Member Article

Builder is up to university challenge

A North East construction company has gained university honours after being named as top contractor in its category.

Having graduated from minor works to larger, more complex projects at Newcastle University, M J Phoenix and Son has been officially recognised for its work.

The Gateshead based business was named best contractor – five to 50 employees category – in the university’s annual Excellent Contractors Awards 2013.

With over 4,000 contractors and suppliers engaged over the previous 12 months, winning such an award was far from academic and Managing Director, Delwyn Phoenix, is naturally delighted.

“It is fantastic to have had our work recognised in this way by such a prestigious client that employs so many contractors,” he said: “We always enjoy the challenge of these projects which have to be completed to very high standards with tight timescales - often during holiday periods.

“We have worked for the university since 2006 and have been nominated for an award in each of the last four years, coming third and second twice and so it is great to finally get the top spot.”

The company has carried out a number of refurbishment projects for student accommodation and in educational facilities and Clare Rogers, Director with the university’s Estate Support Service, commented: “We developed the awards scheme with the hope that by recognising excellent performance we would further encourage companies to strive for excellence through continual improvement.

“Since then we have seen the quality of work and heath and safety performance improve and we have established much better relationships with our contractors. They are scored against key performance indicators such as safety, quality, environmental sustainability and value for money and Del’s team thoroughly deserves its award.”

M J Phoenix is a three generation family business currently enjoying its 30th year of trading.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Dobbie .