Chandos Timber Engineering has launched a sister company to handle groundworks for its timber frame building business.
Chandos supplies timber frames, floors and roof trusses to housebuilders from its factory in Rochdale, and now through Karmo Civil Engineering offers groundworks, including slabs, foundations and footings, drainage and site roads.
The wider Chandos group includes a civil engineering business, however, sales and marketing director John Sutton said the launch of Karmo was driven by the growth in demand for timber frame buildings and 30 jobs had been created.
He said: “It’s very much customer driven. The secret is getting the slab right and you have to work to very high tollerances. This is about taking control of the whole process, and it makes sense to our customers. There is no price premium and at the end of the day they know that the responsibility is ours.”
Karmo has completed work on a development at Salford Quays and has signed a contract with north-west-based developer PJ Livesey.
Chandos managing director Paul Abbott said: “We have grown rapidly and built our reputation by being strict on quality control and by taking responsibility for the groundworks ourselves we now have even better control.”
Mr Sutton said Karmo was growing rapidly and had a full order book with Chandos projects. The timber frame business was continuing to work with other contractors.
He was unsure whether Karmo could be the start of a trend. “If a forward thinking company wanted to go into groundworks there is nothing to prevent it. We will have to wait and see.”
