audas newsletter
TRANSCRIPT
www.audas.co.uk April 2015
Audas Newsletter
Thomas Cook Meadowhall On 26
th March 2015 Audas’ first Thomas
Cook store PC’d with fantastic success.
The site team, Dave Clethro, Richard
Ashley, Andy Sharp & Steve Bray, handed
over to an overwhelmed Thomas Cook
store team who couldn’t believe their
eyes when seeing the newly refurbished
store for the very first time.
Works at the Meadowhall store included
mechanical and electrical works,
decorations, flooring, internal signage,
loose equipment, as well as shopfit
which was under taken by Sigma who
also manufactured the furniture.
Steve Bray applauded the team’s efforts
saying ‘Congratulations to the team on
handing over a quality project to an
extremely happy client. Hopefully this is
the first of many Thomas Cook stores
Audas will be handing over’.
Audas will carry forward their newly
acquired knowledge when starting works
at the Milton Keynes Thomas Cook store
this month.
Alison Eyre, Retail Operations Manager
at Thomas Cook passed on her
comments to the team:
‘I just wanted to pass on my thanks to
you and your team for all you have done
at Meadowhall. I am sure, from the
reaction of the staff on Thursday, you
could see how much it meant to them
Even though I only worked with Dave on
Thursday and Friday, it was apparent
that he went out of his way to make sure
the store opened on time. Nothing was
too much trouble. He made the whole
process of a shop refit so much easier
which, believe me, I really appreciate!’
Audas history was made in February during the ‘Menswear Rear Service
Footwear’ roll out which completed 27/02/2015. It was the first time we
have undertook the ‘shop fit element’ without the need of a shop fit
contractor on the 6 Schemes delivered, namely: Camberley; Cheshire Oaks;
Hedge End; Handforth; Metro Centre & Gemini. We had fantastic results
with all schemes being delivered on time and snag free.
The roll out which commenced on the 2nd February was very successfully
led by Matt Bennett and Janie Howard, along with the ‘guys on the ground’
Martin Rhodes, Shane Lannen & Jordan Sellars. Not forgetting Nabilah
Salihi who oversaw the commercial aspect.
The footwear rollout saw even more success at M&S Crystal Peaks in March
as the new M&S procurement manager, Andy Snell, and the Wincanton
supply chain team visited site. Andy commented ‘I was very impressed by
the level of health and safety on site and also the professionalism of the
workforce’. Crystal Peaks PC’d on Thursday 26th
March OLE free – an
absolutely fantastic effort from the site team so much so the store quoted
that it was an “overwhelmingly positive experience”. M&S’s customers are
very impressed with the store making Crystal Peaks the highest grossing
store in their region that week on womenswear sales.
Audas Shopfitters – The Future!
www.audas.co.uk April 2015
Audas Newsletter
Earlier this year Audas were awarded 6 cafes from the Café Full
Modernisation tender we submitted last year. This is further to the
works Audas have done with the M&S Hospitality team last year.
This year so far we have already completed Altrincham, Hedge End
and Reading and we are currently on site now at Shrewsbury,
Glasgow Pollock & Edinburgh. The works involve full strip out and
close down of the café and provision of a temporary offer. Overall the
roll out is worth £1.2m and is proving to be a great success.
M&S Café Framework Supporting the local community
Audas are building strong links within local communities and
have supported local Blackburn College, St Marys. Dr Joe
Pomeroy, Geology Subject Leader at the college, reached
out to Audas to help fund a mini bus for the students’ field
trip to the North Pennies and Arnside for their upcoming
assessment. Joe and the group commented ‘The A level
geology group at St. Mary's College would like to thank
Audas for their kind sponsorship of our recent trip to the
North Pennines and Arnside. The students learnt loads and
had a great
time – so thanks
once again for
your generous
support’.
AIM: Aspire / Impact / Momentum
John Goode, John Thompson, Lindsay Bowker & Gary Lawrence have,
over the last few weeks, been attending ‘Aspire – Preparing to Lead’
course in Preston. The ‘aim’ of the leadership course is to develop
managers and enable them to evaluate their existing competencies,
knowledge, skills and behaviours. This is achieved through reflective
thinking both from a personal and business perceptive. Priority is
focused on improving personal effectiveness by learning self-
management and maximising organisational skills. There is also an
emphasis on understanding behaviours and attitudes throughout an
organisation and optimising the benefits of team building, improving
working relations with others at all levels, building confidence and
aligning personal aspirations with those of the company.
John Goode & Lindsay Bowker agreed ‘the
course is quite challenging however
extremely informative. We’ve been gaining
new leadership skills and information to put
into practice’.
M&S - Art of the Possible
Audas have recently been allocated 11 schemes
in the ‘Art of the Possible’ rollout including:
Kew, Chester & Pudsey. The works are an
enhancement to the foodhall which involves
enlarging bakeries, new internal signage and
improved brand walls. The works will be
managed by Paul Dever and commercially Mike
Rhodes.
MCIOB – INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISED
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION
Our very own Senior Quantity Surveyor, John
Goode, has recently received international
recognition as he is now a fully-fledged MCIOB.
This means John is now a member of the
Chartered Institute of Building. John wanted to
gain the MCIOB status in order to have
professional recognition and to continue to
learn through CPD and develop his career
prospects.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
Director Phil Brown is featured in the latest
Lancashire Business View Magazine as a
‘Lancashire Leader’. Be sure to check it out!
www.audas.co.uk April 2015
Audas Newsletter
Small Works Success
The Small Works team received fantastic comments this
quarter from Catherine Sealey, Outlet Head of Presentation,
Marketing and Communications: for the equipment swap out
at M&S Swindon
‘Just wanted to drop you a mail in thanks for getting
equipment sorted for Swindon. We had a visit from Sacha on
Friday and he thought the store looked fantastic and has
given us the green light to continue roll out of concept kit &
re-utilisation of slabs.
Thanks again for your support!’
The works, run by Nick Gibson, included the swap out of old
luton equipment for slabs and concept kit to deliver a brand
new layout, setting the benchmark for future Outlets.
M&S Property Youth Employment Launch
We are pleased to report our efforts in relation to the M&S Make Your
Mark Scheme and commitment to offering work placements to young
people within the NEET category have been recognised and circulated to
M&S’s supply chain within their ‘M&S Property Youth Employment
Toolkit’. Audas have been highlighted as an example of ‘best practice’ due
to the work experience offered to 16-24 year olds ‘Not in Employment
Education or Training’ across various different Audas sites. Administrator,
Vicki Walsh, also features as well as our commitment to apprenticeships
and training as another ‘best practice’ example.
Our latest NEET worker was Adam Khanai. Adam was fresh out of
university looking for some real work experience to give him the edge
whilst looking for future employment. Adam attended work experience at
the Audas head office in Blackburn working in different departments
including administration, accounts & commercial. With the focus of Adam
gaining as much experience as possible in the 6 short weeks he was at
Audas he also visited a waste recycling site along with the Audas Admin
team. The aim of the visit was to understand the role we play within
waste and recycling.
Since the start of the New Year Vodafone teams have made their presence known in Vodafone stores across the UK especially down in the big
smoke with projects Waltham Cross, London Holloway & Notting Hill. Waltham Cross, a Vodafone ‘Bronze’ store, was a challenging project,
however under the management of Sam Armstrong the team got there in the end and achieved PC. Other stores including Worcester &
Washington have also received fantastic feedback…
Delivered by John Grace, London Holloway was handed over today with flying colours and a snag free status! The store looks fantastic and
was passed ‘GREEN’ by all departments. Nick Connell, Retail Development Project Manager, commented on the works ‘Excellent Build’.
Whilst Tracey Lawrence, Retail Project Manager at Vodafone passed on her comments saying ‘We have a GREEN!!! Excellent job and please
pass onto your onsite contractors’.
Birmingham High Street has also recently PC’d with Matt Bennett ‘at the helm’. The three and a half week project went fantastically well with
the store manager. Dan Attwal, overwhelmed with the support and outcome expressed to Project Manager, Martin Rowe, ‘Just wanted to say
a massive thanks to you and your team on the amazing job you have done in transforming our store. It’s created an environment where my
team are enjoying coming to work, and staff morale has been sky high since opening again.
Throughout the whole process, it has been amazing to see the work yourself and your team do to ensure it’s right for us, feedback from
customers has been consistently high, with comments such as ‘nice to be in a great looking store’ and ‘great vibe in the store!! On behalf of
myself and my team…Thanks again!’
Vodafone Update
www.audas.co.uk April 2015
Audas Newsletter
BUPA Great Manchester Run 2015 New Recruits
The latest additions to the team:
Heather Waterworth
Accounts Manager
Robin Hayhurst
IT Apprentice
Audas Charity Football Tournament 2015
The Audas Charity Football Tournament kicked off on the afternoon of Sunday 22nd
March 2015 at the Soccer Dome, Blackburn. Sam Braysford threw down the
gauntlet to adjacent companies around Greenbank Business Park which resulted in 8
teams participating for the Champions trophy. The Audas team were devastated in
not being able to keep their dreams alive by taking away the champions trophy.
Nevertheless the chaps gave their all and played a good game gaining 5th
place out
of the 8 teams.
The final saw Kitchener 2000 and Bishops Accountants go head to head for the
coveted champions title and trophy. It was a close game and both teams played
extremely well. The tense game ended in penalties which saw Bishops Accounting
walking away with the number one spot and Kitchener 2000 taking second place.
Kristian Bibby of Bishops Accountants thanked Audas this week saying ‘Thanks for
the tournament on Sunday, it was really good and we all enjoyed it!’
We’re only £70 away from the £500 target so please donate on the below link to
help reach the target for East Lancs Hospice: https://www.justgiving.com/audasfbt.
In the past Audas have entered a team on three separate occasions albeit, for
whatever reason, we missed out last year. Anyhow, we are returning this year,
stronger than ever, to once again pound the streets of Manchester raising funds for
Martin House Children’s Hospice. This year’s team consists of over 20 Audas team
members, family members and sub-contractors running the 10k city centre run.
Steve Hanson from Callidus is currently fundraising for Martin House Children’s
Hospice. In April, he is aiming to complete a marathon and around 75 miles of
cycling per day for 12 days to cover the (approx) 1,200 miles of the journey which
will take him down the Atlantic Coast of France from North to South. (I’m sure you
will agree - 10k falls into insignificance in comparison to undertaking a marathon a
day, every day, for 12 days). Steve has a fundraising target of £20,000 – hopefully
the Audas team and their supply chain partners can help him on his way by
contributing their fundraising efforts to his nominated charity.
If you’d like to donate to help raise money for the Martin House Children’s Hospice
you have plenty of time, click on the below link where you can make an online
donation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Audas-Project-Management-Ltd
Team Audas 2015
Proud Winners of ACFT 2015, Bishops Accounting Runners Up, Kitchener 2000