The woman shaping a new era in construction
With pre-election talk raising the prospect of a construction boom and a rush to training it feels like a very good time to talk to someone who understands all angles - Nicola Bird, of KW Bell Group.
Dear reader,
Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Raikes Journal. We hope you had a great weekend.
Just in case you missed it we rounded off last week with a long-read interview with Kevin Pope, the boss and founder of Protrack Group and the fledgling BioStart Security.
Why the interest? The latter firm hopes to release a product which could disrupt the vehicle security market and already has the attention of the likes of Amazon. We spoke to Pope about his incredible journey and about that gamechanging product.
You can read it via the home page of our website, here.
All of which followed our previous piece - which saw us ask the county’s main chambers of commerce what they want to see from the next Government!
In the news in brief today we celebrate the incredible achievements of Gloucester Hartpury Women’s Rugby - a simply incredible team doing incredible things on and off the pitch.
And we flag a niche webinar tomorrow (Tuesday 25 June), which will see law firm Willans brief businesses on everything they need to know about labour from overseas, so vital to so many companies.
But for the main story, we spoke to a woman who is helping reimagine the construction sector and making her mark here in Gloucestershire, and how the businesses she works for are leading the way in training and development.
We thought her story so far deserved a closer look. And we happen to think it is only the beginning.
As always, we hope you enjoy it.
Please do continue to bear us in mind for your stories and ideas. Contact andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk or telephone 07956 926061.
* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to paid, you’ll be able to see past the paywalls that fall across many of our second and third email editions of the week and that lock all our archive after two weeks and our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, you’ll be able to comment on our stories and you’ll be helping make this community interest company sustainable - able to deliver even more stories about the county, about its businesses, charities and education and training providers.
Currently we’re offering 45 per cent off as we seek to build our membership - which works out at just £1.27 a week or £5.50 a month (that’s £66 a year)! For commercial opportunities email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.
Our charity: Gloucestershire & Worcestershire 4x4 Response
🛻 If you are one of those who curse the drivers over those ‘unncessary’ 4x4 vehicles, this might make you think twice. Gloucestershire & Worcestershire 4x4 Response (GW4x4R) is looking to increase the number of volunteer controllers and response drivers as it plan ahead for the Autumn/Winter months, its busiest time of the year. When the legendary weather front the ‘Beast from the East’ hit in 2018, GW4x4R volunteers covered more than 5,000 miles, with 1,200-plus of those being driven in the Forest of Dean by just three volunteer drivers. GW4x4R is a non-profit-making voluntary organisation and a member of 4x4 Response UK. Its BORDA-trained volunteers offer their time and use of their own 4×4 vehicles to provide support and assistance across the region during periods of severe/adverse weather or emergency. It has agreements with the NHS trusts, regional ambulance services, town and county councils and care homes and hospices. Find out more here.
Your Monday briefing notes…
🏉 🏆🏉🎉Stamping their authority and returning to Gloucester with the league title for the second year running has turned Gloucester-Hartpury Women’s Rugby Football Club into even bigger legends. After Bristol Bears opened the scoring on Saturday at Exeter’s Sandy Park stadium following an intense first quarter, and went in at half time 7-17 up, Gloucester fought back after the break to take the title with a 36-24 win. It was the Gloucestershire team’s dominant second half performance that secured the back-to-back Allianz PWR title, adding to last year’s victory over Exeter Chiefs. We couldn’t resist saluting the team. You can read a full match report here.
🏗️ This is one from our Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, the rolling series we run in our Reports & Deals channel tracking the fortunes of the county’s biggest firms by turnover. We’ve included this article because we think it sits well with our main story below, especially the point both make about a potential new era dawning for construction. The Top 100 story is all about Pegasus Planning, headquartered in Cirencester with offices nationwide and a turnover of £42.45 million. We usually lock these so only our paid-for members can read them as we work to make this community interest company sustainable, but in this case… you can read it all here.
🏗️ Still on the construction theme… a huge congratulations to The George Bence Group, which picked up the Family Business of the Year Award for the South, South West and Wales region in the National Family Business of the Year Awards 2024. Celebrating the triumph on LinkedIn Paul Bence, managing director of the Cheltenham headquartered business said he was “really honoured. It’s presently tough in construction but moments like this help to keep chins up!”.
💻Businesses are facing key changes to immigration rules around hiring overseas staff, but luckilly experts from Willans solicitors are on hand with a free webinar to help firm’s navigate a process that could leave them with a stiff financial penalty if they get it wrong. Not to mention still needing staff! The webinar is due to take place on Tuesday 25 June from 9.30am to 11am. It is aimed at directors, senior executives with responsibility for HR and risk management, business owners, HR professionals and in-house legal advisors. You can find out more here.
👨🏫 Randall & Payne has opened the door to a special session it’s due to stage for Cheltenham Chamber of Commerce members to all businesspeople from the county. The will aim to help business managers look more closely at their leadership style to improve their impact on both the business and their relationships within it. Will Abbott, a business advisory partner at the Shurdington-headquartered firm, will lead the ‘Everything DISC’ learning experience, which will seek to identify your personality type and how best you can harness your qualities. It’s free and due to take place on 16 July from 9am to 11.30am. You can find out more here.
The woman shaping a new era in construction
With pre-election talk raising the prospect of a construction boom and a rush to training it feels like a very good time to talk to someone who understands all angles - Nicola Bird, chief operating officer of KW Bell Group.
By Andrew Merrell
Talk as we run into this year’s general election has put housing and planning front and centre more than once, talk that has caught the ear of the construction sector and built some welcome optimism.
Nicola Bird relays a story from a recent sector group meeting she was at when one person said their business had thousands of planning applications in the pipeline nationally, just to demonstrate how well the system was not working for them.
For Bird, chief operating officer of house builder and contractor KW Bell Group, a more efficient planning system would be welcome, but that then leads to another question – if we are going to start building like never before, where are the staff who are going to make all these projects happen?
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Raikes Journal to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.