Roth Gerüste: Advanced Scaffolding Secrets Revealed
Written By Rhymer Rigby
How do you scaffold a railway viaduct running across an Alpine valley or a pointy-steepled, centuries-old church on a peninsula which is surrounded on three sides by a lake? What about a 100 metre high concave-shaped dam or a new building on a steep mountainside? And how do you ensure that all these scaffolds can deal with tons of snow and ice? These are all questions that Switzerland’s largest scaffolding company routinely has to deal with.
In its home country, Roth Gerüste is well-known for its innovative, technically daring feats of scaffolding. And Roth Gerüste is the market leader in a country where scaffolding is taken very seriously indeed. “Here it is considered a craft in its own right and standards are extremely high” explains Giorgio Laurenti, chairman of Roth and Keystone Constructions AG, the Swiss family office and private equity group which owns a majority share of the company.
This is not just Swiss pride speaking. To illustrate the Swiss difference, Laurenti produces two pictures. One is of a scaffolded building in central London; the other is a scaffolded building in Switzerland. There’s nothing wrong with the former – it looks entirely normal – but the Swiss scaffolding is something else. Even from a distance and to my untrained eye, it’s sleek, high-tech and elegant.
The reason they look so different is, while UK scaffolders tend to use steel poles with bolted joints and wooden boards to walk on, at Roth Gerüste, it’s all mechanical joints, and high-tech, low-weight aluminium platforms. “It’s a modular system and it’s very efficient and light,” says Mr Laurenti. “It can go up and down very quickly.”
Roth Gerüste traces its roots back to 1932 and its present form to 1958. The name dates from 1987 and, over the past two decades, it has become the market leader in Switzerland, where it now has 17 locations and employs over 400 staff. In 2015, Keystone Constructions AG acquired a majority share in Roth Gerüste with a view to complementing its existing portfolio of real estate ventures.
It has proven a sound business. In the words of Javad Marandi, the Swiss-based financier who is also an investor in Roth Gerüste: “It is a highly efficient company, well managed, and the market leader in an industry that has high barriers to entry. The company’s reputation within Switzerland has been built over many years.”
And this is in the context of the general investment climate in Switzerland. “Switzerland is a mature, low-risk market for investors, and attractive for investing in high-quality firms with steady growth potential.”
The high regard the Swiss hold scaffolding in is rooted in the landscape and climate. Sixty percent of Switzerland is mountainous and the weather is often severe in the winter. “This means that scaffolding has to be like engineering,” explains Mr Laurenti.
The company tends to work on large projects and, is usually involved from the very start. “We will sometimes be working with the clients before the building permission is granted,” says Mr Laurenti. The scaffolding is very much an integral part of the construction process. “We present the projects with the architect and the engineers. We make our own recommendations and we’ve often changed the course of the construction.” This might mean anything from starting the building at a different point because it is not possible to scaffold into, say, a river, to explaining that actually, parts of the design may not be achievable because a supporting scaffold cannot be built.
The scaffolders also ensure that they are logistically aligned with the contractors. “The efficiency of the construction site is highly dependent on the delivery timing of the scaffolding. So we have to be on site, on time and they really have to rely on us.” If the scaffolders are not there, everything is late, and costs rise. Roth Gerüste, Mr Laurenti says, is utterly committed to both reliability and Switzerland’s world-beating safety standards, both of which minimise delays. Indeed, well-designed scaffolding speeds up the construction process.
Once building has started, the company remains flexible and reactive. “You partner with the site managers,” explains Mr Laurenti. “They will sometimes call in an emergency and say ‘We have to change this or the architects have decided to do something different or the roof has changed to save money.’” This can mean altering the design of the scaffolding – and often very quickly so as to minimise delays and extra costs.
Indeed, it is a mistake to see scaffolding as static. “From the outside people see scaffolding go up as the building goes up and go down when it’s finished. But it’s a living, breathing thing that is often altered every day. Whenever you want to execute or change something, you have to ask the scaffolding guy to come on service and react quickly.” This is one of the reasons the company has 17 sites in a country half the size of Scotland. “We have to be reachable on site within 20-30 minutes.”
Because the company is so committed to reliability and quality, it has a strong emphasis on training. “Our staff come in fairly young and get trained and then they escalate in position, often doing different jobs until they become site managers,” says Mr Laurenti. Employees will sometimes go to other scaffolding companies, but retention is generally very high. “We give prizes for over five years, ten years, fifteen years. Some of the senior managers have been with us for twenty years.”
Roth Gerüste is also pushing the bounds of what can be scaffolded. The company has its own engineering division and development team which uses computer modelling to design ways to scaffold once impossible structures. Much of this is down to the demands of clients – as architecture changes and becomes more daring, scaffolding has to change with it. “We are working on scaffolding which is suspended from a building’s roof,” says Mr Laurenti. “You build the scaffold based on this suspension and it never touches the ground.”
Perhaps surprisingly, for all this, the company has no plans to take Swiss quality scaffolding out of Switzerland. Indeed, Mr Laurenti says he believes that it is better to deliver excellence and reliability in a market you understand than take risks in markets that you don’t know.
But there may be another factor at play here. The Swiss building industry demands high quality and is used to paying high prices for it. “What we offer doesn’t come cheap – and people in other countries might not be prepared to pay for our standards. “We offer a Rolls-Royce type service.”
Alltask Selects Avontus Quantify for Stock Control Solution
When Doug Shearer and Daniel Fincham founded scaffolding contractor Alltask in 1992, they aimed to outpace competitors with better customer service. Since then, the firm has grown to 300 employees and £25 million ($33 million) in annual turnover.
Focused on London and South East England, Alltask offers scaffolding services for construction and industrial projects, along with thermal insulation services and asbestos removal. They have worked on major bridges and power stations, Canary Wharf Towers, Wembley Stadium and 18 sites for London’s new Crossrail, the largest construction project in Europe.
As Alltask flourished, growth posed a challenge. Every day, each of its 25 trucks was loaded twice, hauling a total of more than 250 tons of materials to and from the yard. Staff juggled up to 400 active work sites at a time. The constant movement made it difficult to accurately monitor stock levels.
Like many other scaffolding firms, Alltask used spreadsheets to track materials as they travelled between the yard and work sites. In 2002, the company also hired a software developer to build an internal system for tracking basic stock movements. But the program didn’t provide a global view of stock holdings, and Alltask lost track of the developer and couldn’t keep the software updated.
“We got to the stage that none of us had any idea what we were sending or receiving. There were so many anomalies and mistakes that there was no real appetite for cross-checking,” Shearer says.
The lack of visibility led to real losses. Shearer estimates the company often sacrificed 15 to 20 percent of stock it sent out, mostly because customers would damage or fail to return materials. “If you don’t take care of that, you’re going to lose a fortune,” he says.
Mistakes also led to inefficiency. When trucks went out without all requested materials, not only would customers complain, but Alltask would also have to dispatch a second vehicle and keep workers on the job longer. “That’s double the labour cost and double the transport cost. It starts adding up. Getting it wrong on a simple delivery could cost an extra 40%,” Shearer says.
Alltask turned to Quantify, Avontus Software’s asset management system, in July 2015. At first, supervisors and yard managers were hesitant. “In our industry, nobody likes change because they’re too busy doing their day-to-day jobs to accept change easily,” Shearer points out. But the new software quickly paid off.
It became easy to monitor the movement of individual components and check stock balances across the business. “It came as quite a shock how much we were losing, and the only way we know that is using Quantify,” Shearer says.
When materials didn’t make it back from a job, Quantify immediately flagged missing items and who was responsible. Alltask could now use the data to prove when customers were at fault and charge them for missing materials.
By adding on Quantify Web, Alltask was able to give supervisors in the field access to stock data using tablets. Instead of phoning in requests for materials, supervisors could themselves create a pick list for the following day and send it straight to the yard. Shearer says this has cut down on mistakes and wasted time. “There’s a lot of value in the material arriving correctly and going up correctly,” Shearer says.
Being able to immediately check current stock also helped with accounting for depreciation returns. “Before, at the end of every year we’d take a bit of a guess, and the accountant would say, ‘You don’t have enough backup,” Shearer says. “We do now!”
Now, every quarter he uses Quantify to quickly create a report showing stock values, expenses and losses. This has allowed him to provide solid evidence for the company’s books, including depreciation of assets.
On all fronts, more visibility has meant greater efficiency. “There’s a trail now, where there wasn’t before. It’s taken the guesswork out,” Shearer says.
Like many other scaffolding firms, Alltask used spreadsheets to track materials as they travelled between the yard and work sites. In 2002, the company also hired a software developer to build an internal system for tracking basic stock movements. But the program didn’t provide a global view of stock holdings, and Alltask lost track of the developer and couldn’t keep the software updated.
“We got to the stage that none of us had any idea what we were sending or receiving. There were so many anomalies and mistakes that there was no real appetite for cross-checking,” Shearer says.
The lack of visibility led to real losses. Shearer estimates the company often sacrificed 15 to 20 percent of stock it sent out, mostly because customers would damage or fail to return materials. “If you don’t take care of that, you’re going to lose a fortune,” he says.
Mistakes also led to inefficiency. When trucks went out without all requested materials, not only would customers complain, but Alltask would also have to dispatch a second vehicle and keep workers on the job longer. “That’s double the labour cost and double the transport cost. It starts adding up. Getting it wrong on a simple delivery could cost an extra 40%,” Shearer says.
Alltask turned to Quantify, Avontus Software’s asset management system, in July 2015. At first, supervisors and yard managers were hesitant. “In our industry, nobody likes change because they’re too busy doing their day-to-day jobs to accept change easily,” Shearer points out. But the new software quickly paid off.
It became easy to monitor the movement of individual components and check stock balances across the business. “It came as quite a shock how much we were losing, and the only way we know that is using Quantify,” Shearer says.
When materials didn’t make it back from a job, Quantify immediately flagged missing items and who was responsible. Alltask could now use the data to prove when customers were at fault and charge them for missing materials.
By adding on Quantify Web, Alltask was able to give supervisors in the field access to stock data using tablets. Instead of phoning in requests for materials, supervisors could themselves create a pick list for the following day and send it straight to the yard. Shearer says this has cut down on mistakes and wasted time. “There’s a lot of value in the material arriving correctly and going up correctly,” Shearer says.
Being able to immediately check current stock also helped with accounting for depreciation returns. “Before, at the end of every year we’d take a bit of a guess, and the accountant would say, ‘You don’t have enough backup,” Shearer says. “We do now!”
Now, every quarter he uses Quantify to quickly create a report showing stock values, expenses and losses. This has allowed him to provide solid evidence for the company’s books, including depreciation of assets.
On all fronts, more visibility has meant greater efficiency. “There’s a trail now, where there wasn’t before. It’s taken the guesswork out,” Shearer says. Scaffmark: A security engraver from Montana Scaffolding
Keeping kit secure, figuratively speaking, has long been the bane of the scaffolding industry. For, not only will your kit be lost on site it can and is frequently stolen. In a bid to improve security Bridgwater, Somerset based Montana Scaffolding Ltd. (Montana) says it has developed Scaffmark.
“Scaffmark is a handheld marking machine that engraves company identification into scaffolding materials we are currently using it to provide security to ready-lock transoms, aluminium beams, stair treads, loading bay gate arms, hop up brackets and rubbish chute fixing frames, this item could also be used for marking system scaffolds,” said Montana’s director, Alan Clark.
Clark explained that Montana spends upwards of £10,000 a year on buying paint alone to identify the company’s scaffolding equipment, let alone the labour of applying it. “And we still have materials stolen as companies just paint over the top of our paint,” said Clark. “With Scaffmark even if you apply paint over the top company details are still visible as names are imprinted into scaffold products so you can categorically identify your product immediately without sending off a paint sample to confirm if it is your equipment.”
Scaffmark has 40 characters on its ramping wheel and although it is a new product costing £1,250 plus vat, Clark estimates that with normal use and regular greasing the engraver should last for up to 10 years. “The names could possibly be written over and if so it would identify that the product was possibly stolen but certainly not as easy as just painting over someone else’s security paint colour,” said Clark.
“I have spoken with technical at the NASC (National Access and Scaffolding Confederation) and they have said Scaffmark will be raised at their coming meetings,” he said. Clark is awaiting feedback from the meeting but was encouraged at the initial response.
“Scaffmark is a handheld marking machine that engraves company identification into scaffolding materials we are currently using it to provide security to ready-lock transoms, aluminium beams, stair treads, loading bay gate arms, hop up brackets and rubbish chute fixing frames, this item could also be used for marking system scaffolds,” said Montana’s director, Alan Clark.
Clark explained that Montana spends upwards of £10,000 a year on buying paint alone to identify the company’s scaffolding equipment, let alone the labour of applying it. “And we still have materials stolen as companies just paint over the top of our paint,” said Clark. “With Scaffmark even if you apply paint over the top company details are still visible as names are imprinted into scaffold products so you can categorically identify your product immediately without sending off a paint sample to confirm if it is your equipment.”
Scaffmark has 40 characters on its ramping wheel and although it is a new product costing £1,250 plus vat, Clark estimates that with normal use and regular greasing the engraver should last for up to 10 years. “The names could possibly be written over and if so it would identify that the product was possibly stolen but certainly not as easy as just painting over someone else’s security paint colour,” said Clark.
“I have spoken with technical at the NASC (National Access and Scaffolding Confederation) and they have said Scaffmark will be raised at their coming meetings,” he said. Clark is awaiting feedback from the meeting but was encouraged at the initial response. Second CISRS OSTS Centre Opens in South Korea
CISRS have announced the accreditation and opening of a second Overseas Scaffolding Training Scheme (OSTS) centre in South Korea.
The new centre in Ulsan, in the south of the country, is opened in partnership with OSTS approved training providers, Safety & Access and Applus Velosi: Oil and gas industry sector service providers, who focus on vendor inspection, third party inspection, certification, testing, engineering and manpower services for the oil & gas sector globally. The Ulsan centre offers CISRS scaffold related training including OSTS Scaffolder Levels 1-3, scaffold inspection and scaffold supervisor courses. The accreditation audit was carried out this month by CISRS Scheme Manager, Dave Mosley, who was already in South Korea conducting the annual accreditation visit to the existing Safety and Access CISRS centre in Geoje. This centre established in 2013 has trained over 2,500 scaffolders, supervisors and inspectors in collaboration with Samsung Heavy Industries. Following the accreditation, Safety & Access Joint MD Rick Statham said: “The new centre represents a very important location for us, based in Ulsan it provides a strategic base to support the major shipbuilding and offshore industries which operate locally. We have been trading in South Korea for approaching four years and we can see the requirement for quality training growing as interest in and respect for the CISRS Overseas scheme grows.” Dave Mosley and Rick Statham took the opportunity to meet with key local clients including DSME, Shell and Chevron to give them a tour of the Geoje centre and outline the possibilities and future plans for CISRS training in the area. Mr Mosley said: “It is very pleasing to see the CISRS OSTS scheme doing so well and Safety & Access expanding their presence in South Korea. We hope that the new centre can emulate the success of the centre here in Geoje. “CISRS recognise the fantastic commitment made by Samsung Heavy Industries in training over 2,500 people making them, the employer and South Korea, the region with most CISRS OSTS qualified operatives worldwide. “There is an increased interest in CISRS in South Korea at the moment, despite the current downturn in the oil and gas sector and it is great to see Shell, Chevron and DSME exploring the possibility of going down the CISRS route.” The OSTS scheme started in 2012 and has now been established in UAE, Qatar, Philippines and South Korea, Nepal and Nigeria, training more than 4,500 scaffolders worldwide.CITB to close provision of services and products to international centres
The CITB is to close down its services and products at all international training centres to focus on key skills needs in Great Britain.
The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) says on its website that it has been,
“Supporting major contractors, training providers and individuals globally for over 45 years,” that global support looks like it is coming to an end, and quickly at that.
We were made aware of the contents of a private letter that went out from the CITB in August stating that as part of its regular programme of review the CITB had concluded that it should close its provision of products and support to some or all of its international centres.
We understand the letter went on to acknowledge the uncertainty this announcement would bring and said it would be able to communicate the review’s outcome by September 1, 2016. In the meantime, we understand centres likely to be affected were advised that until the outcome of the review was concluded the CITB would not progress applications for renewal or for additional recognition, licensing, accreditation or training support.
This move from the CITB has likely come as a shock to centres affected and we asked the CITB for a statement. Amanda Sergeant, head of delivery transition at CITB, said, “We have recently reviewed our international business as part of our change programme. The review concluded that CITB should close its provision of products and services internationally and focus on key skills needs in Great Britain.”
Sergeant confirmed that training providers had been informed of the CITB’s decision and that the letter of September 1 would explain what is happening in more detail.
“These changes will help CITB improve, become more efficient and be better able to meet the core skills needs of the construction industry in Great Britain,” said Sergeant.
The Reaction..
We reached out to some international training centres for their reaction to this shocking news. Fiona Sennett Operations Manager at 48.3 International said: “The whole of the international fraternity of scaffolding and working at height specialists have been surprised that the CITB are withdrawing a profitable service that has been in place, promoting the highest British standards in this industry all over the world, for 45 years. The CITB Scheme has been adopted by many countries and considered the market leader by most major clients – we have been actively promoting the CITB scheme since our inception.” “It is disappointing that there were no consultations with CITB clients across the world prior to the decision being made, and no reasonable explanation from the CITB as to why the scheme is closing on 31 December 2016.” “At 48.3 International we are very optimistic for the future following this announcement, as we are committed to our philosophy of “Safeguarding Lives Through Industry Education” – our dedication to the legacy of co-founder Terry Sennett.” “We are fortunate to have our own competency assessed scheme that has been developed by the late Terry Sennett, Ben Beaumont and Steve Gregory to service the overseas market with industry and product specific training. Because of our ability to apply UK best practice to local challenges within the scheme, it has been in very high demand from our International clients.” “We listen to all our clients needs in this market and believe that we offer the most flexible and client specific training in the world rather than making the world fit into a UK specific training program.” Joint MD at Safety & Access Rick Statham commented: “We have provided CISRS training international for many years and have a total of six accredited centres worldwide. We are aware that CITB have signalled their intention to withdraw from the international scaffold training market. Our main concern would be the potential disadvantage to learners that have CITB qualifications that will eventually expire as many of these people will have funded the training themselves and will require these for ongoing employment.”“As CISRS are a forward thinking organisation I’m confident that they will explore agreeable solutions to enable genuine candidates progress within the CISRS overseas scheme. Many organisations and individuals outside of the U.K. have wrongly assumed for years that this was the authentic UK scheme whilst of course the UK based CISRS scheme is the original and widely accepted training route. We expect there to be more clarity from CITB in the coming weeks and days regarding their exit strategy.”
Lyndon Scaffolding selected for scaffolding package on BBC TV Centre project
Stanhope Plc (Stanhope) and Mitsui Fudosan UK are developing the BBC TV Centre project in London. Mace is the construction manager of the £400 million contract that consists of half a million square feet of office space, 950 homes, a new Soho House club, a hotel and more.
The scaffolding package has been awarded to Lyndon Scaffolding Plc (Lyndon). Lyndon says that it is the UK’s largest independent scaffolding contractor with over £38 million in sales per year. We asked Phil Smith, Lyndon’s regional manager about Lyndon’s role in the project and he gave us some insightful responses to our questions.
Q: Why do you think Lyndon was awarded the BBC TV Centre Project job?
Phil Smith: “Lyndon Scaffolding have a long and successful relationship with both the developer Stanhope and the BBC. Lyndon were the principal scaffolding contractor on the BBC Media City Project in Salford, the redevelopment of Portland Place in London and the Media Centre in White City. In addition to that, we tend to focus on supplying a quality product and service, rather than relying heavily on glossy websites and social media to gain attention.”
Q: Has Lyndon worked with Mace before and if so where and when?
Phil Smith: “Lyndon’s have worked with Mace on several projects; notably Birmingham New Street Station and Battersea Power Station. The scaffolding package for the BBC Television Centre is being placed through Lyons & Annoot Ltd, so although Mace are the principal contractor, we will not be working directly for them.”
Q: What resources in terms of men and materials will Lyndon have to deploy on the project and for how long?
Phil Smith: “We anticipate around 30 operatives for 12 months.”
Q: Is this going to be a system scaffold project, tube and fittings or a combination of both? Which system are you planning to use and why?
Phil Smith: “Tube and fitting for the access and loading scaffolds. Haki for the stair towers. This is a standard independent scaffold with multiple interface requirements to service several applications; including a complex hoist run-off tower. A system scaffold was therefore not viable for the plethora of user requirements given to us.”
Q: Is there any particular challenge with this project that you will have to work with and how are you planning on overcoming it?
Phil Smith: “Labour resourcing is always an issue. We only employ directly employed scaffolders, so putting the problem on-to a labour agency is not an option for us. Although we have been developing this scheme for over six months, like any job, we couldn’t source labour either internally or externally until we received an order and agreed a programme. With around 550 scaffolders nationwide and around 140 in London, we have a huge pool of labour resources and management support. In addition, planned recruitment at all levels, with in-house and on-going training is a priority for us.”
Q: Are you experiencing any particular operational challenges in the economy right now, such as availability of labour, materials, transport or other?
Phil Smith: “Labour is always an issue. Supply isn’t the problem, but the quality of labour is; something that will steadily decline further as labour agencies become a more and more common platform for construction workers to be employed.”
The first phase of the BBC TV Centre project is scheduled to be completed in 2017.
By Ian McInnes
F-Board Falls Into Administration
Plastic scaffold board manufacturer F-Board has been placed into administration.
F-Board Ltd. (F-Board) listed as trading at 17-19 and 23 & 24 Prothero Industrial Estate, Bilport Lane, Wednesbury, West Midlands, WS10 0NT has been placed in Administration. F-Board created a non-slip scaffold board made from 100 per cent recycled plastic, The firm had just recerntly been crowned the winner of the Construction News Business Innovation of the year 2016. Visitor’s to the company’s website www.fboard.co.uk will now find an Administration notice. The Administrator, Steve Elliott of Monahans Swindon, was appointed Administrator of F-Board Ltd on 12th August 2016. A notice of the Administration posted to the Gazette on August 22 stated that the Appointment of Administrators for F-Board was made at the Worcester County Court. A statement from the Administrator on F-Board’s website confirmed that the entire workforce was made redundant on 8th August 2016 and that F-Board ceased trading on that date too. The Administrator states that, “If you contend that you hold any form of security, reservation of title or other proprietary rights over any assets or stock in the possession of the company, then please forward details in writing to me by 26th August 2016,” contact details are provided on the website. The Administrator also states that he will be reviewing F-Board’s financial situation over the next eight weeks and will report back to creditors. By Ian MclnnesScaffolding Firm Boss Banned for Twelve Years
The boss of a long-established scaffolding firm has been banned from running companies after an investigation revealed a series of frauds before his business collapsed.
Irvin John Downey, 37, was the director of Tubular Scaffolding Limited, based in Blantyre, Scotland.
In a case brought by the Insolvency Service, Hamilton Sheriff Court has disqualified Downey from being a company director for 12 years.
On 25th July 2014, Tubular Scaffolding Ltd, with liabilities to creditors of £506,937 was placed into compulsory liquidation following a winding up petition lodged by HM Revenue & Customs.
Tubular Scaffolding Limited was originally incorporated back in 1932. Downey had taken over as sole director and shareholder in August 2012 and subsequently used the company, which had an excellent credit rating, as a vehicle to commit fraud against suppliers.
Downey submitted false and inaccurate information within loan and credit applications to suppliers in the knowledge that the company’s established credit history would result in the applications not being subjected to scrutiny. Over a four-month period, suppliers lost £264,497.
Robert Clarke, head of company investigation at the Insolvency Service said: “The disqualification of Mr Downey sends out a clear message that where a corporate vehicle is being used to facilitate actual or potential fraudulent activity action will be taken to remove the directors from the business environment for a lengthy period of time.” Marley Eternit Acquires John Brash to Provide High Quality Scaffolding Solutions
