Month: March 2020

As we all know there is currently a huge effort being made across the country to prepare for the anticipated increase in COVID-19 cases.

Recently, we were approached to manufacture thousands of structural components that are urgently needed to build temporary hospitals for the fight against Covid-19.

That’s meant asking our staff, suppliers and support partners  to do everything they can to make sure the required products are manufactured and shipped as quickly as possible.

I appreciate many would prefer to be at home with their families and so I want to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to everyone for playing their part and going above and beyond.

We’re being extremely vigilant to ensure everybody still working on site, and those who make deliveries or service our equipment to keep it running, can do so in a safe environment that follows all the guidance set out by the Government.

BPC Fixings are proud to have been involved in a project that’s a real step beyond the expected.

We were recently invited to add our expertise and experience to what can only be described as the first ‘Stately Home’ to be built in Yorkshire for the past 200 years.

As far-fetched as a ‘new’ stately home may seem, we were called upon to play a major role in the construction of an entirely new structure, comprising the 10-bedroom Ravenswick Hall and associated buildings – including a leisure building, guard house, bat barn, service building and temple building. All of it, the vision of ADAM Architecture.

Where we came in was to work with North East Joinery company (T Brown Joiners LTD) to produce and supply all of the metalwork for timber construction in the hall and beyond.

The joist hangers and other products we provided were a combination of galvanised and high quality stainless steel.

Galvanised was used in the main house, guard house and service building, while stainless, with its higher resistance to corrosion, was chosen for the bat barn and leisure building where moisture levels would be consistently high.

In the roof of the leisure building in particular, our stainless systems contributed to an impressive beamed and vaulted ceiling that could easily last another 200 years or more.

While all the metalwork at Ravenswick Hall was hidden after roof completion, stainless steel has another attractive feature for building design, too: when polished to a reflective shine, or given a satin brushed finish, it makes a fantastic, eye-catching feature in exposed beams and other woodwork.

You won’t be surprised to hear that simply holding supplies of stainless steel in stock for any given time means a financial commitment that’s hard to justify for many merchants. However, BPC have committed to manufacturing a standard range of builders metalwork in stainless steel available for next day delivery across the UK. Ask your local merchant for BPC stainless steel fixings!

We’ll leave the last word to Tony Brown of North East joiners, who it was our pleasure to work closely with throughout Ravenswick Hall build: “I can honestly say BPC is the best fixings company we’ve worked with. Their knowledge and expertise is unrivalled, we always got a prompt answer to any queries, and their fast turnaround delivery dates were always met.”

With the emergence of COVID-19 all businesses have had to adapt to safeguard the health of its staff, suppliers and customers.  We’ve listened to the advice given by the Government and acted accordingly to ensure that we provide a safe environment for our team and that they’re kept up to date with all current advice from Public Health England.  The steps we’ve taken so far are listed below and we’ll continue to review and develop our approach in line with recommendations.

Hand Washing – All staff in the office and on the factory floor are asked to regularly wash their hands.  Hand sanitiser has been placed around both the office and factory.  All staff must wash their hands immediately upon entering the building.  Signs have been placed around the site reminding everyone to wash their hands for 20 seconds and to avoid touching their face.

Site cleaning – We’ve increased the frequency of both office and factory cleaning.

Office staff – Where possible office staff work from home.  Those in the offices must maintain a minimum distance of 2m from each other and follow the hand washing guidelines.

Production staff – All production staff will self-distance at their workstation and follow the hand washing guidelines.

Travel – Non-essential business travel has been postponed. This does not include deliveries which will continue as normal.

In addition to the steps taken to safeguard the health of our staff we have also taken steps to safeguard the health of our business and ensure that customers continue to receive the best possible levels of service. These include: –

Staff training – Cross training production staff so that they can operate other machines.

Shift patterns – Working with staff to individually identify suitable hours to accommodate school closures.

Temporary staff – Hiring temporary staff to provide sickness cover as required.

Seamless service – We are using market leading remote working software to ensure seamless service.

As part of The Vista Group, BPC is an extremely robust business and our team will pull together to continue to deliver on product quality, customer service and maintain our competitive prices.