As Raeburn Construction celebrates its tenth year of business in 2016, the latest edition of Fife Business Matters chose to showcase its growth and development in recent years, with help, support and advice from Business Gateway Fife.
Raeburn Construction celebrates its tenth year in business in May. The civil groundwork contractor, which was initially set up to provide site engineering services to clients within the construction industry, has grown organically over the years, fulfilling clients’ needs and now delivers a full package of works covering all aspects of civil engineering.
Employing 61 staff – 50 operatives and 11 office based staff – the company currently supports a range of construction projects varying from housing developments, university campus buildings, schools, hospitals and hotels.
Since inception in 2006, the company’s growth has been steady and sustained during difficult industry conditions. During the early years, it grew largely from recommendations within the industry and more recently Raeburn Construction has invested in new roles within the management team to focus on tendering in order to secure larger contracts. Alongside this, resource was also invested in managing the supply chain to ensure material and plant, some of the largest expenditure, was purchased competitively, which has meant an increase in the number/value of projects, ensuring profitable growth.
The company secured a turnover to May 2015 of £3 million, and is estimating turnover to May 2016 of £4.5million.
During this period of growth Business Gateway Fife (BGF) was on hand to offer support, in particular relating to HR; the tendering process and planned growth, which includes new premises to be built later in 2016.
Scott Raeburn, Director of Raeburn Construction, said:
“The success of the company rests with its employees. Hence, the biggest challenge to business growth is attracting people to work in the organisation with the necessary skills and experience. We had previously sub-contracted our staff on a project by project basis, but with the help from Business Gateway Fife’s HR Employability Advisor, Allison McKenzie, who signposted the key considerations, we secured our own workforce of employees and set up our own HR department.”
Raeburn Construction also established an apprentice programme, with two apprentices in training from the 2015 intake and four additional apprentices having just started.
Raeburn Construction has also secured help with tendering from BGF and was introduced by its business advisor, Joanna Goddard, to Fife Chamber of Commerce’s mentor scheme. Raeburn’s directors now meet their mentor regularly to discuss challenges and for support and advice.
Sarah Raeburn, Director, added:
“We’ve had superb support from BGF and intend to call on its Expert Help service for further support with the tendering process as well as quality management, as we strive to ensure steady sustained growth.”
If you would like to find out how Business Gateway Fife can support your business, please contact us on 01592 858333 or email success@bgfife.co.uk