FEATURE
Workspace – P & I Design has joined fellow Limestone Group business BC & T Consultants in its renovated offices at Ash House, Thornaby.
TWO BECOME
ONE
Thornaby firms share office space and engineering expertise
A
move from the other side of the tracks has brought two successful businesses under one roof.
Since moving from Redcar’ s Kirkleatham Business Park three years ago, BC & T Consultants’ engineering and design team has made itself at home in Thornaby’ s Ash House – a modern, statement building near Stockton Riverside College.
But after a move that’ s been a year in the making, they now have company – the team from P & I Design, who have left their previous office on the other side of the railway tracks, just beyond Thornaby station and around 500 metres away as the crow flies, to join the BC & T team in a suitably redesigned and renovated building.
The two firms, which will retain their own identities despite sharing office space, are part of the Limestone Group – a holding company and specialist consultancy group serving the tank storage, petroleum, chemical and LPG sectors.
BC & T – the name comes from founders Richard Birdsall, Ron Campbell and Donald Thompson – are multi-disciplinary consulting engineers providing process, mechanical, civil, structural and electrical, control and engineering services to clients across the globe.
P & I Design – founded in 1978, eight years before BC & T – is a specialist process and instrumentation company that will bring additional process, control system and functional safety capability to BC & T.
Between the two companies, they’ ve already worked together on several projects and have all bases in their sectors covered – and now they’ re working sideby-side in the same impressive office space, having completed the move at the end of April.
It all adds up to even firmer foundations in BC & T’ s 40th year. And according to BC & T general manager Joe Melville, it makes perfect sense to have two such complementary firms in the same building.
He told Tees Business:“ P & I has a wellestablished and very good reputation in the petrochemical sector, which is the same sector we serve.
“ There were many synergies between what we do and what they do, so the‘ fit’ was perfect. It was like the missing piece of our puzzle and it’ s all come together really well.
“ Ultimately, it’ s about providing our customers and clients with an even greater service-level offering. The more services we can provide, the more benefit we can be to them and being in the same building can only be beneficial.”
The strategic working partnership between the two firms will mean greater synergy and an even closer working relationship, with P & I staff housed in three new offices on floor two of Ash House, the same floor BC & T employees already work on.
Elsewhere in the reconfigured building, there’ s more office space on floor one and, on the ground floor, meeting rooms, a kitchen and even a fitness room.
And Joe – in his ninth year with BC & T Consultants – says it’ s a set-up that can only benefit clients of both firms.
He said:“ It’ s all about continuing to develop a consolidated engineering group with real and diverse capability – a highquality overall engineering operation.
“ We’ ve already had a strong start to the year and are really excited about some of the new energy sectors within the UK – so, areas like sustainable aviation fuel and the CO2 market with carbon capture and storage.”
And with an eye to the future, Joe says apprentices will play a valuable part in the new set-up.
“ We’ re continuing to bring in apprentices,” he said.“ And we have someone joining P & I who’ ll be their first ever apprentice, so that’ s a nice touch.
“ It underpins one of our core values as a business of socio-economic impact and providing opportunities for the local area – real engineering opportunities that give people the opportunity to start a lifelong career.
“ It’ s a really exciting time for both companies and being in Ash House together just further enhances what we can offer.”
The voice of business in the Tees region | 75