Moving west and north starts to reap dividends for Hardies

Two years into its five year Master Plan to develop new markets in Glasgow and Aberdeen, Hardies Property & Construction Consultants has announced that it is on track to achieve a million pound turnover between both offices for 2015-16.

The firm also says it has plans to double this again the following year.

Hardies, one of Scotland’s largest multi surveying firms with fourteen offices across Scotland and a Head Office in Edinburgh, opened its Glasgow office in 2012 along with offices in Helensburgh, Paisley, Hamilton and Kilmarnock.

Now employing 10 people, the Glasgow office operates out of Hillington Innovation Centre, a location which has given the firm the opportunity to double its floor space.

A new senior building surveyor, Mark McCabe, has recently been appointed to head up this aspect of the business in the Glasgow area.

Turnover for this office is currently £440-£450k, with the office on track to easily double this next year.

The Aberdeen office in the Granite City’s Spademill Lane, has been bolstered by the recent news that the firm has been appointed to Aberdeenshire Council’s framework for Building Surveyor services, a contract which should see our Aberdeen office turnover increase to over £1 million in the next year.

It too has appointed additional Building Surveying staff with Gareth Cordiner joining the firm as our Senior Associate for Aberdeen.

Derek Ferrier, Managing Partner for Hardies, said: “We are delighted with the way these two important offices are performing for us. Through offering residential surveying we have significantly increased our overall turnover. Now by offering both building and valuation work, and by becoming a framework supplier for Aberdeenshire Council, we are on target to increase our turnover again this year.”

“With Glasgow and the West of Scotland, we had a set plan to expand here, “said Derek. “It started with our acquisition of Barr Brady – who had a strong foothold in Glasgow; it was a good move for us. We did set a five year plan to achieve our full potential in both the West and the North East of Scotland as it takes time to grow and find the right staff. We are strong on valuation surveying services so tend to start with this as a core business and then widen out to dedicated services like Project Management, Building Surveying, Quantity Surveying and Health & Safety services.”

As Derek Ferrier outlined, Hardies now offers many new services such as its Dispute Resolution Support Service, designed to provide clients in both the public and private sectors with an opportunity to resolve problems without adopting formal Dispute Resolution procedures.

The firm has embraced new technology too such as BIM, (Building Information Modelling) with quantity surveying staff currently having a Level 2 working knowledge of the discipline before the Government requirement of 2016.

“The construction industry is indeed undergoing a digital revolution at the moment,” said Derek. “BIM is a new way of working, it is information modelling and information management in a team environment. BIM creates value for the combined efforts of people, process and technology. All our team members should be working to the same standards as one another – this is essential.”

Mr Ferrier added: “In both locations we are very much here to stay here and are establishing ourselves into the business community for each City. We have plans to open offices in England and become a UK wide operation – that would be the next logical step. We will watch the market closely and see what economic conditions prevail but our strategy has always been to use downturns to assess the people we have on board, to take stock of our services and to embrace technology so we are ready for better times. This has served us well.”

Hardies, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2013, serves clients in both the private and public sectors with a complete operation in property and construction development, including property valuation, building and quantity surveying and project management.

The firm also handles the leasing and sale of commercial and industrial buildings; H&S Principal Designer and the provision of Energy Performance Certificates. Altogether, Hardies employ over 100 members of staff, professionally qualified in various disciplines.