
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
30 | ADVANCED VENTILATION SYSTEMS
Continuing to push forward
Despite 12 years having elapsed since
AVS started, I have never believed
we have “arrived” as a business.
There is still always more to do, and
complacency is something that we
simply never allow. I believe the
success we have enjoyed can be
attributed to a wide range of factors.
We have always sought to provide a
high-quality solution-based product
while delivering the right combination
of price, performance, service and
technical support.
Customer retention has been key,
and this is linked to our market
orientation, customer focus, and,
crucially, relationships with our
customers and suppliers. We take
pride in paying all of our suppliers on
time and in full. We want the best
prices but we also recognise that
our suppliers need to make a profit,
allowing them to be supplying us
not just now but ten years down the
line as well. With all of this comes
a big slice of luck. Gary Player, the
South African golfer, holed out from
a bunker shot and was asked if he
was lucky, to which he replied: “The
harder I practise, the luckier I get.” Its
a phrase I live by and totally believe in.
The bottom line is: you always get out
what you put in.
A global business
environment
The reality is, as a business, we
already operate in a global world.
Our primary component is aluminium
extruded in the UK, our design is
completed by a Norwegian-owned
company and our raw materials are
sourced from across central Europe
and beyond. These materials are
traded on the Chinese-owned London
Metal Exchange and the trading
currency is US dollars: a truly global
supply chain.
When the US imposes sanctions
on Russian aluminium producers,
our prices go up. When the pound
slips against the dollar, our prices
go up. This challenge isn’t new to
us but it is further compounded by
uncertainty. We look to mitigate this
by locking ourselves into annual supply
agreements with our key suppliers,
giving us, at least, price certainty for a
12-month period.
Our business is also linked to elements
of government spending, as our
product is widely used in schools,
hospitals and other public buildings.
This means we have a vested interest
in the UK having a strong economy,
allowing necessary spending to be
maintained on both existing and new
builds in these sectors.
Of course, we also have the local
challenges of looking to grow our
business against the backdrop of
uncertainty that currently exists. We
find ourselves at a time when we
could look to invest in space and
people, allowing us to manage our
business better and to maintain and
improve our current lead times while
expanding our market share. This,
however, would be so much easier
to realise if we knew the direction of
travel and the outcome of Brexit and
its futureimpacts.
Gary Player,
the South
African golfer
was asked if
he was lucky,
to which he
replied:
‘Theharder I
practise, the
luckier I get’
“
“
AVS34 louvres at
Chichester Enterprise
Centre
31COMPOSITE PROFILES |
CONSTRUCTION & ENGINEERING
Helen Clayton receiving the
Champion of the Year Award
from Managing Director Mark
Norton
Specialist deck installation at
Maidstone Audi dealership
Composite Profiles are a specialist metal decking contractor,
established in 1992. Whereas many in their industry focus
solely on price to remain competitive, they champion the
quality of their service, ensuring that all client needs are met.
Having weathered the financial crash in 2008, they have seen
significant growth and have since quadrupled their turnover to in
excess of £5 million. Managing Director Mark Norton discusses
their focus on people, delivering quality safely and their work
with the BBC’s
DIY SOS
to support the Grenfell community.
Being a specialist metal decking contractor with just 20 permanent employees
doesn’t automatically convey our status as an award-winning, people-centred
business. We face the same challenges as larger organisations do, but we approach
them differently. In a price-dominated market, we focus on our culture, values and
service, influencing the industry’s
status quo
.
At the beginning of 2018, we set ourselves the challenge to reach our ambitious
“Ten-in-Ten” growth strategy – to double our turnover to £10 million in ten years.
Our company was started by my father, Roy Norton, in 1992. Splitting from his
former business partner, Roy hit the road following his instinctive principle to
focus on customer service and loyalty. This founding philosophy remains central to
our decisions and manifests through our values and pillars of excellence: building
the future, building trust, building knowledge, building team spirit and building
relationships – the building blocks of our “building excellence” brand identity.
Late last year, we unpicked the meaning of those two special words, “building
excellence”, and commenced our journey towards them. We recently created a set of
“excellent” behaviours, which form the basis of our new team welcome pack.
FACTS ABOUT
COMPOSITE PROFILES
»Managing Director:
MarkNorton
»Established in 1992
»Based in Poole, Nottingham,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne and
Derby
»Services: Composite floor
decking and structural roof
decking, plus related services
»No. of employees: 20
permanent with up to 40
subcontractors
»Awards include Investors in
People Gold accreditation
2019, Business Excellence
Forum Best Company Culture
2018 and numerous best
contractor awards
»www.compositeuk.com
Composite Profiles