Quality manager for Gleeson

by John Leitch



Gleeson is about to create a new position of quality manager for its southern region construction business. "It will help to widen the gap between Gleeson and other contractors," said Andrew Muncey, the division's managing director, this week.

Muncey has built turnover from £17m to £70m over the past four years, with a further rise to £100m predicted in the coming 12 months.

"While we are producing a good product at the first time of asking," said Muncey, "it is still not as seamless a transition as we could achieve. The aim is to divide the site management roles, with one person responsible for the maze of logistics and another taking full responsibility for quality."

The appointment, to be announced shortly, will be from within Gleeson's existing workforce. The quality manager will report directly to the construction director.

"It will make a big difference," said Muncey. "It's a job that has to be taken head-on and is part of our growth, part of Gleeson differentiating itself from the rest."

Muncey has transformed the group's southern region construction business since taking over the reins. "We were two cycles behind the rest of the industry," he said. Muncey discovered that: there was no focus on the markets that Gleeson was good at; there was a shortage of repeat business; and there was an absence of notable clients who were willing to negotiate rather than expect a competitive tender.

Muncey brought in Vincent James from Laing as business development manager to start a transformation process.

The client Prologis provided Gleeson with the entry it was looking for into the industrial sector. Within two weeks of being added to Prologis' list of contractors, Gleeson was working on a new warehouse project next to the M1 in Northamptonshire.

An immediate decision was that there wouldn't be a contracts manager on the first job. Instead, the account manager was given the position of surveyor. With such buildings not likely to pose technical difficulties, Muncey majored on pricing and quick response.

"It was our first success at talking to a major player in this sector," said Muncey. "Since then we have done a total of five football pitches worth of work for Prologis."

Muncey has grown the list of clients by following a two-stage formula. He said: "We expect a new client to want a market-led price from us at the start, either by tendering or negotiation. If the industry standard is a 2% margin then we go with that. But then, having built a track record, we expect to be asked to undertake repeat work and at a higher margin, say 3%."

The overall target was for southern construction business to make 2% this year. "It looks like we've bettered that," said Muncey.