Seeing off the big boys to win top industry award

St. George’s Business Park customer, Farmwood, has put the big boys to shame by taking a prestigious national industry award.  We’ve been finding out how our Sittingbourne customer has been stealing contracts and gongs from much bigger competition.

‘Bonkers’ national award

Christmas came early for Farmwood last year when they picked up a highly prestigious national award: the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) Contractor of the Year Award at London’s Park Plaza Hotel in November. “It’s bonkers! We’ve beaten off competition from multi-million-pound global companies,” commented Nathan Wood, Managing Director of Farmwood, which installs and manages ventilation systems across the South East. “It’s a big deal. It’s going to open doors when it comes to people, contractors and business. The big boys in the industry are looking at what we are doing and seeing that we’re practising what we preach. We want to push new standards for improved compliance for air quality and ventilation regulations and expand our ‘We Share Clean Air’ accreditation scheme.”

Staying ahead of the competition

Farmwood have seen off the big boys in part by investing in new technology that is changing lives.  “Everyone talks about air quality, but people aren’t really doing much about it,” says Nathan’s father, Dave, Farmwood founder and CEO. “We’ve done a lot of research and found a Korean company who are developing an air purifier system which is a bit like Domestos; it kills 99% of bacteria.

“We’re working with a third party, who are talking with the developers for exclusivity of the product to be able to allow us to work with this new system. We even installed one of the units in a huge project for the TV programme DIY SOS: The Big Build for a young kid who had respiratory problems; he hasn’t been in hospital for three years since we made the installation.”

Providing the highest level of service

But Farmwood’s success is not just down to technology: their strict standards have helped them win contracts from much bigger competitors and fuelled their growth.  “We won the contract for 2,000 flats in the Olympic village off one of the big companies,” explains Dave. “They did the initial installations but were hiding all of their defects. The company who gave us the contract initially trialled us for fifty flats and then immediately gave the rest to us. We told them that we couldn’t match their previous price – we would cost double – but they were happy to give us the contract because the other company were doing so much wrong.

“We make sure we always give the best service, always wear the correct equipment and the right uniform. We always tell our chaps to treat everyone with respect, no matter who they are. There might be a scruffy security guard about, but you have to treat him with the same respect you would if he was a managing director. We also do a lot of work in social housing, and again we always make sure we treat everyone with respect; that way you get the same respect back.

“The customer always comes first.  All our guys are very presentable and have the right training to deliver the job; that way you get good feedback and win more work from what you’re doing. We also keep in conversation with all our main clients and really believe that helps to build our success.  Every month I ring all our clients to make sure everything is in hand and to check there’s nothing outstanding, arranging meetings to make sure there are no problems.  And we also have regular staff meetings to find out if they are happy and what they need.”

Making sure you maintain a high standard and keeping best practice is essential for business success. This fact isn’t lost on Farmwood, who not only deliver a consistent, high standard, but are expanding into new territories – and their hard work isn’t going unnoticed!

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St George’s Business Park is a thriving business centre offering high-quality, desirable work space including small, medium and large office suites, studios, light industrial units, commercial workshops, distribution and storage units.

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