In January, our hard work and dedication to our clients and building contracts were recognised when we were crowned The SME of The Year at the South West Business Awards.
We’re proud to have always been Dorset-based so when we found out we were shortlisted for the event, naturally we were thrilled. The South West Business Awards recognise and reward the best achievements of businesses, charities and individuals that have made outstanding contributions to the region and their industry too.
Standing out in the crowd
The construction industry has certainly seen stormy weather over the last couple of years, but our pro-active approach and disregard for the all-too-common ‘steady as she goes’ mentality caught the eye of the judges. By grasping opportunities when and where they appear, we’ve been able to work with soma fantastic clients and ensure that our day-to-day workplace is an exciting, dynamic and positive environment to work in.
Over the years, our business and reputation have grown to the point where we can be proud to say that we’re the leading composite flooring manufacturer and installer in the UK with over 1,000,000m² of decking manufactured each year.
Centre left – Richard Brokenshire, SMD Operations Manager / Centre right – Dan Dawkins, SMD Construction Coordinator
Looking further afield
Our commitment to overseas work and many export projects successfully delivered were also contributed to our success. The judges appreciated that we had secured or undertaken construction contracts in a number of countries including Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Sweden, Qatar and Oman – and we’re on track to grow this list over the next few years. In addition, our work with a partner in Cyprus was also of interest, and we’re underway with a number of projects working alongside them.
Celebrating our success
Although we raised a celebratory glass (or two) on the night, we’re not resting on our laurels. Ben Pratten, MD of SMD, talks about our plans to undertake even more award-winning projects in the future:
“Our company is made up of a variety of personalities, ages and experience and it’s this diversity that makes the SMD family work so well together! Many of our staff are achieving long-term service recognition of 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years, with this strong foundation of dedicated people, we have no doubt we can continue to deliver the highest quality service to our clients and achieve our goals for the future.”
The next generation of talent
In recent years we have seen a number of our apprentices complete their qualification and flourish in the construction workplace. We are committed to developing younger talent into the company as we have seen new approaches to tackling everyday tasks and improve our business for the better.
Be part of our future!
We are always looking for talented people to join our team. If you feel you have something to give to our company, take a look at our Careers opportunities and apply for a role that suits you. If we don’t have a role available that you feel you can offer, we are happy to create new roles if we feel we find an exceptional person to join our team! Together we can build a future.