/ NEWS The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 5
Family-run maintenance firm wins contract with Hitachi Rail Europe
A family-run grounds maintenance and landscaping company has landed a highprofile contract with train manufacturing firm Hitachi Rail Europe.
Hitachi Rail has agreed a deal with neighbouring Beaumont Grounds Maintenance to look after its 42,700sqm site on Aycliffe Business Park.
Beaumont – which won the Small Business award at this year’ s Make Your Mark dinner – is now charged with the upkeep of the Hitachi rail vehicle manufacturing facility, which was officially opened by David Cameron in September 2015.
The deal comes just a few months after Beaumont celebrated another record year which saw an increase in workforce and turnover.
Managing director Alexander Lineton said:“ This is another significant deal for Beaumont and naturally we’ re absolutely delighted to be working with one of Aycliffe Business Park’ s flagship companies.
“ It comes off the back of a number of notable contract wins for us so business is good for us right now – we’ re certainly heading in the right direction.
“ Our workforce is growing as we pick up these contracts, we’ ve created a small number of jobs for local people as we grow and we’ re looking to continue that this year.”
Lineton says Beaumont is now aiming to create more new jobs in 2017.
He added:“ We’ re looking to continue the growth path that we’ re on while maintaining the family values that we offer.
“ We’ re aiming to bring in new members of staff in 2017 and deepen the management structure of the business.
“ We’ ve also completed full accreditation for three ISO integrated management systems, including ISO 9001( quality management framework), ISO 14001( environmental management practises) and ISO 18001( Occupational Health and Safety
Beaumont Grounds Maintenance managing director Alexander Lineton( left) with Hitachi Rail
Europe maintenance and facilities manager Chris Evans.
Management).
“ This is the culmination of many months and years’ hard work and endeavour to gain accreditation which will enable us to push us into new fields and win new large-scale tenders to support our ambitious growth plan.
“ We expect sales to grow to £ 750,000 – up from just under £ 500,000 two years ago – and as we grow we’ ll need to invest in local employment, so we aim to add at least three new employees to the team and our workforce to 22 by 2018 – doubling staff numbers from two years ago.”
Beaumont’ s latest deal is another example of Hitachi’ s policy to utilise the local supply chain as much as possible.
The firm’ s maintenance and facilities manager Chris Evans said:“ We’ re delighted to be working with Beaumont, who are now in charge of the upkeep of grass, trees, shrubs, weeding and anything that just keeps the site looking world class.
“ We’ re keen to promote the Hitachi effect locally, and use as many local companies as we can because that brings obvious benefits to the local community, and it expands our footprint in the region.”
Earlier this year, Beaumont reported a 20 % hike in turnover to £ 625,000 figures after the firm had enjoyed a 36 % hike on the previous year.
Beaumont, which specialises in grounds and sports pitch maintenance, also added four new members of staff to its team in 2016, boosting numbers to 15.
As well as winning the Aycliffe Small Business of the Year award this year, Beaumont was also shortlisted in the Service category of the North East Business awards( Durham heat).
You can find out more about Beaumont Grounds Maintenance at www. beaumontgroundsmaintenance. co. uk or give them a call on 01325 301379.
5 TOP TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT
Mike Coates, of Commercial Expert, brings some useful time management tips...
“ To Do” List
This is essential. Should be done first thing every day, with outstanding tasks separated into the following:
• Most Important, Most Urgent – DO FIRST
• Most Important, Not Urgent – DO NEXT
• Less Important, Most Urgent – DO LATER
• Less Important, Not Urgent – DON’ T DO
Retain Structure to your Work Day
Finish one task before starting another. Avoid the temptation to do part of a task and then return it to the pile. Quick wins can be good, but ensure you are not just delaying the more difficult and potentially more important tasks.
Regularly Review your Workload
Identify the tasks that always find themselves at the bottom of the pile – if possible, delegate. Set realistic deadlines – always better to under-promise and over-deliver.
Avoid Interruptions
Don’ t be a slave to your email inbox, allowing each incoming email to divert you. Allocate time to pick them all up in one go. Turn off“ email alerts”.
Prioritise your inbox according to importance and urgency and, if possible, deal with an email only once before saving it to a file.
Identify the irrelevant ones from their title and delete without opening.
Set your phone to silent when you are busy. Then allocate time to deal with voicemails and missed calls.
Don’ t Forget to have a Break
Don’ t become the office bore. We all need a break now and then and we all need some human interaction. A good atmosphere in the office improves everyone’ s productivity!
Mike Coates Commercial Expert commercialexpert. co. uk