The site will feature a deep excavation and training pits installed and funded by Bethell, allowing local students to develop key construction skills and knowledge, covering kerbing, excavations, pipe laying, temporary works, safe excavation and more.

With the first cohort of students starting in November last year, Salford City College plans for a further 150 apprentices to progress through the academy in the coming years, ensuring a pipeline of continuous new talent into the sector.

Michael Holmes, Bethell Construction Managing Director, commented: “Having engaged with Greg and Allan at Salford City College, I appreciated their aspirations for their highways maintenance syllabus, aligning with Bethell’s aspirations to self-develop our colleagues for the future of our business and the industry. Therefore, I was excited to invest in the training and development of the future generation of construction.”

Having engaged with Greg and Allan at Salford City College, I appreciated their aspirations for their highways maintenance syllabus, aligning with Bethell’s aspirations to self-develop our colleagues for the future of our business and the industry.

Michael Holmes, Managing Director, Bethell Construction

“To mitigate against high-risk factors due to excavating around statutory apparatus, the Highways Maintenance Academy provides a simulated real-life environment for students to learn and develop safe excavation practices. As a result, future cohorts will benefit from the experience offered by Salford City College and Bethell, where we will be able to pass on our own experience and knowledge to the students.”

“As a result of our engagement, we hope the college continues to benefit from the investment and input provided through their partnership with Bethell. Well done to the Salford City College team for bringing this opportunity to life and engaging with Bethell to create a stronger skills pool for our sector’s future.”

Bethell will be utilising the academy as we gear up to deliver our in-house training courses as a CITB Approved Training Organisation (ATO) for existing staff to enhance and develop safe working practices.

How are we creating a healthier workplace that benefits our workforce’s wellbeing at Bethell?

We’re proud to announce that Bethell has successfully renewed our We invest in people accreditation with Investors in People, progressing to a Gold level certification! In addition, for the first time, Bethell received a Silver status We invest in wellbeing certification.

These certifications are only achieved by undergoing a rigorous audit process and demonstrating everything we do at Bethell to create a happy and healthy working environment for all our staff across the business.

Only 26% of organisations achieve gold which means that every single person is involved in supporting each other and is doing their best to make work better.

Paul Devoy, CEO of Investors in People, said: “We’d like to congratulate Bethell Group. Achieving a Gold accreditation on ‘We invest in people’ and Silver accreditation on ‘We invest in wellbeing’ is a fantastic effort for any organisation, and places Bethell in fine company with a host of organisations that understand the value of people.”

Achieving a Gold accreditation on ‘We invest in people’ and Silver accreditation on ‘We invest in wellbeing’ is a fantastic effort for any organisation, and places Bethell in fine company with a host of organisations that understand the value of people.

Paul Devoy, CEO, Investors in People

Emma Walker, Head of People & Development at Bethell, celebrated the achievement, saying: “We believe that the success of Bethell is a result of our people. Achieving the Gold People standard is a fantastic achievement and shows our commitment to improving and enhancing our people experience. This is also the first time we have been accredited under IIP for Wellbeing and to achieve Silver on the first attempt is a testament to the fantastic wellbeing initiatives and strategies we have in place. Thank you to everyone who was involved. We did it!”

Achieving the Gold People standard is a fantastic achievement and shows our commitment to improving and enhancing our people experience.

Emma Walker, Head of People & Development

As a result, Bethell is now part of a community of over 15,000 organisations across 66 countries, committed to making work better, and we can showcase to our clients and supply chain that people remain at the core of everything we do as a business.

In line with Bethell’s commitment to upholding high standards within our fleet operations, we are pleased to announce that we have passed our FORS audit and received a Silver accreditation, following our recent DVSA Earned Recognition award in November.

The FORS Silver accreditation requires operators, such as Bethell, to meet stringent criteria on safety, driver training, vehicle maintenance, record-keeping, fuel efficiency, driver health and wellbeing.

Jacob Jenks, Transport Manager at Bethell, commented on the achievement, saying: “To demonstrate that Bethell has met the criteria set out by FORS, all our HGV drivers underwent a series of training sessions to demonstrate their competency across several key areas, ensuring we all can work safely on the roads and protect the safety of others.”

Obtaining the Silver accreditation required a rigorous audit process, so I would like to thank the transport team who’ve worked so hard to get this result.

Jacob Jenks, Transport Manager, Bethell Group

“All our HGVs have been equipped with 360-degree vision cameras to meet the security standards of the qualification, and the fuel efficiency training delivered with our driver team will help us continue to minimise our impact on the environment and assist Bethell in achieving our carbon net-zero ambitions.”

“Obtaining the Silver accreditation required a rigorous audit process, so I would like to thank the transport team who’ve worked so hard to get this result. Now we’ve reached this level, it’s up to us to not only attain this high standard of compliance but to continue to improve and develop our training.”

As a result of our FORS Silver accreditation, Bethell can demonstrate our compliance with the CLOCS Standard for Construction Logistics and with TfL’s WRRR (Work Related Road Risk).

Bethell Group has invested in 1 no. Hitachi and 4 no. brand-new Takeuchi excavators as we continually update and refresh our fleet to ensure our site teams can complete their work to the highest standard.

The medium-sized excavators are equipped with brand-new and innovative fit from the floor cab guards, developed jointly by Bethell, Parkway Plant Sales and Cabcare Products Limited, to protect our drivers’ safety.

Our health and safety team and drivers identified a concern with the traditional cab guard being used, which required operatives to stand on the tracks of the machine to fit. As this task was working from height, we investigated various solutions to mitigate the potential risk to the health and safety of our drivers and operatives.

Ronan Kilroe, Plant Maintenance Manager for Bethell Group, said: “Thanks to the joint innovation between Bethell, Cabcare Products Limited and Parkway Plant Sales, we’ve delivered a brand-new solution which previously didn’t exist in the sector, and is now being embraced by other construction firms and quickly becoming an industry standard. Bethell was proactive in identifying a risk to our operators’ safety and developing a solution to mitigate risk, alleviate health and safety concerns, make our drivers’ jobs safer and easier when collecting machines from site, and protect the safety of our operatives when fitting cab guards to secure the machine outside of working hours.”

We’ve delivered a brand-new solution which previously didn’t exist in the sector, and is now being embraced by other construction firms and quickly becoming an industry standard.

Ronan Kilroe, Plant Maintenance Manager, Bethell Group

The 5T, 6T and two 9T excavators will play a key role in the delivery of our small to medium-sized civils and utilities projects, whilst the 14T Hitachi excavator will be deployed to our larger projects for clients such as United Utilities and other civils/drainage projects, which we are actively delivering.

All the machines have now been dispatched with the brand-new cab guards, as our on-site activities ramp up on several newly started large capital projects. In addition, we are now actively working to retrofit our existing fleet of excavators to replace the traditional cab guards.

Bethell Group is pleased to announce that all stages of its head office expansion in its Kearsley headquarters have now been completed.

The first phase of Bethell’s office expansion facilitated a refresh of the Dane House headquarters to meet the changing needs and demands of the Group’s growing workforce. This included a visual refresh, with updated Bethell livery adorning the building, a new reception space to welcome visitors and new meeting rooms equipped with high-specification video conferencing facilities. In addition, and in line with Bethell’s green agenda, employees and visitors can now benefit from the installation of dedicated electric vehicle charging bays in the head office car park.

Secondly, the growth of Bethell’s Utility Services business required the development of a brand-new dedicated workspace on the same site to future-proof the accommodation requirements for our 10-year growth plan. A modular building solution was chosen due to its cost-effectiveness and only requiring three months to construct. This new annex building features an open office floor plan, toilets, canteens, and modern meeting room facilities. The construction processes allowed a reduced carbon output by reusing steel frames, helping Bethell commit to its carbon reduction targets. The modular annex is also equipped with many CO2-friendly features, such as ceiling-mounted air conditioning, eco-friendly taps, PIR lighting and UPVC double-glazed windows.

The third stage was to improve the detached office building opposite the main reception to accommodate the growth of the Bethell Construction business to create a modern, dedicated workspace. The building exterior was given an updated new look, rich with Bethell’s core values and safety messaging. The new Construction House building is equipped with two brand-new meeting rooms, video conferencing facilities, and two meeting booths for quicker, less formal, catchups. The refurbishment was completed with the installation of vibrant and practical kitchen and dining facilities on the ground floor.

Finally, Bethell acquired 5,000 square feet of office space and 7,500 square feet of workshop space adjacent to its existing premises. Our Unit 3 building has been totally renovated to house Bethell’s internal plant and transport business operations. These works have seen improvements to the works yard, creating a refreshed open layout with a new one-way system for safer travel, and new automatic security gates to ensure the safety of Bethell staff working at the site.

Congratulations to Trainee Quantity Surveyor Rob Madden, who graduated this week after completing his Quantity Surveying Degree at the University of Salford!

Rob works in our commercial team to estimate costs, material quantities and labour, ensuring that we can provide the best value for our utilities clients.

When asked how Bethell made achieving his degree possible, Rob said: “Bethell allowed me to go to university on day release every week, so I could attend lectures and complete assignments during busy periods in working hours. My day-to-day role allows me to apply the fundamentals of quantity surveying, practising the skills learnt in my academic study and applying them to real work-based scenarios.”

My day-to-day role allows me to apply the fundamentals of quantity surveying, practising the skills learnt in my academic study and applying them to real work-based scenarios.

Rob Madden, Trainee Quantity Surveyor, Bethell Utility Services

“The mentorship I’ve received from my senior colleagues has both supported my degree, as I can access guidance and help if I was struggling with my studies and has helped me learn on the job by growing my knowledge of quantity surveying. Initially, I was new to the role when I first joined Bethell, but thanks to their support, I’ve now completed my degree and also manage my own live schemes.”

As a Platinum member of the 5% club, we continually invest in our early careers programmes, as over 10% of our workforce like Rob are currently in an “earn and learn” programme.

Well done to Rob for achieving such an incredible milestone, and we look forward to sharing more success stories like his in the future!

On Friday, at the Construction Apprenticeship Awards, Bethell was honoured to take home the Construction Apprenticeship Medium/Large Employer of the Year award, a testimony to our commitment to growing our own talent and investing in apprenticeships.

As a Platinum member of the 5% Club, over 10% of our workforce is in “earn and learn” schemes and we onboarded 14 apprentices this year as part of our yearly apprentice scheme!

Emma Walker, Head of People & Development at Bethell Group, commented on the award, saying: “We believe that apprenticeships are core to the success of our business and this award is an excellent demonstration of our commitment to growing our own talent and giving opportunities to all.”

We believe that apprenticeships are core to the success of our business and this award is an excellent demonstration of our commitment to growing our own talent and giving opportunities to all.

Emma Walker, Head of People and Development

In addition, Bethell was nominated for the Low Carbon Innovator of the Year award, in recognition of the ongoing action we’ve taken as an organisation in achieving our carbon net zero goals.

Thank you to everyone in our People & Development team for your hard work and efforts when it comes to supporting apprentices at Bethell, as well as everyone who gave their input into our successful award submission!

This week is Green Careers Week, which celebrates the career opportunities that are available in the Green industry! At Bethell, our Green Energy team work across the UK to help businesses achieve their carbon net zero goals, installing EV chargers and delivering greener energy infrastructure.

To learn more about the opportunities available in the green industry for those starting their career journey, we sat down with two Bethell apprentice electricians, Harry Brown and Bradley Bowers, to chat about what a career in Green Energy at Bethell is like and how those new to the industry can get started.

Interested in pursuing a Green career? Want to learn more about the opportunities available in our Green Energy team at Bethell? Speak with our recruitment lead James Lacey or visit our careers page to learn more.