ENGINEERING
Drive – National Jointing Services, led by( from left) Ben Swales, Neil Young, Chris Maycroft and Sean Curtis, have grown to £ 1.5m sales in five years.
He told Tees Business:“ It seemed that all of our initial work at the time was London or south-based, but we wanted to be up in the North-East.
“ We were travelling down every week and often doing double shifts. We’ d literally go back to the hotel for an hour and back out on the second shift, just to manage the workload.”
Sean adds:“ Sometimes we were sat in the van on the night, putting invoices in and applications for jobs, because we had nowhere else to do it.”
But the hard work paid off and that first North-East contract, to cable a car park at the Sage in Gateshead, landed in May 2022.
Since then, a raft of prestigious North-East jobs have come in, including both power stations at the SeAH Wind monopile factory on the Teesworks site, several schools across the region, the Preston Park museum, aviary and cafe at Eaglescliffe, the Lilidorie fantasy play area at Alnwick Gardens, RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire, NetPark science park at Sedgefield, the new car park at Darlington railway station and Boho X – the stunning seven-storey Middlesbrough home of leading games developer Double Eleven.
Founders – National Jointing Services directors Sean Curtis( left) and Ben Swales.
They have also worked at several schools across the region, including Egglescliffe School and Sixth Form College, Belmont Community School, Spennymoor Primary, Great Park School in Gosforth, Farringdon Academy in Sunderland and Astley High School, Seaton Delaval.
Current projects include a full migration of supplies at Frankland Prison in Durham and, having supplied the power to new theatres at Newcastle’ s Royal Victoria Infirmary last year, the firm is now working on the hospital’ s urgent care facility.
After starting out at Belasis in Billingham, home since September 2024 has been a unit Middlesbrough’ s Mandale Park complex.
But Ben says that while it’ s nice to have a smart base, their workload often keeps them away from the office – making the contribution of office manager Chris Maycroft and materials controller Neil Young vital.
Neil’ s background is in offshore gas rigs, windfarm construction and the petrochemical industry, while Chris – also Ben’ s brother-in-law – switched from the motor trade to join the firm.
And both are excited about the future, with Neil saying:“ The company’ s values,
We’ re expanding the business and we’ ll continue to move heaven and earth to hit deadlines and make sure the clients are happy.“
mission, products and service resonate with mine.
“ Ben and Sean have put a lot of groundwork in, so to get to where they are now in such a short space of time is a real achievement. It shows that people can start from nothing and grow a great business.”
The firm is a keen supporter of local sports clubs and good causes and, to help him switch off, Ben coaches two football teams at Norton and Stockton Ancients, where daughters Lilly-Grace and Betsy both play – Betsy just two years after recovering remarkably from a cocktail of health conditions that briefly left her unable to walk.
In summary, then, it’ s been quite the five years, personally and professionally, for National Jointing Services – and it looks like there’ s plenty more to come.
Ben said:“ We’ ve doubled the turnover and workforce in the last two years and we want to keep going.
“ We’ re expanding the business and we’ ll continue to move heaven and earth to hit deadlines and make sure the clients are happy – that’ s what it’ s all about.”
Find out more about National Jointing Services at nationaljointing. com
The voice of business in the Tees region | 73