Wates Group

Source: Construction Digital

Date :17/03/2008 15:58:42

At an ample 111 years old this year, Wates Group is a high-achiever. Wates credits this to its investment in people and its belief in delivering the best to its customers

Written by Rebecca Waters and Produced by Nicholas Davies

“To accomplish great things we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe,” said Anatole France. “We believe in delivering the promise,” says Wates. Indeed this belief has led to great things for the privately-owned construction services and development group.

Today, Wates Group consists of five national businesses: Living Space (affordable homes), Construction (education facilities, commercial premises and public buildings), Interiors (office fit-out and refurbishment), Retail (retail premises fit-out and refurbishment) and Developments (enhancing land value and strategic joint ventures).

But Wates did not by any means start off this way. Verging on its 111th birthday, the first Wates company was established in 1897 by Edward Wates and his three brothers. In the successive years, the Wates company proceeded to expand, during the 1920s and 1930s, Edward’s three sons, Norman, Sir Ronald and Allan, began pioneering speculative house-building and then further extended their activities into general construction.

During the Second World War, the Wates portfolio expanded into the building of aerodromes, army camps, factories and most notably, by developing a speciality in the construction of pre-cast and in-situ reinforced concrete barges and floating docks, supplying major parts of the Mulberry Harbours that were towed across the channel after D-Day.

After the war, the emerging group began developing high-rise and low-rise industrialised housing systems, building over 60,000 houses and flats. Property development was also added to the core housing, contracting and plant businesses.

The Wates Group is now one of the UK’s largest privately-owned construction services and development companies, with an employee level of circa 2,000. In 2006 the Group had a turnover of £863 million, a 29 percent increase on 2005.

Investors in people

Says Wates: “Most of our success in the business is directly related to the investment we have made in our people. Our objective is to attract, develop and retain excellent people; to be an employer of choice with an inclusive and supportive culture in which all our people have the opportunity to fulfill their potential.”

This focus is strongly emphasised by the group-wide Investor in People accreditation which the Wates Group received in March 2005. Alongside this, it had an employee retention rate of 86 percent in 2006, and in the same year promoted 182 people, nearly ten percent of the Group’s workforce.

There is a strong sense of community embedded into the company, and they look to continue this long term, reviewing their key achievements and setting out key targets for the coming year, to use France’s saying again, “not only act....but also believe’.

Looking forward to 2010, the company has a number of key targets, which include: efforts to further reduce staff turnover to under ten percent, increase the number of women and ethnic minorities at senior or management level and use CR activity and commitments to develop employee skills and potential.

In order to achieve these key targets, Wates has a clear and structured approach to training and development, offering flexible packages to recruit and retain ‘the most talented people in the industry.’ “Our policy is to be an industry leader in terms of rewards,” says Wates.

Achievements

It seems high-achieving is in the Wates’ business strategy. Alongside its accreditations for its investment in people is a plethora of awards for the specialist business segments themselves. It has won the ‘Retail Interiors’ Store-Fit Company of the Year 2007’, “Best UK Family Business” at the 2006 Coutts Awards and ‘Construction News Waste and Recycling Award for ‘Target: Zero’’ in 2007.

With this comes credibility, which is shown through Wates’ extensive portfolio of projects. The company has built or restored landmark buildings, including: The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace, The National Gallery and Leeds Railway Station.

Eliminating waste

Waste is a significant problem in the construction industry, but a significant problem that Wates has an aggressive strategy to deal with.

An article in April 2007’s Building, the construction magazine, regarded Wates as the ‘most-aggressive’ of any of the big contractors in its approach to the elimination of site waste. By 2011, the company is looking to have eliminated non-hazardous waste sent to landfill from its sites.

Also highly regarded was the ‘dynamism’ of the firm’s management to make radical improvements in every area of the business. In particular, its three strategic programmes aimed at bettering its project delivery: first, by creating certainty of time and cost; second, by understanding the client’s needs; and third by making sure its staff had the training and the tools to achieve goals one and two.

“In the past twelve months these have resulted in a 43 percent reduction in loss-making projects, a 77 percent growth in repeat business, 174 promotions and 445 recruits,” Building said.

This high-achieving streak looks set to continue, says Wates: “Our aim is to review and develop our community investment strategy,” an integral part of the Wates brand.

“As a business striving to be a credible leader in the industry, we must demonstrate a responsible approach to all of our stakeholders, in particular the companies that we serve.

“The review will set out how we maximise our positive community impacts prioritising those that are most relevant to our core business, employees and our customers.”

Click here to view the corporate brochure on Wates Group