January 2014 News

After the Christmas break, business quickly began to prosper in the same way that it did through 2013, with requests being received from new clients and new instructions being received from our existing customers.

We have been joined by three new members of staff in January, and have already expanded our fleet by an additional two vehicles to accommodate increasing workloads. Further investment in staff and equipment is expected to take place through the first quarter of this year.

Our relationships with the education sector continue to flourish and expand with recent instructions having been received from a number of schools in the Halton area, including: Moorfield Primary School, and St Gerard’s in Widnes, where we have been instructed on electrical works, and St Edwards in Runcorn where we have been awarded the grounds maintenance contract and instructed on external improvement works.

As Langtree Group further expands its dynamic portfolio, it looks to Groundlevel to quote for the Parkside Colliery improvement works, and also for quotes and proposals for its Carrington Park site in Manchester and The Wharf in Warrington. We have also submitted a tender to potential new customer, Hurstwood.

Groundlevel’s project team this month completed the stunning property extension and refurbishment to Britannia Gardens in Frodsham, Cheshire. We have also this month been commended by a customer for our exceptional work undertaken to a bathroom renovation project at an apartment development in Warwick.

New instructions continue to come in from our local housing provider, Golden Gates Housing Trust and we are proud to have teams currently working on a number of projects in the Warrington community.

Supporting our local community also extends to delivering grounds maintenance services to the local Parish of St James’ Church, Latchford, where Church Warden Brian Carter has expressed his appreciation of our services:- “At a recent Parochial Church meeting, I explained to the members what your company was proposing to do for our church. This has now been done and everybody is really pleased at the improvement to the exterior of the church building now that the trees have been pruned, the bushes beautifully shaped and the bed really tidied up.”

December 2013 News

2013 has been a prosperous year for Groundlevel. Having begun the year planning a period of consolidation; expanding our workforce, adding to our fleet and purchasing new equipment, it wasn’t long before we began to be approached by potential new clients seeking our services as a result of our reputation with existing clients.

The WAPH conference in January saw us expand relationships with the education sector, and we are delighted to have entered into new contracts with schools in and around the North West. Langtree Group this year returned to Groundlevel seeking the service excellence that we had delivered to them previously, and have most recently instructed us on the provision of a new car park and associated landscaping at their Mere One development.

We are delighted to have engaged in a working relationship with our local housing provider, Golden Gates Housing Trust, already having completed ground works, roofing jobs and refurbishment projects in the community, and look forward to further developing this relationship through 2014. We are also proud to be undertaking bathroom installations on behalf of the Bathstore.

Our thanks go to all of our staff for their continued support and contribution throughout 2013, we couldn’t do it without them. Thanks also to all of our valued clients, customers and suppliers, and we wish you all the very best for 2014.

November 2013 News

A busy month for new work, we are in the fortunate position of expanding our workforce in order to accommodate our growing workloads and client base. Please see our Vacancies page for details of any current vacancies within the business.

Premier Estates instructs Groundlevel on their fire damaged premises in Spofforth, North Yorkshire.

RMG Property Management Company awards Groundlevel a substantial refurbishment project on Ampleforth.

Trinity Estates appoints Groundlevel to deliver redecoration services to 5 of their developments in and around the North West.

Proud to be developing our relationship with our local housing provider, Golden Gates Housing Trust, we have been appointed to complete a reconstruction project to one of their properties in Warrington following vehicle crash damage.

Langtree Group instructs Groundlevel on gritting and snow clearance services to their commercial developments for winter 2013 / 14.

We were delighted to attend the Snowball hosted by Brainwave at Mere Grange on 23rd November 2013. This was a fantastic evening which resulted in £10,000 being raised to support the fantastic work that Brainwave does for families of children suffering brain injuries or development delay disorders.

October 2013 News

Groundlevels Managing Director, Lewis Nunn, has been selected by Business Insider as one of their “42 under 42” for the North West. Having established Groundlevel in 1997, Lewis has organically grown the business into a £3m operation with further plans for growth through 2014. Please read more about Lewis’ accomplishment at Insider Media.

Warrington based social housing group Golden Gates Housing Trust turns to Groundlevel ltd, instructing several housing refurbishment works and enhancement projects. We look forward to developing this relationship with our local housing provider to support them in serving the local community.

Langtree group award Groundlevel further improvement works to their ever increasing portfolio with the instruction of landscaping works to Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

RMG turn to Groundlevel instructing new contracts for the provision of grounds, cleaning and window cleaning services to their prestigious Westminster Gardens development in Chester.

Groundlevel is extremely proud of Dan Abram who is currently touring Australia with St Helens Rugby League Academy. As well as games and training every day, Dan will also enjoy trips to Sydney’s opera house and harbour bridge, along with scuba diving at Manly beach. Being chosen for this exciting opportunity is a fantastic accolade to Dans talent and determination. We are looking forward to welcoming Dan back to the decorating department and hearing all about his adventure “down under”.

July 2013 News

We are delighted to have received the following feedback from one of our clients in July:-

“From the moment the Groundlevel team of Chris Moore and Matt Wright arrived I was impressed with their attention to detail, ensuring that all carpets in our communal stair were protected. They were very careful in their approach to the works, ensuring that we were kept informed of progress and developments at all times. I was also extremely impressed with the quality of their work.

The team that completed the work in the bathroom, tiling and finishes etc of Rob Haynes and Pete Burton continued to complement our impressions of Groundlevel. Finally on completion of the works, we received very good service from Rob Paton, ensuring that we were satisfied with the works completed and that the very minor snag we had identified was rectified promptly and to our satisfaction and that we understood and agreed with the final invoicing.” Grahame Kirsopp, Site Agent, Morgan Sindall Plc.

Bathstore turns to Groundlevel for several installations in the Chester area. Substantial roof and associated insulation works have been awarded to Groundlevel and have commenced at Pownall Court. Trinity Estates also instructs Groundlevel on several redecoration projects including their Kings Wharf and Holly Court developments.

Bradshaw Lane Primary school awards Groundlevel their lottery funded landscape and playground improvements work, and St Philips Primary in Westbrook instructs Groundlevel on further project works.

We are delighted to welcome Matthew Hesketh to our Projects Department as an apprentice Joiner. Straight out of school, Matthew is embracing working life and building good working relationships with his peers. Matthew commences his studies at Warrington Collegiate Institute in September and we look forward to supporting him in his continued development.

Staff successes in July included our building surveyor, Ryan Hirst graduating at Liverpool Cathedral with an MSc in Commercial Building Surveying, and also Zuzanna Pajtasz in our accounts department successfully passed her AAT Level 3 Diploma in Accounting.

Groundlevel’s summer charity event was a huge success, a great night was had by all, and we were delighted to make a fantastic start to raising funds for Brainwave.

June 2013 News

St Philips school in Westbrook awards playground improvement works to Groundlevel, work is being mobilised ready to commence during the summer holiday period.

Heyes Lane primary school also award work to Groundlevel for the supply and installation of a multi-purpose games area. This project is awarded as a result of the high quality of workmanship recently displayed on other work at this school.

Lowton St Mary’s primary school engages with Groundlevel for their Facilities Management building services package, tailored to meet their bespoke requirements.

Groundlevel was extremely proud to support the fantastic Warrington Under 11’s as they were paraded at Twickenham following their recent success.

Premier Estates instruct Groundlevel to install heightened security doors to 25 entrances at their Imperial Gardens development in Tipton.

2013 Charity of the Year

Brainwave have been named as Groundlevels Charity of the Year for 2013. Brainwave works with families to deliver individual home based therapy for children with disabilities or development delay to reach their full potential. This could be anything from a child feeding themselves or walking, to recognising colours or counting. Brainwave works with children with brain injuries such as Cerebral Palsy, genetic conditions e.g. Down's Syndrome and Autism.

Always striving to support the community, and with a key focus on support the ongoing education and development of young people, Groundlevel is proud to be working to help support the great service that Brainwave provides. We have set ourselves the challenge of raising funds to cover therapy programmes for two children, this is no mean feat and our staff' are already thinking of creative ways to raise money.

April 2013 News

As a direct result of the unprecedented success within the education sector, we have undergone a review of our internal structure. Our education sector clients will benefit from a dedicated team of staff, headed up by Amanda Syverson; all staff employed to work on schools will undergo a CRB check, safeguarding training and regular internal briefings.

We are delighted to announce the recruitment of Angela Beeley as our new Schools Development Manager, returning to Groundlevel after a short return to teaching. Having spent a number of years teaching, Angela is extremely well placed to develop our relationship with school leaders, able to fully understand their requirements and expectations. Joining Groundlevel in May 2013, Angela will be reporting in to Amanda Syverson, HR and Business Development Manager, and the management team will be underpinned by our specialist teams in the grounds, cleaning, window cleaning, reactive, electric and projects departments.

The most recent schools to have joined us in April are Oakwood Primary, and Atherton St Georges for grounds maintenance. We are also delighted that Lowton St Mary’s have expanded their contract with Groundlevel to include total building maintenance as a direct result of the successful delivery of grounds maintenance services to this school. Further, our projects department is busy surveying and quoting for refurbishment works to a number of local schools.

Proud sponsors of Warrington RUFC, Groundlevel are delighted to extend congratulations to the Warrington Under 11’s Lancashire Cup Winners 2013 who are now off to Twickenham on 25th May.

Having progressed through the group stages, the young team defeated Fleetwood 29-0, Manchester 26-0, and Sefton 19-0, before meeting Preston and succeeding 21-0. In a closely fought final, Warrington defeated Waterloo 7-0.

Prestigious Property Management Company, Premier Estates looks to Groundlevel for project works to their City Peak development for the refurbishment of a number of apartments.

Following a successful tender process, Groundlevel secures in excess of £100k of decoration works with valuable client Trinity Estates.

We would like to extend our sincere condolences to the family of Andrew Gee who tragically lost his life in an accident whilst holidaying in Spain. Andrew did some fantastic work on the Groundlevel website and was a friend of the company for a number of years.

March 2013 News

Congratulations to all Groundlevel staff within the projects, electrical and reactive departments who have recently undertaken Asbestos Awareness Training; H&S is very important to Groundlevel and we are delighted to support our colleagues in enhancing their awareness in such subjects.

Following our attendance at the Warrington Association of Primary Headteachers conference in January, we are delighted to be engaging with a large number of primary schools in and around the local area. The most recent new contracts come from St Josephs Catholic Primary School in Penketh, and Bradshaw Community Primary School in Grappenhall , both of whom have turned to Groundlevel for grounds maintenance services. We are also delighted to have had the opportunity to present to representatives from schools in Leigh and Bolton at recent events, and are proud to be in talks with a number of schools in these areas to further expand our relationships with the education sector.

As a result of the recent increase in workloads and contracts, we have recruited 6 new staff in March, with 6 more appointed to commence in April. This pattern is expected to continue through the coming months as the business continues to grow. Generating local jobs for local people, we are also committed to recruiting further apprentices in the summer following the success of Lewis Paton and Dan Abram who joined us in summer 2012.

Our projects team continue to work on major reinstatement projects in Warwick and are in the process of mobilising for a substantial conversion project in Lancaster. Additionally, AXA have instructed Groundlevel on the refurbishment of listed building Storey Hall in Lancaster, and restoration works are ongoing at Woodsome Park in Gateacre.

January 2013 News

Landscaping improvement works continue at Warrington Golf Club as our Grounds and Projects teams come together to produce an extremely and consistently high quality of workmanship. Feedback from the club has been very pleasing and is reflected through the award of additional work.

RMG awards Groundlevel substantial projects and refurbishment work at a number of their apartment developments.

Further to a recent Health and Safety Audit carried out by Mr Des Kelly of RMG, we are pleased to have received excellent feedback, and proud to be providing our clients and staff with first class health and safety systems. RMG report:- “Groundlevel have first class H&S management systems, they have provided excellent documentation, supported by quality evidence, which leaves no doubt about their commitment to the management of health and safety. Groundlevel have provided their 2012 / 13 training matrix, which covers all aspects of their business and further enforces their professional approach to the welfare of their employees. The assessor had a brief conversation with Mr Lewis Nunn, Managing Director, who indicated that his business ethos is based on quality and that he expected total commitment from his employees, in return he provides total commitment to them.”

Our Decoration team wins additional works from the prestigious Trinity Estates for a number of their developments.

Groundlevel is proud to become the new sponsors of Warrington Sports Club; a local business providing employment for local people, we also take a keen interest in our community and relish the opportunity to support this fantastic club that provides sporting opportunities for all.

We are pleased to welcome new staff to the business this month, and have conducted a large number of interviews with a view to further expanding our workforce to accommodate increasing workloads and contracts. This is a pleasing position to be starting 2013 in and we are fortunate to be working with our valued customers to continually develop relationships.

As part of our continual investment in our staff, we have enrolled a number of colleagues on various training courses, including Asbestos Awareness, Prince 2, Cleaning and Environmental and others. We are pleased to offer employees these opportunities to develop themselves and their skills for the benefit of their own development and morale, and for the benefit of our customers and the services that we provide.

Extremely proud of our relationships with the local education sector, we are looking forward to exhibiting at the Warrington Association of Primary Head-teachers’ Annual Conference 2013 in Bowness-on-Windermere. Three members of our senior management team will be in attendance for two days to liaise with our existing clients and also to engage with potential new clients.

Sycamore Lane Primary School looks to Groundlevel to relocate their play equipment to the new Chapelford School, scheduled to open in February 2013. We are excited to be a part of this project and proud to be involved in making the new school play area a fun, safe and aesthetically pleasing place for young people to enjoy.

October News

October has been a busy month for Groundlevel, as we have secured further new business, and also, the poor weather conditions have resulted in the instruction of some reinstatement works and flood damage repairs.

RMG instructs Groundlevel on cleaning, window cleaning and grounds maintenance services to 36 Apartments at Joshua Court in Stoke; RMG also turns to Groundlevel to provide grounds maintenance services to Cheadle Park.

Premier Estates award Groundlevel contracts at their Willows Green and Oaklands Park developments. More new vans arrived at Groundlevel in October as we again extended our fleet in order to further accommodate the rapidly expanding business.

Groundlevel were the proud sponsors of the Teacher of the Year Award at the recent Wire FM Local Heroes ceremony held at the Halliwell Jones Stadium. Malcolm Agar proudly presented the award on behalf of Groundlevel and he was joined on the evening by colleagues Lewis Nunn, Amanda Syverson and Alison Hammond.

Congratulations to all of our colleagues who have recently completed their NVQ qualifications, supported by Groundlevel and Reaseheath College. Also, extending our commitment to Health and Safety, Amanda Syverson has successfully completed the IOSH Managing Safely Course.

The recent announcement of imminent changes to the pension law has not gone unnoticed by Groundlevel senior management, and steps are underway to introduce changes to our pension scheme as early as April 2013, in order to proactively prepare for the new legislation for the benefit of all employees.

Warrington Under 11's

Groundlevel is extremely proud to be the sponsors of the jubilant Warrington Under 11’s, pictured here winning the prestigious Manchester Festival; beating Cockermouth, Preston, Chester, Lymm, New Brighton and Stockport on their way.

September News

HLM turns to Groundlevel for grounds maintenance services to their Bloor Homes development, Peacock Gardens, in Gorton, Manchester

We are also delighted to announce an addition to our education sector portfolio following the award of a grounds maintenance contract with Oxford Grove School in Bolton

Trinity Estates awards Groundlevel strip out and refurbishment works at their Heatley Mere development in Cheshire. This additional work is awarded following the smooth and successful mobilisation of phase 1 of our new business with this prestigious management company, we look forward to replicating this success across further phased implementations of new business.

In its 15th year of operation, Groundlevel is proud to have grown its workforce by 21% in 2012, with scope for substantial further growth throughout the remainder of this year, into 2013 and beyond; creating jobs for people in the North West region and even further afield.

Groundlevel is proud to announce that we will be sponsoring the Teacher of the Year Award at this year’s Wire FM Local Heroes Award Ceremony, being hosted at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on 4th October. We value our education sector clients with extremely high regard, and seek to develop our business in this area based upon reputation for excellence; the opportunity therefore to sponsor this category was not one that we wanted to miss. We look forward to meeting the category winner on the evening.

August News

The Groundlevel management team values the feedback and opinions of their colleagues and continually seeks to offer a positive working experience. The company’s first Employee Engagement Survey has recently been undertaken in order to gauge employee satisfaction, and to encourage ideas and suggestions from all staff. As a fast-growing company, it is important to Groundlevel to continually re-evaluate itself, both as a service provider and an employer. The management team will be reviewing the results of the survey and communicating with staff to notify them of any resulting changes. Thanks to all of our employees who took the time to complete the survey.

Customer feedback is equally important to us, and whether good or bad, the management team always communicates feedback to the relevant individuals. We have recently received another valuable compliment from one of our customers based in Leeds, as follows:-

“I live in a ground floor flat and my private garden area gets done for me by your gardeners at the same time as the communal grounds. This has been done today and I am e-mailing because I would really like some praise to be passed on to the people who have been doing this job lately. They really do a great job and are always paying attention to detail. This is very much appreciated and as I work shifts I have occasionally been in the flat when this work has been done. The gents that do this always work together as quietly and efficiently as they can. I would also like to add that I also find this to be the case for those who clean the windows. I am sometimes sleeping when they arrive due to the nature of my shift work but have never been disturbed by them and I'm sure you will appreciate this is very important to me so I would appreciate if some recognition could be passed on to them. Kind Regards, V Scott”

We have of course passed these comments onto the relevant employees, and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Andrew Addison and his team of grounds maintenance operatives for this excellent feedback.

Our website has now been updated to include a page dedicated to our mobile teams, introducing you to the specialist staff and their wide ranging capabilities in relation to the services that Groundlevel can offer to its clients.

Groundlevel has also undergone a high level restructure in August, and continues to review departmental structures and staffing levels. It is crucial at this time of rapid growth that we have a robust structure in place to accommodate workloads and manage the business, whilst maintaining the highest levels of service to our new and existing customer base. Our new Senior Management Team consists of experts in the fields of Grounds Maintenance, Soft Services, Finance, Facilities Management, Operational Management and HR / HSE; please see our staff pages for more information about us

Further to recent press releases reporting new contract awards and also the investment made by Seneca, The Business Desk have published an article in August documenting the ongoing relationship with Barclays Business, whose support has given Groundlevel the opportunity to expand its workforce by 25% and continue to grow the business in 2012-13 and beyond. “Groundlevel to add jobs after funding fillip”

September News

Begbies Traynor turn to Groundlevel for essential site clearance, followed by site safety and security works at a Northumbrian food processing factory.

GAB Robins, loss adjusters, instruct Groundlevel to carry out major flat renovation due to water damage at RMG's Homestead developement.

Groundlevel are proud to sponsor Warrington Sports Club under 9s cricket team. This year they were crowned Cheshire County Champions, completing a league and cup double.

October News

Groundlevel raise money for charity.

The English Half Marathon was succesfully completed by Groundlevel personnel, family and friends raising in excess of £5,000 for the Home Start Charity.

Read more about the event and the work of Home Start in the Warrington Guardian.


Other News This Month
Crawford & Company(insurance company) authorised Groundlevel to reinstate three water damaged apartments at Canal Village, Trinity Estate’s site located in Ellesmere Port.