Member Article

Surgo's Triple Contract Win

Following a successful end to 2012 when four medium to large projects were secured, Surgo Construction, one of the northeast’s leading building contractors, is pleased to announce a clutch of further new project wins.

The first of the three is a £1.3m window replacement and refurbishment project at the Christopherson building, which forms part of Durham University’s estate. Surgo successfully undertook enabling works for this project last year and this new work sees the team working alongside GSS Architecture, services design engineers, Desco, cost managers Turner & Townsend and the university’s own project manager, Sean Kelly.

In North Tyneside, Surgo has been appointed by the Duke of Northumberland’s commercial property and development arm, Hotspur Land Limited, to build a restaurant shell and associated external works including drainage and mains services connections at Backworth Business Park.

Andy Laurie Construction Consultancy, acting as quantity surveyor on behalf of Hotspur Land, was responsible for Surgo’s appointment. Mr Laurie, said:

“We selected Surgo for this project since they submitted a competitive tender which was based on a shorter construction period, which reduced the costs. They are open, well organised and will be a good addition to the project team.”

Other members of the professional team include architect, Faulkner Brown, structural engineer, Fairhurst and M&E engineering design consultancy, Kyoob.

The single storey building, with a contract value of almost £900k, will provide 456m2 of space and the construction programme, due to begin within the coming month, will last 21 weeks.

The end user, Mitchells & Butler, is already signed up to operate the building as a restaurant under one of its established brand names.

Surgo director, Jeff Alexander, is delighted with this latest appointment, which marks a welcome return to working for The Northumberland Estates. He says:

“Our last work for this client was also in the retail/leisure sector, some years ago now so we were pleased to hear we had been appointed to this latest development and hope it may lead to further work in the future.

“At £100k, our third project win is smaller, providing flood defence works for social housing company, ISOS at its Gosforth head office, but is an important acquisition for the company with this long standing client.

“This is because all three demonstrate the importance of a company’s reputation for high quality workmanship, reliability and value for money at a time when many of the larger schemes, particularly in the education sector, are no longer a feature of the regional construction landscape.

“The government’s procurement policy is making it increasingly difficult for regional companies like Surgo to compete for these higher value projects and along with the North East Chamber of Commerce, we have been lobbying ministers for some time to give more detailed consideration to the way in which public procurement policies have affected businesses like ours and many other significant regional construction companies and consultants.

“The quality of our relationships with existing clients is therefore of paramount importance. There is still work to be won, our recent successes bear this out - but the project values are smaller than previously.

“This emphasises the need for maintaining efficiency (and therefore profitability) in a very challenging marketplace enabling us to secure work, maintain employment and make a positive contribution to the local economy.”

Surgo Construction, a privately owned company, has been existence for over 100 years. It employs a direct workforce of around 100 people and is based at the Newcastle Business Park.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Leigh Chelton .