Vetter UK

Proud of the contribution we're making towards these targets, which underline our commitment to industry decarbonisation.

We were delighted to sponsor the Women in Natural Stone (WINS) event which took place on Wednesday afternoon in a very rainy Manchester. The event was hosted by our own Christine Ellis in her role as WINS Regional Ambassador. She was joined by 11 ladies from across the industry and guest speaker Chris Heffernan of MPG at Browns restaurant in the heart of the city centre to lunch, learn and connect. Following a delicious lunch, the group had their stone knowledge put to the test with a ‘Where in the world?’ quiz, where they had to guess the location of the stones in the nine pictures. Despite the answers being at the top of the quiz sheet, it’s fair to say that 99% of the group decided they were going home to study that evening! The quiz was swiftly followed by a session from Chris on the delivery / consenting of natural stone quarries and stoneyards, how the UK is sleepwalking itself into a lack of building materials and reducing the value of all things of “local distinctiveness”. This prompted many questions and a lively discussion afterwards on future proofing the natural stone industry, material selection and encouraging the value of “local distinctiveness”. Thank you to everyone that attended and made the event such a success, and special thanks to Chris for giving up his time to come and provide a talk to the group. #vetteruk #womeninnaturalstone #womeninconstruction #naturalstone

Vetter are also currently recruiting for project managers, engineers and site installation operatives following recent project wins. If you are looking for your next role and a new challenge, please get in touch with our team - email enquiries@vetteruk.com to find out more.

It was our pleasure to take part in the 2024 UK Passivhaus Conference last week delivering a masterclass on Passivhaus facades. The event was organised by the Passivhaus Trust and hosted by University of Oxford, Laing O'Rourke and partners at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in Oxford. During the two-day event, our business unit leader, Mark Dellar, shared the design, manufacturing and assembly solution for the façade and detailed how this solution has stepped up to the Passivhaus challenge for thermal and air-tightness requirements. In addition to the developed design solution, our team has also developed a very detailed inspection and test plan regime, with corresponding check sheets. These sheets will be used as verification documents issued to the Passivhaus institute for final certification. The day 1 masterclass also included presentations from Steve Holland, Laing O’Rourke project director, Jennifer McCulloch, project engineer and Owain Dobson, CHT’s operations leader. The Schwarzman Centre is the largest building project ever undertaken by the university and is expected to be the largest Passivhaus building in the UK with the world’s first Passivhaus concert hall. Passivhaus means that the heat losses from the building are reduced to such an extent that little heating is required. Instead, most of the heat comes from “passive” sources, including the sun, internal kit and appliances, human occupants, and warm air. The building is optimised for energy performance, combining an air-tight build with triple glazing, high performance insulation and specialist ventilation, ensuring that the building remains ambient while providing high air quality, so it’s healthier for occupants too. In fact, the insulation used in the façade alone is enough to cover three football pitches. 100 photovoltaic (solar) panels will help to provide renewable electricity to the building too. 

In 2021, the Women In Natural Stone (WINS) group was founded to provide an opportunity for women within the natural stone and wider architectural/construction sectors to connect and to encourage the next generation of women into the industry. Fast forward 3 years and WINS continues to go from strength to strength, led by inspirational chairs Becca Cranfield and Tamsin Pickerall, supported by the Stone Federation Great Britain, and now an incredible team of regional ambassadors located across the UK. In her role as Regional Ambassador for the Manchester area, our very own Christine Ellis will be hosting the next Women in Natural Stone event, a #lunchandlearn, on Wednesday 9th October at Browns Restaurant in central Manchester. Vetter UK are delighted to be sponsoring the Lunch and Learn event with Chris Heffernan of MPG as special guest speaker. Places are limited, so if you haven’t already done so, please email sara@stonefed.org.uk to secure your spot now. The event is open to all women in the natural stone, architectural, design and construction industries. We look forward to seeing you there! #wins #womeninnaturalstone #womeninconstruction 

We are proud to be sponsoring the 2024 Manchester Women In Natural Stone event and look forward to welcoming everyone to Browns in October.

After 19 years with Vetter UK, this week we say goodbye and good luck to our Senior Commercial Manager, Emma Gorrell as she takes the next well-deserved step in her career within the main Laing O'Rourke group business. Emma joined the Vetter UK team back in 2005 as a Graduate Quantity Surveyor and as part of the Laing O’Rourke Graduate Management Programme. During her time with the company, she has progressed through the ranks of Quantity Surveyor, Senior Quantity Surveyor and Commercial Manager to her current role. Over the years, she has worked on a wide variety of projects across the UK and Eire, and although a tough choice, her project highlights are the cladding, flooring, hard landscaping, and restoration works on the Trinity Shopping Centre in Leeds and the restoration and conservation of the Manchester Cenotaph. Looking to compliment her on the job training, Emma studied for an MSc in Quantity Surveying and Commercial Management which she achieved in 2009, she became a member of the Institute of Chartered Surveyors in 2016 and has this year achieved her Fellowship of the Institute. This is a testament to not only Emma’s hard work and dedication to her own career, but that of the next generation of Quantity Surveyors. Emma, we wish you every success in your new job role. Thank you for everything that you have done for Vetter UK over the last 19 years, we’ll miss you!

‘A legend’ ‘An expert’ ‘A real professional who is dedicated to his craft’ ‘An ambassador and shining example of all that is good in our industry’ The above are all quotes from colleagues to describe Mike Barbour, who this week enters retirement after an incredible 47 years with Vetter UK and the Laing O'Rourke group. The epitome of providing certainty through the #powerofexperience, Mike’s passion and enthusiasm for natural stone remains as strong today as the day he started with the business. Over his 40 years in the natural stone industry, Mike has worked on many restoration/conservation projects as well as large-scale new build schemes, most recently on the 30,000m² hard landscaping package for the new Everton Stadium in Liverpool. A fitting project to finish what has been a glittering career. Mike began working life in 1977 as a Pupil Productivity Controller for Laing Construction in their Building Division before quickly progressing through to the role of Resource Planner on the Carlisle Lanes in the early eighties. In 1984, he moved to the Laing Stonemasonry operation to take charge of the restoration of All Saints Church in Halifax, together with other stonework contracts in Yorkshire and Lancashire, before he was appointed Area Manager in October of 1985 based up in Edinburgh. He was then promoted to Contracts Manager in 1987 supervising the restoration phases of projects in the Carlisle, Newcastle and Manchester areas, working in close partnership with Architectural practices throughout the UK. Since the merger of Laing Stonemasonry and Vetter UK in 2004, Mike has taken on the role of Project Manager and Senior Project Manager on a vast array of projects across the UK including Manchester Town Hall & Central Library Transformation, Manchester Cenotaph relocation, Westgate Shopping Centre, Oxford, St James Quarter, Edinburgh and many more. Throughout his career, Mike has excelled and become a trusted specialist in the restoration and conservation field, with extensive experience working on Grade I and Grade II listed buildings. He gained in depth knowledge into the sensitivities and complexities of heritage works, revelling in finding a solution to any problem or challenge he faced. Such is his technical expertise; he has written documents internally to support the development and understanding of the Vetter UK team and has worked with a team of others from across the industry to review and update BS 7533-102. Mike has always had a desire to educate others by supporting, mentoring and passing on his knowledge to the next generation of stone specialists and he has continually played his part in developing the talent within Vetter UK. We feel incredibly lucky to have benefitted from Mike’s talents for such a long and sustained period of time. Wishing you a long, happy, healthy, and well-deserved retirement, Mike. Thank you for everything over the past 40 years, we are really going to miss you. 

Residents and visitors to West London are starting to see the Olympia redevelopment emerge following the removal of scaffolding and supports to the stunning main façade along Hammersmith Road. Vetter UK is responsible for the completion of specialist repairs to existing stonework for cosmetic purposes, the deep clean of the central façade to remove all types of green growth, as well as the application of special paint coating to ensure quality and pattern visibility of the historic façade was brought back to what it was previously. Additional works also included stone replacement and pining of significant damages or defects, stone stitching, realigning of dislodged stones and the installation of new ‘1929’ reliefs under the existing reliefs to recreate a little bit of Olympia history. Following the completion of the restoration works, we are delighted to have now commenced work on the internal wall and floor tiling package to the new Hyatt Regency Hotel. Our team are set to deliver 4,140m2 of wall tiling and 1,060m2 of floor tiling to 204 guest bathrooms and lift lobbies across the seven floors of the hotel, as well as tiling to the ground floor reception area and back of house areas. Works commenced in June 2024 and are due for completion in Q1 of 2025. We also look forward in due course to undertaking the tiling to the Wetherby Pembridge Senior School, One Olympia offices, inclusive of 14 floors of tiling to bathrooms and terrazzo flooring to lift lobbies and lift cars, the citizenM Hotel and the Olympia Theatre, as well as the hard landscaping package which will include paving to Olympia Way, the Public Realm and Olympia Roof Garden. #redevelopment #exhibitioncentre #hotel #school #restoration #conservation #cladding #tiling #hardlandscaping #stone

Ever wanted to play on the hallowed turf of your favourite premier league football team or abseil down a skyscraper tower in the centre of London? This month members of our team were lucky enough to take part in both of these activities in aid of three wonderful charities. On the 22nd of May, three members of our team working on the new Everton stadium project, Jacob Stranack, Pawel Chajdecki and James Colman, had the opportunity to swap their work boots for football boots and follow in the footsteps of many of their footballing heroes by playing on the pitch of a premier league football team. Play on the Pitch took place at the current home of Everton Football club, Goodison Park in aid of the incredible charity, Rally Round Rupert, who are raising awareness and funds in support of clinical research for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). All participants enjoyed a fantastic evening and raised much needed funds for a very worthy cause. Last Friday, James Gregson and Daniel Gomolka took part in a charity abseil in aid of The Lighthouse Club and Chickenshed Theatre. They had the opportunity to descend from Level 32 (around 150m above the street level) to Level 4 of One Leadenhall, an iconic new tower in the City of London which Vetter UK are helping to deliver for client Multiplex. Both described the experience as incredible and once in a lifetime, with the most daunting part being the step over the edge to start the descent – we are in awe of their bravery. Whilst they very much enjoyed the experience, both admitted to also enjoying the feeling of firm ground under their feet again when they hit the bottom. Well done to all members of our team who took part in both events, we are very proud of you all.