Despite the fact that we’re seeing economy concerns, Van Elle, one of the UK’s leading specialist geotechnical contractors, are continuing to surprise the competition and delight their clients with continued organic growth.

The latest success story to come out of the company is the expansion of their Geotechnical Services division who offer a range of site investigation and pile testing techniques.

The division’s expansion means a new team structure including promotions and new staff, new rigs, equipment and a larger site incorporating larger offices and workshop facilities.

Andy Johnston, Managing Director of Van Elle’s Geotechnical Services division says,

“We’re all really excited by the new challenge. Our growth is client driven and we need to grow in order to meet their requirements. Our new team structure and investment in rigs will enable us carry out a larger range of work with the same client-focussed attitude we’ve always had.”

The new fleet of rigs will allow the division to carry out rotary drilled boreholes to depths of up to 100m, through rock. This means the team can investigate things such as mine workings and wells.

The team’s promotions include:

Gary Baxter stepping into the role of Contracts Director who will be responsible for the day to day running of the division;
Mark Clewes who after five years as a Pile Testing Engineer on site is taking on the role of Pile Testing Manager;
Stephen Farrer who has been promoted to Contracts Manager from Geotechnical Engineer;
Richard Smith who has graduated from Graduate Engineer to Geotechnical Engineer responsible for geotechnical analysis and reporting;
and Annette Sharpe has taken on the role of Office Manager after four years as Operations Assistant.

“Clients trust us because we are reliable and flexible,” says Van Elle Group Deputy Managing Director Vic Handley,

“With clients hitting the press asking for reductions in prices it’s the perfect opportunity to work with them on value engineered projects for the most cost effective solutions. We can offer a fixed price lump sum if we do the SI and go on to install the piles and foundations.”

Van Elle have broken forecast expectations for their past financial year with their turnover standing at over £45m. This year the company has not only expanded the Geotechnical Services division, but also opened an Ireland division based in Limerick.

Interestingly, in a market consolidating with mergers and acquisitions, the growth is entirely organic and investment is coming from within the company itself. Even more ambitious plans for the next ten years means that Van Elle will have to continuously expand and innovate to achieve their targets.

The Group Managing Director, Richard Holmes says, “This is another major advance in Van Elle’s growth plans and we wish Andy and his team every success.”

The Geotechnical Services division will be operating from their new Sheffield base in February. They offer a wide range of geotechnical and environmental drilling techniques including rotary boreholes, cable percussion boreholes and dynamic sampling. They also provide added value services such as site supervision and borehole logging to British standards.