Company News

July 2008

Helping bookmakers avoid the credit-crunch!

Our annual pilgrimage to Goodwood Racecourse took place on Friday 20th June and it’s fair to say that the bookmakers were pleased to see us, especially as the poor weather made for lower than expected crowds. With an upgrade to a hospitality box to celebrate a stunning first six months of the year it was easy for all to see who had won (smiles!) and who hadn’t. An excellent evening at the races was followed by a stunning drive back down the Festival of Speed course (minding the bales!) and drinks in Chichester trying to see who’d won the Turkey vs Croatia game. A superb night out!

Amiri Mermaid Challenge 08

Another stunning Friday in June saw Amiri and 21 or our closest industry friends jump on the hovercraft at Southsea and make our way to Seaview Yacht Club on the Isle of Wight for the annual Mermaid Challenge. With Grahame taking the helm of a Mermaid for the first time and some new skippers there was potential for some real ego-bruising racing, especially in the excellent sunshine and SW winds that prevailed for the day.

Proving that form is temporary and class is permanent was David Steel of TS Design (the architect at Phoenix House) who overcame his setback of last year to take top placing ahead of Mark Vincent and Stuart Elliott in second and third respectively. As David always says it’s a team effort so the photograph shows him collecting his prize with fellow crew members, and Mermaid novices, Sally Moger (Elizabeth Foundation) and Matthew Timms (Davis Langdon).

Dolphin released in Winchester!

We didn’t really complete two projects at the same time in Winchester, whilst the team of Vernon Baker, Mark Formaggia and Kevin Lendon were busy handing over the beautifully refurbished Dolphin House in Winchester the client, Store Property Group, were busy renaming it Winton House! Pity poor Debbie who’d gathered together all the O & M Manual information for a project that didn’t exist anymore and had to collate them all over again!

The building, which stands on St Peter’s Street, looks stunning with a fabulous new render finish, balcony area and stunning reception. In fact it looks so good that it won’t be staying empty for long, a tenant has already been found and moves in on the 4th August.

Amiri site team can’t leave University!

Having just successfully completed the first floor extension and refurbishment of the Music Block at the University of Chichester (pictured), Site Manager Tony Jenkins, Quantity Surveyor Dave Moore and Contracts Manager Neil Cole simply moved their cabins and settled back down to the next project on the campus. This time they have a multitude of things to do as it’s the Summer Works package which encompasses new lifts, refurbishments, extensions and a host of other elements. They’ll be hoping to leave University just before all the students return in September!!!

A touch of the continent comes to Chichester!

In amongst some stunning looking projects that we’ve completed over the last few months, including “the deck-chair” (Music Block, University of Chichester), Winton House and Ensign Way, Hamble, all of which are featured in this newsletter, there has been a real gauntlet thrown down by Site Manager Harry Richardson in his first project for Amiri.

Phase 1 of Chichester Trade Park, formerly known as Linpac, delivered 8 trade counter retail units for client Mecabury Properties and, unsurprisingly, they are already letting fast. Chichester based architects Miller Hughes and Southsea quantity surveyors Currie & Brown created a wonderful contemporary design, based on the sleek lines of continental industrial, trade and retail park units, and almost gave us enough money to build it.

With a bit of work from Bid Manager Andy Corry and CSC Engineers, who we recommended to the client team, we recovered a bit more money in the foundation and drainage design and were then able to deliver this wonderful scheme. Making sure we kept control of the cash from the Amiri side was Mark Formaggia and Neil Cole provided the Contracts Management support.

I suspect we may have a few more contenders for best looking project (not project manager!) coming up soon!

Our first Hampshire County Council project hits site!

Proof that we’ve really arrived (after three and a half years!) is that we’ve finally been awarded a Hampshire County Council project! After delivering countless education schemes for other clients it’s great news that we will get the chance to display our abilities to the biggest spender on education projects in the region and also get some public sector school experience in the bag! Cranbourne Business and Enterprise College in Basingstoke is where Site Manager Alex Pert and QS John Marsh will be showing their expertise whilst carrying out the £321k refurbishment of the science labs during the summer break. Early reports back from consultants Selway Joyce is that we are performing well and impressing all those that matter!

“On me ‘ead son!”

Having made a stunning debut in the Southampton Property Association 5-a-side last year, making the quarter finals and losing to an eventual finalist, an enlarged Amiri Construction squad made its way down to Goals at Millbrook Road, Southampton for the 08 event. Every event has it’s “group of death” and unfortunately this year we were in it. An early loss to the eventual group winners was never recovered and although we played some attractive football and won three of our remaining games we didn’t make it! The tournament marked the return to Amiri of Rob Emery who proved as capable as ever in defence.

So much going on!

Those of you that were at the company briefing in June, or simply read the Site List when it’s issued, will know that there’s loads going on. With Zillah Green joining us as administrative and reception support we will try to get these updates out a lot more regularly to keep you all informed!!

But remember – all good jobs come to an end! And with this in mind, if you do hear of anything please don’t be backward in coming forward with the details! Grahame, Kevin or Mark would be delighted to hear from you and let you know what’s going on! Above all, keep delivering projects to the excellent standards that we have been achieving and the work will come!!

New Arrivals

All the new arrivals have been mentioned elsewhere but it’s always nice to get the limelight!

Zillah Green joins is from Office Angels as our new Receptionist and Administrator, providing support to Debbie. She must be good as she wasn’t just a cv sent in from the Angels team but was actually employed by them! Already proving spectacularly cheerful at every hour of the day, and also a willing participant in the biscuit and cake eating in the office, Zillah is a very welcome addition to the office team.

Mike Seaton has literally just joined as Contracts Manager. In fact his appointment is so recent that I know nothing about him other than the fact that he’s relocated from the Northern Home Counties, is settling in Alton and will never be able to hide his car when he’s visiting site because of the number plate Welcome Mike!

Congratulations

To Kim Farrington on passing the latest in her long line of accountancy exams!