A group of North East businesses is celebrating after securing major contracts on a huge regeneration project. Artech Lighting and Apex Core – part of the Apex Group of companies – were selected as suppliers for the £60m Egham Gateway project, in Surrey.
The major regeneration project is part of a £200m scheme by Runnymede Borough Council to develop the area, which is 19 miles outside the capital. It will see the construction of over 100 homes and over 100 student apartments, with communal breakout and study areas.
The Apex businesses will supply lighting fixtures and fittings and prefabricated utility cupboards – which provide a central hub for heating, ventilation, electrical, communication and metering services – to the project.
Apex Managing Director, Dave Lewis, said: “This is a really satisfying win for the Group and reflects the team effort adopted when targeting these large-scale regeneration projects across the country.
“In the last few months, we’ve put a great deal of effort into developing innovative products that not only help speed up the construction process, but also help to make the project COVID-safe.
“Our Core Utility Cupboards are perfect in aiding socially-distanced installation and also reduce program times by days, if not weeks, as they make traditionally time-consuming processes incredibly quick.”
Artech Lighting will supply its Tenus, Flowline and Prolight fixtures to the project as well as developing a couple of feature lights for the common areas. While Apex Core will deliver hundreds of their prefabricated utility cupboards to the Egham Gateway.
Apex Group Sales Director, Paul Hopps, said: “It’s great to secure this work and again helps raise the profile of the of Apex Group businesses. There are also significant programme and commercial benefits we can pass on to our client when we win group deals of this nature. It’s even more satisfying to see projects like this continuing as we look at how we rebuild the damaged UK economy.
“UK businesses must back each other if we are to successfully bounce back from the rigours of the COVID lockdown. It’s not going to be quick and it’s not going to be easy, but if projects like Egham Gateway continue to appoint British suppliers and buy British products, we’ll help bring some stability back to the economy.”
The Egham Gateway scheme is just one of a series of project wins secured by the Apex Group in 2020, which company management believes is, in some part, down to industry recognising the benefits of using modern methods of construction to reduce on-site worker interaction in the post-COVID world.
“While safety has always been paramount on construction sites, COVID has only intensified that need,” added Dave.
“The Core is installed by one trade at a time, resulting in a huge reduction in interaction and aids social distancing. In addition, our modular wiring takes hours off electrical installation times and can be installed by far fewer electricians, reducing operatives on site. Coupled with this all of Artech’s lighting range can be fitted with the Apex connectors making installation tool free and extremely quick. The reduction in on site labour and the removal of electrical terminations and wiring genuinely make sites safer.”
Founded in Durham, England, in 1980, the Apex Group has forged a global reputation for the supply of cable, modular wiring assemblies and accessories for high and low-level power distribution systems. It employs around 100 people at its Durham City headquarters.