Godfrey Syrett has won a £400,000 contract with construction company, Galliford Try, to design, manufacture and install a bespoke range of fitted furniture to three local high schools.
The North East furniture manufacturer, which has a head office and manufacturing facility in Killingworth as well a distribution hub and a manufacturing site in Durham, will be supplying furniture to Longbenton Community College, Bedlingtonshire Community High School and The Duchess Community High School in Alnwick, all of which are being re-built under the government’s Priority School Building Programme.
Galliford Try, one of the largest building contractors in the country, awarded the contract to Godfrey Syrett following a competitive tender process.
Derek Mitchell, divisional director at Godfrey Syrett said: “We pitched for this contract against two other national operators, neither of which were based in the North East. We are delighted that the contractor chose to work with us as we are very passionate about working on projects within our region.
A number of our staff have children who attend Longbenton Community College, which is less than two miles from our head office in Killingworth, so this is a great opportunity for our team to work with schools here in our local community.”
Godfrey Syrett recently announced the launch of a new fitted furniture division, which has been set up to specifically serve the construction sector. The new division will focus on working with main contractors both regionally and nationally, to deliver bespoke furniture solutions for new build projects within the education, defence, hospitality, commercial and healthcare sectors.
The first of the three installations has already started on site at Longbenton Community College with the others due to start next month. All three are due to be completed by May 2016, which the firms says is an unusually tight timescale, but one they feel confident they can deliver.
Steve Vaulks, installation manager at Godfrey Syrett added: “We were awarded this contract in December and with a short lead time we started manufacturing the furniture within three weeks of our appointment. We are now on site with the first installation and are confident we will have all three projects complete by May 2016. Delivering within these very tight timescales requires a tremendous team effort and demonstrates our agility and flexibility to respond to a demanding programme.”