Member Article

Emerging Hartlepool building firm bags £500k contract

Hartlepool firm BEDC, which works in the niche area of façade design for buildings, has won a £500k contract, just weeks after celebrating its first year in business.

Launched by Director Simon Ayre in UK Steel Enterprise’s Innovation Centre at Hartlepool, the upcoming company has already more than doubled its office space to cater for an 11-strong team of designers and technical experts.

The £500k deal, part of a £10m project being undertaken by a UK organisation in the education sector, is BEDC’s biggest win to date.

“We have grown considerably faster than all our projections,” said Simon Ayre, who has 15 years experience in engineering and façade design. “There is every likelihood that we will need even more office space soon.”

BEDC moved into a 400 sq ft office in June 2016 but now has 1000 sq ft in the Innovation Centre’s Hub Two to house its eight full time designers, Technical Manager, Structural Engineer and other staff.

The company has already secured numerous contracts, worth between £50,000 and £100,000, for new build and refurbishment projects at hospitals, a university, a station and offices in London.

Simon attributes a lot of BEDC’s success to his decision to invest heavily in 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) software from the outset and provide specialised training for all the company’s design engineers.

“We are amongst the leaders in smaller companies using this system,” he said. “It is why we have a Technical Manager and there is no doubt that it’s enabled us to work with larger companies and organisations.

“Façade design is a highly specialised area of architectural and engineering practice and the vital importance of getting this part of the building design right has, tragically, been brought into sharp focus recently.

“Façade design covers everything that you can see on the exterior of a building. It’s the outer shell that maintains the correct environment and climate control, linking the external and internal, so it’s a highly complex part of the building design.

“I am delighted that we have been able to recruit locally and find people, including some former SSI employees, with the initial skill-set and attitude we need. We have invested time in both training and staff personal development which has resulted in BEDC having a great team who are all very committed to growing the business.”

Joan Cook of UK Steel Enterprise said: “Our Innovation Centres are specifically designed to support new and growing businesses and we always do our best to find additional office or workshop space for companies that need it. BEDC has grown quickly so we are very pleased that we were able to move the team into the bigger office that they needed.”

“UK Steel Enterprise has been very supportive, finding us the new office space when we needed it, and the Innovation Centre is an ideal place for us,” added Simon.

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →