Member Article

STS builds on success with million-pound growth

Darlington-based Stone Technical Services’ (STS) is celebrating its most successful year to date by revealing a 20% year-on-year growth and recruiting five new staff in the last two months alone.

The company, which is made up of five divisions – STS RopeSpec, STS Lightning Protection, STS Restoration, STS Maintenance and Facilities Management and STS Conservation- has seen its turnover increase from around £2 million to over £3 million in the last 12 months and staff numbers are now approaching 50.

In the last month, five new recruits have joined the team- Leigh Bowes, from Newton Aycliffe, has been recruited to work on STS’s helpdesk, John-Paul Kenyon joins the team as an operative working across various divisions and John Donnelly and Kieran Walker join STS’s team of steeplejacks.

John, from Middlesbrough, has over 30 years’ experience in the sector while Kieran, also from Middlesbrough, has recently qualified and joins STS from the highly-regarded CITB’s Bircham Newton training course.

STS attributes its growth to repeat business with clients impressed with the company’s wide-ranging skills base, its continued success in the North East working on a wide variety of projects and also entering new markets in areas including London and the South East and Scotland.

Recently, STS has secured new projects with the likes of the Highland Council in Scotland, Newcastle City Council, York Museums Trust, MITIE, the Forth Road Bridge, Texaco, Mitchells and Butlers, Yorkshire Water and Westminster Central Hall.

Over the summer, the company also launched its new technical industrial wire rope division, STS RopeSpec, to cope with the growing number of contracts in that area.

Dave Stone said: “The last year has been exceptionally trying for our sector but STS is bucking the trend and we are steadily growing. This is thanks to a combination of our multi-skilled team that we spend a lot of time training and recruiting to ensure we have the best people, and also a wide-ranging client base that now stretches the length and breadth of the country.

“We have managed to develop a stronghold in the very competitive London market and have retained a lot of work there. We’re now hoping to build on this year’s success as we go forward into 2017 with plans to develop all of our divisions further.”

Darlington brothers, Dave and Grahame Stone, established Stone Technical Services in 1998 and now have offices in Edinburgh city centre, near Stockport in Cheshire and in central London as well as their HQ on Kellaw Road in Darlington.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Addison Associates .