We met with Ashley Sturgess and Mark Chalcroft from AWS Electrical Contractors over a coffee in the local Sainsbury’s and found out more about their business and also asked them a few questions about working with the team at Elivate.
Mark and Ashley were both apprentices from when they left school and are both qualified under the umbrella of NICEIC. Between them, they now have 30 years of electrical experience working across domestic, construction, industrial and commercial electrical projects.
Mark and Ashley met with the Elivate team about 6 years ago. Originally working with another electrical contractor. But once they decided to create their own firm, they were approached by one of the site managers, Arron, an old school friend of Ashley’s and were re-engaged working on his sites. Over the last year they have worked with Arron on both domestic first and second fixes as well as a large industrial warehouse dilapidations project over in Basingstoke.
We asked Mark and Ashley for some feedback. Their headline comment was “communication”, this has been a theme that runs throughout the Elivate DNA. They both like that all of the Elivate team began their building career on the tools, making it easier for them to understand what it’s like working on one of their sites. This includes the owner Mark Fowles, who started out as a carpenter, Craig the Operations Manager, also started his building career as a carpenter, right through to Arron, one of our site managers, who completed his carpentry apprenticeship with Elivate some years ago, and now a well respected site manager.
Ashley and Mark run a tight business and it’s essential to know the site will be ready for them when they arrive and they won’t be tripping up over other trades. They said that Arron kept them informed about the progress, making it easier for them to plan in other works.
They both appreciated the swift payment on all of their invoices, as for a small business, cash is king and keeping the cash flow moving is essential to keeping their business afloat.
They both mentioned about how neat and tidy the building sites were, they felt their tools and equipment were respected and well looked after by the rest of the team. They always feel a strong team ethic in getting the job done well on all of the Elivate sites.
And finally, both Ashley and Mark live locally in the area and loved that Elivate tend to work within a 30-minute drive time, making it possible to get home at a reasonable time and be with their families.
They are both hoping to grow their working partnership with Elivate over the coming years.
