London Wildlife Trust
A Darlington-based specialist high level maintenance company has recently secured a number of high profile contracts in London worth thousands of pounds.
Stone Technical Services only opened is southern office, in Pinner, Middlesex, in March but has already seen its business in the region increase by 30%. Stone has recently secured contracts, worth around £50,000, to carry out a variety of projects for Selfridges on Oxford Street, the Danubius Hotel at Regent’s Park, the Royal College of Music in South Kensington, London Wildlife Trust and Optimum Services Group in Greenford, Middlesex.
Selfridges’ flagship store is currently undergoing a period of refurbishment and Stone is working with Croydon-based building restoration, conservation and stonemasonry experts, Stonewest, to carry out high level inspections on the original façade and surveying works. Earlier this year Stone installed lightning protection to the building and is carrying out similar work on the ten storey Danubius Hotel, which overlooks Regent’s Park and Lord’s Cricket Ground.
The famous Concert Hall at the Royal College of Music, in South Kensington, is undergoing major refurbishment. Stone has been engaged to carry out a survey of the whole of the Grade II-Listed building, an electrical refurbishment and install lightning protection.
The company is also installing lightning protection at a Channel 4 site on Francis Street in Westminster on behalf of Optimum Services Group.
And London Wildlife Trust has appointed Stone to carry out the repair work at Crane Park Island Nature Reserve and install lightning protection to the Shot Tower Visitor Centre in Twickenham, west London to protect it from future damage.
The company specialises in all aspects of high level maintenance, safety systems, lightning conductor installation, steeplejack services and the restoration of churches and historic buildings, as well as services related to industrial steeplejacks.
In the last year Stone has seen turnover increase from £1.5million to £2.5 million thanks to contracts with organisations such as English Heritage, the National Trust, BASF and councils across the UK. In addition, Stone is the appointed contractor managing structural and high level maintenance repairs and lightning conductor installation at St Paul’s Cathedral
Brothers Dave and Grahame Stone established Stone Technical Services in 1998 having worked in the industry since leaving school and now employ a team of 18 working around the UK.
Speaking about the growth of the business in London, Dave said: “There is a very real demand for our specialist services in London. As a company we work hard to keep traditional skills alive, using traditional methods and there are very few people able to offer the experience that we have.
“This is perfectly illustrated by the amount of new work that our southern office has secured in the last few months, especially in the competitive London market. We hope that this will allow us to grow further and create a number of jobs in the coming year.”
