e-Innovation Centre tenants – Buildfifty5 Anticipate Major Growth

BuildFifty5 Living, part of the well-established project management and construction development company BuildFifty5 Ltd, launched in early 2019 to focus on the redevelopment and improvement of the affordable homes, older persons, and assisted living markets.

“Over the last 17 years we have amassed a wealth of experience working with private and institutional developers and funds. During lockdown, we spent time refining our approach and preparing the ground for what we anticipate being major growth during the next few years,” said Kieran Danby, co-owner of Buildfifty5 Living.

With its team operating from the E-Innovation Centre, BuildFifty5 Living works closely with affordable older persons accommodation, housing and assisted living registered providers to deliver bespoke and affordable homes, which in turn will help to regenerate high streets and communities.

Up to and during lockdown BuildFifty5 Living facilitated a £2.7 million scheme for Citizen Housing (a housing association group that owns and manages 30,000 homes across the West Midlands) for the construction of 24-homes on the site of a former pub in Smethwick. Kieran Danby, co-owner of Buildfifty5 Living, said: “The redevelopment of the Thimblemill Pub site demonstrated how we identify opportunities that benefit from the fresh approach to design, procurement and collaboration we bring. Many companies had overlooked the brownfield site, however, we recognised the opportunity to galvanise a team that successfully overcame the challenges involved and delivered a fully affordable scheme.”

Mr Danby added: “Set against the background of ever-increasing house prices, living costs and pressure on appropriate public services, demand for affordable, supported and specialist housing has never been greater, particularly in the West Midlands and Shropshire.

He adds: “Our approach dares to be different. Our site acquisition strategy is enabling us to be one step ahead of the game. So much so, that we are now helping to re-develop sites within Telford Borough, our own county of Shropshire and much further afield across the UK.

Cloud Construct celebrates a decade in business

Business & Technology Centre tenants, Cloud Construct – a web and software development agency is celebrating 10 years in business.

Cloud Construct was established in August 2012 as PBS Creative. The company rebranded last year to reflect its focus on cloud-based services.

The company is now actively recruiting a web developer to support its growing business and customer base.

Peter Barfield, founder of Cloud Construct, credits their survival and continued success to a steady and systematic approach to growth and delivering high levels of service.

He said: “It’s very pleasing to reach 10 years in business, especially as we still continue to work with some of our first clients, including Boatshed, the world’s largest boat brokerage organisation. We’ve seen them grow and flourish internationally with the help of our bespoke software and technology.

“I’ve always been very mindful to grow the company at a pace where there was an equal balance of staff to the business. I’ve seen many agencies come and go over the years. They’ve become really successful and done well, but then they’ve been unable to sustain the amount of new work required to keep their staff employed. I didn’t want that to happen in my business.”

Last year Cloud Construct was awarded Select Partner Status by Amazon Web Services (AWS). They went through rigorous training and approval systems and it means they can access AWS services and cutting-edge technologies to build bespoke, next-generation software for their customers.

Peter Barfield continued: “It’s an exciting time for Cloud Construct. Alongside our client work, we have lots of ideas for software products and services, so we’re looking for an experienced developer to join the team.

“We’re looking for someone who is a natural problem solver and has a level of commercial awareness i.e. they understand how software fits in within a business to help them to achieve their goals.”

Cloud Construct is now planning an event to celebrate its 10-year anniversary for clients and business connections.

Visit CloudConstruct.co.uk

Business and Technology Centre tenants celebrate 15 years in business

A Midlands quantity surveying company celebrated 15 years in business with a fact-finding visit to the new £17.5m National Brownfield Institute.

Members of the CQS Solutions team, based at the Telford Innovation Campus, were given a tour of the new facilities at the University of Wolverhampton’s Springfield Campus including a visit to the Igloo – a 4D immersive suite that will be used to assess land for regeneration.

Company founder, Tim Lloyd, said that it was fitting that the tour of the new ground-breaking institute coincided with the company’s 15th anniversary.

“We were offered the chance to view the new institute and we were very impressed with the facilities and particularly the Igloo. Keeping up to date with the latest developments is very important to our professional development and this was a great way to mark our 15th anniversary,” said Tim.

CQS Solutions, based in Telford, has grown since 2007 to an eight person team working with building contractors and sub contractors across the Midlands.

Its aim is to improve project outcomes by providing professional advice and services helping its customers improve cost certainty, margins and productivity.

Tim said that when he started his career as a quantity surveyor with a major corporate company in 2001 he regularly dealt with contractors and sub contractors on a wide range of projects and contract types.

“It became clear to me that many of them would benefit from professional support in their operations and that was something I could do for them. I set up CQS Solutions in 2007 and we have grown organically from there.

“I think we have been successful because we always try to add value with our professional approach and standard of work,” he said.

He originally set up the business from his home and for the past ten years has been based at University of Wolverhampton’s Telford Innovation Campus, Business and Technology Centre.

The team has widened its experience and remit over its 15 year history. Tim is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in Construction and is now working towards chartered status with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Other members of the team are also working towards RICS chartered status and other qualifications.

You can find out more about CQS Solutions by visiting the website here

Help to Grow Scheme

Expanded eligibility for the Help to Grow: Digital scheme is now in place so that more businesses are able to take part by reducing the minimum number of employees the business must have from 5 to 1.This will allow more smaller businesses to access discounts worth up to £5,000 on approved software.
Find out more....