Nurture News December 2014

ISSUE 14 | DECEMBER 2014
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Welcome
Welcome to the winter edition
of Nurture News and our
bumper crop of stories. We
are delighted to be joined
by our new colleagues from
JMK Groundcare who became
part of the Nurture family in
October. Nurture is a truly
national operator with the
ability to service clients across
the UK, across single or multiple
sites. Winter is a particularly
busy time, whether clearing
leaves, tending seasonal plants,
gritting sites and delivering our
carefully sourced Christmas
trees. Unlike Santa, we don’t
visit just once a year; we’ll be
back to remove the trees and
recycle them for compost.
Best wishes for the festive
season, and a happy and
healthy new year.
Peter Fane Managing Director
Inside...
Acquisition Heralds
Nationwide Coverage
Environmental Innovation
Reaps Rewards
Outstanding Community
Initiative Praised at
Chiswick Park
Broadgate Blossoms at
City Awards
The Mighty Quins Win Again
Supporting Wetherspoon
Nationwide
Operation
Christmas Tree
Like Santa and his elves, the Nurture team has been working hard through
the night to transform interior and exterior spaces with a glittering array of
Christmas trees. While Santa has his reindeer and sleighs, Nurture has lorries,
mobile platforms and cranes. The logistics are on a military scale, involving
250 trees across 100 sites.
Manoeuvring a 22 foot tree into a 5 star hotel, while sleeping guests remain
undisturbed, requires great skill and experience. Eight hours later, as breakfast
is served, guests marvel at the arrival of a fully dressed tree, adorned with
the hotel’s own decorations. This year two trees were supplied to The Four
Seasons Hotel with custom-built stands which were engineered in Nurture’s
workshop. Nurture rises to even
greater heights outside, installing a
33 feet tree to Computer Associates
into a tree pit to guarantee safety
through all weathers.
Lights are an essential feature of
every tree and Nurture installs these
too. This year around 15km of lights
have been positioned, with 890m on
a single tree. While larger trees have
to be dressed on location, Nurture
can pre-decorate trees up to 10 feet
in height, minimising installation time
for clients.
Acquisition Heralds
Nationwide Coverage
Nurture’s goal to serve clients nationwide has been
achieved with the acquisition of JMK Groundcare
in Scotland. The four additional premises increase
Nurture’s depots to 21, spanning from Aberdeen to
Exeter and boost total staff numbers to more than 300.
The well established JMK brand is being retained
until spring while all its operations are seamlessly
integrated into Nurture’s. Clients and staff are
already experiencing tangible improvements of
being part of a larger family owned business:
• Significant investment in new IT systems
• New open plan offices for an enhanced
working environment
• Tenfold increase in telephone lines
• Additional storage areas
• New staff uniforms
• Detailed and documented health and
safety induction
Client communication is being enhanced with
more feedback and reporting, leading to improved
planning and less reactive maintenance. As JMK’s
founder, John Kiltie, gradually withdraws from the
business, operations are being managed by Director,
Peter Stubbs and Regional Contracts Manager, Drew
McLanachan, who will be happy to assist with any
enquiries. The business has been further strengthened
with the appointment in November of John Rocks as
a Contract Manager based out of Kilmarnock.
Broadgate Blossoms at City Awards
With its trees, seasonal and perennial
plants and hanging baskets, the
City of London can rival its West End
neighbours for colour and
pageantry. Nurture is equally at
home in the capital or country,
working with Broadgate Estates
ISSUE 14 | DECEMBER 2014
to bring nature to the city. The
efforts have been rewarded with an
award for ‘Outstanding Contribution
to City of London Green Spaces’
from City in Bloom. Three full time
Nurture staff maintain the planters
and shrubbery, including the iconic
croquet lawn, considered to be “the
largest and most tended-to square of
grass in the Square Mile.”
www.nurturelandscapes.co.uk
ENVIRONMENTAL
INNOVATION
Reaps Rewards
Pioneering environmental initiatives
for landscape maintenance at the
Wellcome Trust Genome Campus at
Hinxton in Cambridgeshire have been
recognised with two industry awards.
Nurture has secured a principal
Grounds Maintenance award from
the British Association of Landscape
Industries (BALI) and a Green
Apple award in the Science and
Technology category.
Nurture has an on-site, full time team
of eight who are responsible for
more than 130 acres of landscaped
gardens and Wetlands Nature
Reserve. The site encompasses
grassland meadow, ponds, shrubs
and woodlands. Care for the
environment is high on the agenda,
and Nurture recommended a series
of measures to reduce its carbon
output. Utilising waste oil from
the kitchens on-site, Nurture staff
manufacture their own biodiesel to
power all the maintenance vehicles
such as tractors and ride-on mowers.
An alternative to petrol, called
Aspen fuel, is also used which
delivers lower servicing costs and less
carbon discharge.
Jayne Proctor, Facilities Manager for the Wellcome Trust, commented:
“This is a tremendous achievement for the team and the Campus.
A vast amount of hard work has gone into reaching and
maintaining the high standards of grounds maintenance which
in turn has given us these awards and benefits the Campus.
The grounds are diverse; we are fortunate to have formal lawns,
sports facilities, meadow areas and a walled orchard for Campus
staff to enjoy. The team is extremely dedicated to the site and
its hard work and commitment to continuous improvement has
certainly paid off. Well done!”
OUTSTANDING
Community Initiative
Praised at Chiswick Park
Instilling the importance of the
three Rs – REDUCE, REUSE
and RECYCLE – in the younger
generation has generated a Global
Business Award at Chiswick Park
in West London. Nurture’s team of
four provide eco-tours for classes
of school children, which include a
visit to the 100,000 strong wormery
that disposes of 50kg of food
and green waste each day. Any
excess green waste is mulched or
composted. Planters around the
33 acre site are changed twice a
year, with many seeds grown in the
park’s polytunnel.
Scott Jules
Nurture has also been growing
its own talent. Scott Jules,
who started at Chiswick as an
apprentice, is now team leader.
He has completed his Level 3
Diploma in Horticulture with all
training delivered at the workplace.
The Mighty Quins
Win Again
The most extensive renovation of the
Twickenham Stoop has been hailed
a success, scooping two national
awards. Nurture received a BALI
Award in the Sports Grounds and
Leisure Facilities category. The Stoop
was also a finalist in the Rugby
Union Grounds Team of the
Year award by the Institute of
Groundsmanship. This team award
highlights the very best sports turf
management at a rugby club within
an existing league structure.
The Stoop is home to Harlequins
RFC as well as being a valuable
community asset. Nurture and its
full time groundsman, Paul Sykes,
were entrusted with relaying the
Premiership club’s surface during the
summer, replacing the top 30mm,
reseeding with new sports grass and
installing new drainage.
Joanna Debs, Operations
Manager at Harlequins, said:
“Since Nurture joined us just
over 2 years ago, they have
stepped on board to support
our journey of becoming one
of the best rugby clubs in the
world, on and off the pitch.
The support team that Nurture
has provided us with are
passionate and exceed all
expectations of their contract
with us. There is increasing
demand over the years for us
to be in a position where we
are winning medals and I
have no doubt that Nurture
are the team that will help
support us achieving our goals.”
Supporting Wetherspoon
NATIONWIDE
Award-winning pub chain J D Wetherspoon has appointed Nurture as its
national landscape contractor for new build and renovation projects.
Since August, Nurture has completed or is working on 33 projects, with
more in the pipeline for 2015. Many of these involve converting existing
car park spaces to beer gardens,
involving hard and soft landscaping,
artificial turf, planters and
enchanted (fibreglass) trees.
Nurture also helped deliver
Wetherspoon’s first pub in the
Lake District, the conversion of the
former police station and
magistrates’ court in Keswick.
ISSUE 14 | DECEMBER 2014
www.nurturelandscapes.co.uk
Nurturing Talent
Recognising hard work and
devotion above and beyond the
call of duty is central to Nurture’s
philosophy. People are the heart of
the business, doing what they enjoy,
and encouraging others by sharing
that enjoyment. Nurture operates a
reward scheme to recognise those
who have gone the extra mile, and
the latest winners are revealed below.
Managing Director of Nurture,
Peter Fane, commented:
“I would like to add my thanks
and congratulations to the latest
award winners. Whether in the
office, a workshop, or client’s site,
every member of the Nurture team
has a vital role to play. Well done.”
SOUTH
Ray Bystram – Foreman based at
Nursery Court in Surrey
NORTH
Steve Dady – Workshop Mechanic
based out of Rishton depot
near Blackburn
Colin Veitch – Depot Supervisor
at Manchester
Dave Langtree – Landscaping and
construction at Rishton
SOUTH WEST
Neil James – Mobile Foreman
working across Wiltshire
Fast Track
to Success
A spectacular year for Nurture
has been sealed with an entry
in the Sunday Times Virgin
Fast Track 100.
Nurture secured 92nd place,
with compound annual sales
growth over the last three years
of 48%. Managing Director,
Peter Fane, commented:
“This is a fantastic
accolade for all the
Nurture team and
our clients and
we look forward
to scaling new
heights in 2015.”
Tim Hayman, James Lyall,
Kevin Joseph, Kyle Leslie –
The team at Aztec West Business
Park in Bristol
Peter Rundle, Darren Hobbs –
Cardiff Gate Retail Park Litter Pickers
Peter Stubbs and Steve Dady
Neil James and Kate Smith
Inspire Us!
We hope that you enjoyed this newsletter and discovered something
new about Nurture. If you want to know more about us, or have any
news you would like to share, we would love to hear from you.
Colin Walkinshaw and Colin Veitch
Nurture at a glance
326
EMPLOYEES
124
Email: [email protected]
MOBILE
TEAMS
Nurture Landscapes Ltd
Nursery Court
London Road
Windlesham
Surrey, GU20 6LQ
24
STATIC SITES
26
DEPOTS
Tel: 01344 234000
Fax: 01344 234001
Email:[email protected]
www.nurturelandscapes.co.uk

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