Springbridge quick-thinking helps Tendercare grow money on trees.
The Background
Tendercare was sub-contracted to complete the soft landscaping by a major construction company whose contract was to rebuild roads for the Tottenham Hale Gyratory system for transport provider TfL (Transport for London).
Tendercare had just four days to plant over 30 mature trees near a busy bus station. Their regular supplier’s plan to deliver 240 tons of topsoil all at once and in one place would make the project unmanageable - and costly - requiring Tendercare’s planting teams to use dumpers to move the soil.
The Solution
Tendercare’s project manager Neil Hawkes contacted Tom Hawkins, sales director of Springbridge and asked for advice.
Tom listened to the problem and then recommended an excellent solution.
Tom had realised that the answer lay in staging the deliveries of topsoil, and offloading the soils using grab lorries synchronised with the ground staff as they planted each tree along the length of the roadways. Tendercare were using two man teams to complete the planting. If the topsoil for each hole could be delivered just as the operatives were planting the tree, there would be no need for machinery to move soil around the site. Nor would there be any mess to clean up afterwards.
Neil was convinced of the benefits of Tom’s plan and Springbridge were awarded the contract for the supply of topsoil.
Tom arranged for the hire of a 20-ton grab lorry over the four day period. His staff loaded the lorry with Springbridge’s own blend of topsoil and they ran three deliveries a day over four days to the Tottenham Hale site.
Staff from both companies worked closely with each other by mobile phone to co-ordinate timings. Deliveries were made just when they were needed and soil was offloaded directly from the lorry into the prepared hole as each tree was planted.
The Result
Tendercare were able to
• Keep their staffing level low – two man teams were kept productive over the four days
• Save money by avoiding the need to hire machinery
• Save money by avoiding time consuming tidying of site
As a bonus, Tendercare won further soft landscaping work with the consortium leader (a major construction company) because of the efficiency they had shown.
Neil Hawkes is unstinting in his praise of Springbridge. “Now I talk to Tom a lot when we’re working on a big project. We put our heads together and always work out a solution that saves money. That’s the extra value Springbridge add.”
Case Study independently researched by Ciaran Nagle of Case Study Global on 3 Nov 2011. 
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