Winner — FK Roofing Services
Suppliers to FKRS may get some of the best payment terms in the industry – guaranteed within 30 days with no retention of money – but they aren’t half made to work for it. Our winner this year demands that all of its roofing supplies are delivered to site on a “just in time” basis and that all packaging and pallets are taken away to be either reused or recycled once this has been done. FKRS has even struck a deal with one manufacturer to take away waste from its product on site and make sure it reuses it in new goods. Given that FKRS estimates its turnover will rocket back up to £21m next year with a rash of new orders, these all sound like hoops worth jumping through to us.
Runners-up
Briggs Roofing and Cladding
Three years ago Briggs decided that it would refocus its business and take it back to its roots: it would concentrate solely on roofs. This was a tough choice as turnover has since dropped by 34% to £29.5m. However, in that time Briggs’ profit has actually risen to £653,000. And better still, client interest in green roofs is taking off meaning that Briggs should be perfectly placed to reap the rewards of the trend for ever more environmentally sustainable schemes.
Lakesmere
When you think of bus stations you think of many things, none of which you would associate with changing the face of modern architecture. Yet this claim can be made by Lakesmere for its work on the 3000m2 roof at the Liverpool South Parkway Interchange. It pioneered a curve-enabling technique for aluminium that meant the architect’s vision of a smoothly undulating roof could be realised. No the architect wasn’t Frank Gehry, but it soon could be.
Prater
It is unlikely that any of the 60,000 fans watching a game at Arsenal’s new £390m Emirates Stadium will ever find themselves looking up at the roof. However, if they are able to tear their eyes away from the action then they will be rewarded by the sight of the 27,200m2 custom designed roof laid by Prater. Impressive, but Arsenal will still be hoping all eyes stay firmly on the game.
Rock Asphalte
Green roofs are very well but have you ever wondered what happens, say, 10 years down the line when the nice lawn and little shrubs are no longer so new or so little and have properly taken root. What is stopping them from ever so slowly but surely burrowing through the roof into the building below? The answer, according to Rock Asphalte at least, is the integrated “root inhibitor” in its latest green roof product, an innovation that saves everybody time and money.
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