Wolverhampton Contract Start up 1st July 2009

Wolverhampton Homes

The company’s newest operation began on Monday 29 June. Our contract with Wolverhampton Homes is a five year partnership which we are hopeful will last much longer.

This contract takes us into a part of the country where we do not have a company presence and opens up for us the possibility of expansion in the wider West Midlands area once we are established.

We tendered for the grounds maintenance work at Wolverhampton in autumn of 2008 when Nick Broad and Arthur Pendleton put together a tender which offered a value for money service combined with a range of quality initiatives all of which were well received by Wolverhampton Homes. We were notified of our successful bid in April of this year.



Paul Duffy and client Manager Andrew Holden on site at Hamptead Bungalows for a standard setting exercise to demonstrate to all employees the standard and methods of work and behaviour expected on site.

An advertisement for a Contract Manager was then placed on the company website and eventually a shortlist of two suitable candidates was drawn up. One candidate was an internal applicant and after the undertaking of a thorough selection process Paul Duffy was appointed to the position.

Paul has been with the company for many years and has worked for us on several different contracts. Most recently Paul has been responsible for the Rushcliffe and Leicester contracts.

The position of Contract Manager at Wolverhampton sees Paul complete a journey with Continental Landscapes during which he started in 1993 as a strimmer operator on a short term contract to the job he now holds as the Contact Manager on one of the company’s major operations.

Since the award Nick Broad and Paul Duffy have been working on the preparation of the contract, dealing with the routing of teams, organising the equipment, machinery and vehicles, recruiting staff and meeting with our clients.

One of the biggest challenges facing Nick and Paul was the integration of staff who came from several separate sources. Members of our new Wolverhampton workforce had previously worked for Wolverhampton City Council, Enterprise or in the case of three employees directly for Wolverhampton Homes. In addition we also employed a number of staff as a result of a recruitment campaign with the job centre.

We now have a Green Flag for each of our 3 cemeteries, the most recent been Hanwell cemetery. The cemeteries consistently deliver very high grounds maintenance standards and the staff are constantly looking at ways in which they can further improve the visual aesthetics. Recent improvements include the renovation of old shrubberies, planting of woodlands, wildflower meadows, log woodpiles, a newly resurfaced road, better signage and the fence been refurbished and painted.



Start up - showing the workforce, the equipment, Paul Duffy, Paul Rhys-Davies, Pauline Joyner Billy Vance and Mark McLaughlin

A centrally located depot was found but this required some remedial building work and general cleaning to get it ready for the intended start date of June 29. This work was completed on the weekend before the contract was due to begin.

The installation of computers and other communication equipment was carried out by Yann Renault while Pete Lock started to put together a works programme for the contract.

A mobilisation team consisting of Paul Rhys Davies, Pauline Joyner, Billy Vance, James Olphin, Steve Henderson, Tom Dew, Paul Hudson and Ben White was put together to help with the organisation of administration, health and safety, machinery induction and staff direction during the first few days of the contract.

During the opening day all staff were welcomed and given induction to the company and its’ procedures. New equipment and vehicles were delivered during the day and staffs were put into their team formation with working routes given.

On the second day a welcome talk was given by Mark Henderson who is the director of Wolverhampton Homes, thereafter all employees and equipment were taken to a trial site to test the machinery and to establish the working standard expected.

The first day of full productivity was Wednesday 1st July.

There is an air of optimism and expectation about our Wolverhampton Homes contract. We have managed to put together a motivated and committed workforce in a short time, the equipment and machinery is all new and high quality, the preparation for the contract was thorough, we have benefited from some valuable assistance given by a strong support team and our relationship with the client is very positive.

Paul will hopefully be able to provide a progress report about the contract once it is fully up and running.