Consultancy and Engineering Awards: Small is beautiful for Green Structural Engineering

Green Structural Engineering (GSE) has won the prize for Best UK Business Performance Small Business after impressing the judges with strong business growth, well sustained profit margins and a commitment to staff training with a real focus on maintaining the wellbeing and job satisfaction of each individual in the company.

The company started in 2008 and turnover and profit has grown year on year. Since 2013 turnover has increased by 36% to 2014 and 28% to 2015. Profit has been maintained at between 43% and 49% over the same period. The company was praised in the ACE SME Benchmarking study for its “astonishingly high profit margin” compared with the industry norm.

In the last year, GSE has taken further strides forward, launching a new, updated website which profiles the company’s work more effectively and moving into new, larger offices in March to enable the firm to grow in number while ensuring that staff would be in a comfortable work environment. 

Underlining the firm’s focus on all levels staff, GSE has implemented new training initiatives for its graduate engineers while also introducing a senior management training programme and business plan to triple the size of the company over the next three years. 

It hasn’t all been plain sailing for GSE, with the firm’s efforts to grow its CAD team made harder by difficulties in finding good and competent technicians to fit into the company dynamics. They have also lost some staff, who wanted to work on bigger projects, who have moved to larger companies. Through this adversity however, GSE has agreed a strategy to enter new market sectors in order to ensure that work remains varied with a view to increasing staff retention. 

GSE’s senior management team have led the firm’s focus on a more varied portfolio of work. They have maintained their current percentage of high-end residential work but increased the percentage of Temporary Works and Commercial projects undertaken in the office. External marketers have been hired to increase the firm’s profile in the marketplace and on social media and business development consultants have also been brought in to help.

A new and improved business plan is already paying off with new projects being won and extra staff being recruited. The firm is justifiably proud of a burgeoning reputation for being “very efficient, friendly and super professional” (according to one client) and their strong commitment to their staff, which is contributing to a strong and close-knit team.

Judges’ comments
“Green Structural Engineering demonstrated not only strong business growth, but also well sustained profit margins. This was largely down to an organised and well developed business plan which has recognised the benefit of not only investing in overall training of its workforce but also the need to maintain the wellbeing and job satisfaction of each individual. “

“With the introduction of new training initiatives for graduate engineers and the company’s acceptance on to the government funded Business Growth Accelerator Programme their ambition to triple the size of the company in the next three years was extremely impressive.”

Finalists
Buxton Associates
Skelly & Couch