NSG UK - Latest News 2012

National scaffolding giant NSG UK has completed the acquisition of Midlands based MTD.

The MTD scaffolding business, which is headquartered in Oldbury, has more than 60 employees and an annual turnover of £3.5million.

Following the buyout, the company’s operations will continue to be headed up by Managing Director Tracey Hutton and Projects Director Garry Taylor.

North West based NSG is one of the UK’s leading scaffolding and industrial services providers. The business was bought by the Altrad Group in May 2011.

NSG UK Managing Director Mike Carr said: “This is a great acquisition for NSG as it complements the existing core skills and offers expansion opportunities to provide access for social housing. MTD is a company with a wealth of experience, highly professional with safety at the core of the values and a strong, highly driven team.

“This forms part of the strategy plan that NSG put in place when we joined the Altrad Group last year.

“NSG’s principle activities are scaffolding services (including erecting the scaffolding), access solutions, thermal insulation, industrial cleaning and industrial painting. There is a tremendous opportunity for NSG to expand in the UK organically or through strategic acquisitions of companies with similar activities to provide customers with a full UK coverage as well as the Altrad international support that already exists.”

Tracey Hutton, Managing Director of MTD, said: “Our business has over 30 years of experience and a great reputation delivering tailored solutions to both the private and public sectors. Our unique service is based on rapid response, system scaffolding (Altrad Plettac Contur) with unequalled customer service. Our friendly, highly skilled staff undergo regular training for Health and Safety, quality control and customer satisfaction.

“A fully bespoke operational management system enables the company to accurately and efficiently manage the business for dealing with Local Authorities, PLC’s and building companies and provides detailed KPI’s.”

Ray Neilson, MD of Altrad Belle UK, who has been assisting on the acquisition, said: “This forms part of the bigger plan to provide the UK market with products and services from Altrad who specialise in the manufacturing and sales of scaffolding, cement mixers and wheelbarrows, together with providing additional contracting services in the scaffolding sector.”

Altrad now has over 60 companies with the majority being located in Europe and several outside of Europe across the world.

Deeside scaffolding and industrial services firm NSG UK has invested £500,000 in new scaffolding hardware.

The Altrad Plettac Contur System Scaffolding – widely regarded as the best of its type – will replace all of NSG UK’s old system scaffolding stock.

The new scaffolding represents a major investment for the company, and has already been introduced onto NSG projects across Merseyside and the North West.

Mike Carr, NSG UK managing director, said: “This is the most modern system scaffolding available on the market and we are now one of only three firms in the UK to be using it. It is a big investment for NSG but we believe that this demonstrates our commitment and desire to build a reputation as the best scaffolding provider in the UK.

“This rationalises all of our stock into the most advanced out there – the Contur scaffolding is even more flexible and secure, allowing us to design better bespoke systems for our clients, whatever the size or shape of the building or facility.

“The versatility allows for swift and safe assembly and disassembly, meaning it is more cost effective for clients and for us – speeding up the process without negating health and safety allows us to deploy workers onto other projects and allows the client to move onto the next stage of building or maintenance works.

“We are still able to design and erect ‘tube and fitting’ scaffolding where it is needed but the larger projects – particularly working at greater heights – are better suited for system scaffolding.”

The Altrad Plettac Contur System has been employed at NSG projects including Tata Chemicals in Northwich, the former Lewis’s development in Liverpool with developers Merepark, and with Ineos Chlor Vinyls in Runcorn.

NSG UK announced strong sales growth figures in January, hitting a turnover of almost £26million for the period to 31 August 2011.

The Deeside based company, which employs 320 workers across the UK, has enjoyed a sustained period of success, consolidating its work in the core construction and engineering sectors while further expanding into new sectors such as offshore and infrastructure.

For more information on NSG UK’s services visit www.nsguk.net or call 01244 833100.

North West scaffolding and industrial services giant NSG UK Ltd is announcing strong sales growth figures, hitting a turnover of almost £26million for the period to 31 August 2011.

The Deeside based company, which employs 320 workers across the UK, has enjoyed a sustained period of success, consolidating its work in the core construction and engineering sectors while further expanding into new sectors such as offshore and infrastructure.

The figures for the 16-month period to August 31, 2011, show a robust turnover growth with the firm enjoying strong underlying profitability and significant capital expenditure.

NSG UK provides a range of industrial services including scaffolding, thermal insulation, painting and jet-washing, to clients including Eli Lilly, Ineos Chlor, Centrica, Cammell Laird and Tata Steel as well as major construction firms such as Laing O’Rourke, Merepark, Downing Construction and Balfour Beatty.

NSG UK was acquired in June by France based Altrad Group with Managing Director Mike Carr remaining at the helm of the UK operation as Managing Director.

Mr Carr said: “The performance in the last financial period is a result of the hard work and dedication of everyone at NSG UK and rounds off a successful period for the company. This has included the completion of a number of specialist construction and maintenance projects, growth in areas such as off-shore work and rope access, the milestone of one million working hours with no lost time incident and the sale of the company to the Altrad Group. We have also expanded further into social housing, marine, oil and gas and nuclear sectors.

“The first quarter results of NSG UK’s new financial year maintains the trend, as we continue to win new business – including a three year maintenance contract with Tata Chemicals Europe – and increase our services portfolio with existing clients, offering scaffolding erection and maintenance, all painting services, high pressure water jetting, cleaning, thermal insulation and asbestos removal.

“We are looking forward to 2012 and the opportunities that this will provide.” NSG UK had been acquired by MWB in October 2007 but was purchased back in a management buyout in May 2010.

Mr Carr said: “The business has been in existence, under various guises, for the past 40 years and we are delighted to have built such a strong relationship with a range of illustrious clients. As health and safety is always our number one priority we are also particularly pleased to have reached one million man hours without an accident.”

Over the past year NSG UK has demonstrated a strong commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility, sponsoring junior and senior football and rugby teams across the North West, giving thousands of pounds to the Shrewsbury Youth Centre in Everton, and donating time and money to help refurbish another youth centre in the deprived Norris Green area of Liverpool, which was featured on the BBC Children in Need “DIY SOS” programme in December 2011.

For more information on NSG UK’s services, call 01244 833100 or visit www.nsguk.net

NSG UK has completed two unique projects in Liverpool and Morecambe Bay.

The scaffolding and industrial specialists firm has completed a complex contract to replace a helideck surface on an offshore oil rig, and scaffolding work at Liverpool’s Pier Head as part of a project to build a new landing stage.

A team of specialists spent 14 days working on the unmanned Centrica installation in Morecambe Bay. This was the first project of its type undertaken by NSG since winning a long term maintenance and intervention works contract with gas giant Centrica.

Bill Morton, NSG’s Barrow based area commercial manager, said the job was to replace and repaint the surface to meet up with new Helideck Certification Agency (HCA) specifications

“Helidecks have certain markings which help the helicopter crew determine the optimum place to land – therefore the surface and paint work has to be spot on. The surface of the helideck has been coated by building up the thickness gradually, with a non skid coating as the final coat. This anti slip deck coating is essential for personnel who will be walking to and from the helicopters.

“Not every coating company has the expertise in house to complete this sort of work. This is due to the related issues of not having the necessary equipment and access solutions to replace the surface in the required time scale, while still needing to land helicopters on the deck during the operation. The implications of getting it wrong are immense.”

The job at the Pier Head was to erect support scaffolding to hold a 22 tonne drilling kit. The project is the first of its kind for NSG as engineers had to make sure that the structure could withstand the high tides of the River Mersey.

The scaffolding enabled contractors Balfour Beatty to correct cracks in the waterfront wall which could have hampered plans to build a new landing stage. The old landing stage was destroyed in 2006 after freak weather conditions.

Deeside based NSG has also won contracts for a large tower block project in Leeds with Downing, and repair works to the outside of the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

NSG is providing the scaffolding to two multi-storey towers in Leeds – which are undergoing refurbishment from office use into student accommodation – and to a renovation project at the Philharmonic with Speke based Clan Contracting.

NSG UK general manager Tim Walker said the value of the four contracts was worth more than £450,000.

“We have had a very strong first half of the year and the variety of these projects demonstrates our flexibility and ability to work across a range of sectors,” he said. “The Pier Head and off-shore projects were particularly complex but our design engineers provided robust solutions which our scaffolding and painting teams were able carry out effectively and on time.”

LEADING scaffolding firm NSG UK has hit a safety goal of one million man hours with no lost time accidents.

The Deeside based company employs 450 people at sites across the UK, offering scaffolding, painting and blasting, thermal insulation and a range of other industrial services.

Managing Director Mike Carr put the absence of any lost time accidents – an injury requiring time off from work – down to NSG’s commitment to safety, extensive employee involvement, and accountability.

He added that the firm’s health and safety success stems from a behavioural safety scheme called ‘Watch What You’re Doing’, which was created and implemented by shop floor staff.

"Watch What You’re Doing’ started from the workers on the ground, as we wanted them to take responsibility for their colleagues’ and their own safety,” he said. “They are the ones who are on-site, where the vast majority of accidents can happen, so we had to get them involved from the start and let them manage the scheme in essence.

“Scaffolding operatives are trained to monitor the safe and unsafe actions of their colleagues. They then make recommendations for improvements. Workers are engaged in frequent safety updates and we meet with our on-site health and safety supervisors on a regular basis to discuss any issues they have.”

Mr Carr added: “Safety is our priority and this is a significant achievement for our people and the company,” he said. “Ultimately, we are striving to eliminate all accidents and injuries, and the procedures we have in place are testament to this. NSG UK has proved itself as a leader in safety and performance in the scaffolding and industrial works sector. Without robust health and safety procedures, scaffolding and our other industrial services could be extremely dangerous, both to our employees and to the general public. However, we strive to ensure that everything that can possibly be done to reduce risk is actioned.”

To celebrate the milestone, workers were given £5,000 to donate to a charity of their choice, with the Shrewsbury House Youth and Community Centre in Everton being picked to receive the cash windfall.

The youth and community centre provides activities for young people and helps them back into employment. NSG also engaged with the Centre in an innovative training and apprenticeship scheme throughout 2010. Members were offered 12 weeks of free training by NSG and were then able to seek work within NSG or other scaffolding companies. Two club members have so far completed the course and both have been taken on into full time employment with NSG.

NSG works in a variety of sectors, maintaining growth over the last year in the construction and engineering sectors while expanding into the rail, social housing, marine and off-shore, oil and gas, and nuclear sectors.

For more information on NSG UK’s services call 01244 833100 or visit www.nsguk.net