Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 15
/NEWS
AYCLIFFE FIRM
LAYING FOUNDATIONS
FOR SUCCESS
Allan Oliver at one of
the sites his company is
currently working on –
preparing the foundations
for an Aldi extension near
Elwick, Hartlepool
A Newton Aycliffe concrete reinforcing company reckons the construction industry
is well on the mend after seeing a sharp rise in enquiries and contract wins.
After seeing out a depressing lull in
business, Allan Oliver Reinforcing
is currently working on 10 projects
simultaneously across the North-East, while
the phone is ringing a lot more regularly.
Allan Oliver – manager of Newton Aycliffe’s
Northern League football club – started the
company as a sole trader 23 years ago and
turned limited five years later.
He says the recession is something he’s
never experienced before, but is convinced
it’s on the upturn.
Allan has just won a 50-week, £550,000
contract from construction firm Sir Robert
McAlpine, involving 1,800 tonnes of
reinforcement and foundations at a Teesside
chemical plant.
The contract started in early February and is
the first of three phases.
His firm, consisting of 17 full-time staff and
several more contractors, is also juggling
nine other smaller contracts for various
North-East civil engineering companies.
Currently, Allan Oliver Reinforcing is also
working on a housing project for Wearmouth
Construction in Stockton, a sewerage
treatment plant for Bam Nutall in Morpeth
as well as various schools throughout the
North-East for Sir Robert McAlpine.
Allan says it makes a refreshing change after
a difficult two-year period.
“There’s probably about a dozen companies
who use us all the time, with the majority of
our work coming from repeat business, he
”
says. “That shows we perform on time and
within budget.
“So I always felt that, when the industry
started to recover, the work would come
back again, and that’s been the case up to
now.
“We had to make sure we came out at the
other side, because if you’re ready to go
again in the recovery, you’d probably do
well.
“The only trouble now is firms ring you and
they want you straight away. I sometimes
think they think we have men hiding under
the stairs ready to come out to work when
it’s busy!”
Allan says the tide started to turn about six
months ago.
“I’d say it started to pick up in the last six
months, to a point now where the number
of enquiries alone has gone up to two or
three a week, he says.
”
“The construction industry is the first one to
be hit in any depression. Money on building
just stops. But on the other side of the coin,
it’s the first one to pick up.
“Luckily I have a good bunch of lads, and
morale is good. I always find if you treat
your staff right, they’ll repay you with hard
work.
”
If running his business isn’t enough to turn
Allan’s hair grey – what’s left of it – he likes
to spend his spare time running Newton
Aycliffe FC.
Allan has guided his club through several
promotions in recent years to the Northern
League first division for the first time in
the club’s history. And all on a shoe-string
budget.
“I couldn’t say it’s a release exactly, the way
I get wound up during games!” he jokes.
“But it is a big passion of mine. We’ve built
somet