Chandos spreads its wings

Timber frame supplier Chandos is getting into construction with a new contracting company. TiC goes onsite to see the new venture. 

DESPITE THE cheery moods of its founders, the weather is absolutely miserable on the first project for newly formed contractor Staley. The company is working on a domestic scheme to build 25 townhouses and convert an old mill into 20 apartments in Dobcross, Lancashire, at the foot of the Pennines. The skies have been heavy with rain all winter; black clouds shroud the tops of the hills and the ground is churned up into a good six inches of thick clinging mud. The contractors are racing to get each unit weathertight, not just to get the project finished on time, but also to get some respite from the unforgiving conditions.

The climate couldn’t be more different in the project’s site office where Staley’s three founders explain why a timber frame manufacturer decided it wanted a piece of the action with a construction firm.

Staley was founded last year as part of a plan by timber frame supplier Chandos Timber Engineering to branch out into other parts of the construction industry.

The move follows Chandos’ launch of a ground engineering company, Karmo, also last year. Staley is the brainchild of Chandos managing director Paul Abbott alongside Kevin Hoyle as commercial director and construction director Dave Knight.

Abbott says the company is a vote of confidence for the timber frame industry. “Kevin, Paul and myself had been talking for some time about setting up Staley because we saw a very big market and there’s a place in the market for another contractor,” he says.

Abbott adds the inspiration to set up sister companies Staley and Karmo came from Chandos’s clients.

“As Chandos has grown, we have noticed quite a lot of opportunities,” he says. “We were getting asked by people looking for other contractors, such as ground engineers, and as a result of that interest, we set up Karmo last year.

“We found ourselves in a position to do both the groundwork and timber frame, but we were being asked about contractors to do the finishing. So that’s where Staley comes in.”

Timber promotion

Abbott says the expansion has seen Chandos move from being solely a timber frame manufacturer to becoming a company that can compete for large construction contracts.

“As far as timber engineering goes we’re in the Premiership now,” he says. “Just like the Premiership, the top four are also difficult to match. If you look at the top companies,Stewart Milne is the biggest in the country and they’ve set up a contracting arm too.”

Abbott applauds Stewart Milne’s example as a model of how a timber frame firm can diversify. “When you analyse their business, there’s roughly the same turnover for timber frame as there is development. It’s the way to go forward.”

He adds that the health of Chandos as a timber frame supplier will drive Staley and Karmo. “We’re looking to new opportunities now and the more successful Chandos is, the more opportunities will open up for the other businesses. Because we have our own groundwork company and timber frame company there isn’t a contractor with the  same resources as Staley.”

In the first quarter of trading, Staley has turned over £250,000, which Knight says will improve the company’s credit rating.

“We’ve got big plans for Staley,” he says. “We see it being a £20m-a-year turnover company in four or five years. Chandos, over the same period of time, will bring in £20m too. We aim to turn Karmo into a £3m to £5m groundwork company.”

What kind of relationship will the newly formed Staley develop with Chandos?

Although Chandos is the obvious choice of supplier for Staley projects, Knight says the two companies are not inextricably linked to one another. “The relationship is much the same as any other contractor and subcontractor,” he says, “but there’s not as much contractual stuff goes on. We have the perfect partnership.”

And despite the close links between the firms, Staley won’t confine itself to building solely in timber frame, or even limit itself to one end of the construction industry.

“Between us we can build in timber frame, steel frame, concrete frame or carry out a refurb job and the company can carry out commercial work as well as domestic,” Knight says. “We’re not pigeonholing ourselves. The client wants someone who can take it from design and planning to handing over the keys.”

Hoyle agrees that despite the temptation to stick to timber frame, Staley must act as its own entity. “Ideally, the Chandos route will give us the total development,” he says. “But if we have to digress away from Chandos, it will suit us.”

Pennine way

Staley’s first project at Dobcross is a joint venture between the contractor and Tamewater Developments. Knight says that Tamewater chose to work with Staley because it could deliver a package of timber frame, groundworks and construction.

Staley went onsite in June and the project is expected to take 12 months. The company started the refurbishment of the mill in January and is due to complete the job in September.

Abbott explains that the company had to face a lot of critics before it could go onsite.

“The big hurdle for us was the scepticism of our surveyors,” he says. They were asking what we had ever built, but I think they will agree now that we’re firing beyond our expectations.”

The project is a good example of how timber frame can cut down build times.

On an uninviting February morning between Oldham and the bleak and foreboding Saddleworth Moor the sky above couldn’t be much greyer. But despite the weather, Staley is six months into the project with the M&E work finished on 15 houses and windows finished, also in 15 houses.

Abbott explains that it would have been impossible for the company to reach this point using brick and block construction. “The time constraint would be massively impacted on traditional build,” he says. “The site’s in a narrow Pennine valley and there are already constraints like the delivery of materials, such as stone for the cladding, which Stancliffe Stone is delivering from a quarry near Leeds. The critical part is we can pass on timber frame a lot more quickly.”

Keep it in the family?

The relationship between Staley and Chandos isn’t as fraternal as would at first appear. Hoyle explains that the close tie between the two companies is often used as an excuse to delay deliveries.

“The relationship with Chandos means the standards can drop,” he says. “We don’t have that paper trail that we have with other companies.”

Although the familiarity between the two firms creates a more relaxed approach to the project, Abbott welcomes the non-adversarial nature of the relationship. “With this relationship it’s very open and honest,” he says. “We can ask Chandos to hold on for a couple of days.”

Knight agrees: “We don’t have contractual letters on this project. With 25 houses, we have had one issue with one window. It’s phenomenal.”

Abbott says his interest in both Chandos and Staley spurs the project on. “I want to get things built as soon as possible because it’s my money in the business.”

The next couple of years will be an interesting time for Chandos as it embarks on its diversification process and its sister companies seek to establish themselves. But with the major housebuilders predicting a slowdown in the new build market, is Abbott worried that he might end up banging his head on a brick wall?

Not at all, he says with gritty entrepreneurial determination. “I believe there will be a lot of opportunities over the next two years,” he says. “There’s a lot of talk about a slowdown, but the only thing this country has left that’s worth anything is building.

Everyone’s aware there isn’t enough housing.”

The Sub Prime market in the US has introduced a sense of trepidation among UK housebuilders, but as Abbott says, there remains an undeniable lack of housing. Timber frame manufacturers like Chandos see sense in becoming more involved in the construction process and at the heart of this ethos is conglomeration. It will be up to the timber frame industry to show it has the resolve to prove diversity is strength.