FM Conway - Going the Extra Mile

Laying the Foundations 4

I n many ways the 1990s were a period of preparation for the massive growth that was going to come in the following years, although of course we didn’t know it at the time. Competition in these years was ferocious: we were pulling lumps out of each other on a yearly basis. We battled over the Borough Term Contracts when they came up, which was every two years in those days. You had to price low to get the contract, so you weren’t making any money in the first year; and when the second year came around, you had to get ready to fight the battle all over again. But we were winning more battles than we were losing, and we were winning some important Spot Contracts, as well, including one for Thames Water and one for Bell Cable Media. We had an early victory in 1991, winning a contract for Drainage in the City of London for the first time. I invested in some more lorries to help with the job, and the Lord Mayor offered to take part in an opening ceremony. Ray Shields recalls what happened: ‘Darren got the back of the lorry all painted up red. We put a seat in the back, and the Lord Mayor climbed in. And we drove him all round the City.’ One of the things any business needs to do is build a strong team, and I was always on the lookout for talent. So I contacted John Corcoran, who had been away for a few years, and brought him back as Procurement Manager. And I brought in John Lyle, who had been working at Durable Asphalt, with the brief of establishing a new Surfacing Division. He won a number of important contracts, notably with Bowmer & Kirkland for supermarket car parks and the like, and he won our first Surfacing Annual Contract with the London Borough of Barnet. He also started to build a team. Terry Kelly and Mick

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