FM Conway - Going the Extra Mile

Chapter 4 Laying the Foundations

In 1992, we had an explosion of our own on a road in Sidcup. A couple of men from Mick McGarvey’s gang were brewing up their lunch in the Welfare Unit, when they noticed a flame spreading along the fuel line to the gas ring from the two propane gas cylinders (which were inside the hut!) The flame flared up, and the two men ran out of the hut. Twenty seconds later, the whole thing blew up, and all that was left was the frame of the trailer with its two wheels. Amazingly, no one was hurt.

Maloney, his two main foremen, were part of that initial intake. So also was Nick Burman, who began as John’s number two (and is now Director of Surfacing).

In addition to building the team, I was looking for other ways of gaining an edge over the competition. I’d just had to give up on the fantastic advantages offered by recycling – for the time being, anyway. But I still had my eye on the margins that could be gained by manufacturing our own materials. At CCP in Wales, we made a concrete product for a company called Landscape Grass, and I’d noticed that we were always competing with a producer somewhere in the northeast of England, but I had never known who it was. Then, in 1991, I found out that Scunthorpe Concrete Products was up for sale. This had to be the competitor. So, I decided to go up there with Jack Basch and have a look at them. But Scunthorpe was a long way to drive, and since I couldn’t afford to spend much time away, I decided to charter a plane out of Biggin Hill, so we could do the whole thing, there and back, in a day.

79