THE Goodrich name has come a long way since its formation in 1992. A company built around one man’s passion for the construction industry and a desire to provide the highest quality consultancy service to private and public sector clients.
Richard Goodenough founded the company and 25 years on, Goodrich are celebrating all their achievements right from the office above the garage where it all started.
“I burnt the candle at both ends for a number of years in the early days of Goodrich but at least it was a short journey home at the end of the day,” said Richard.
Just two years later, with a staff of three, the company relocated to its current base in Gayton Road, Milton Malsor. This enabled Richard to continue to develop the business using his experience as a Chartered Quantity Surveyor from various building contractors including HBG, Midland Oak, Wilcon Construction and Stewart Construction.
The initial days above a garage are quite ironic given the first project Goodrich secured was on behalf of Tanswell Motors for a car showroom for Vauxhall/Rover in Towcester. “Geoff Yeowart who owned Tanswell was our first major client and the car showroom (now VW) is still there off the A43/A5 roundabout. Site meetings were held in the local pub in Greens Norton which Geoff said was much less formal than a site cabin.”
After building successful relationships with developers, consultants, main contractors and suppliers, Goodrich has become known in the industry as specialists in ‘Sheds’ – distribution facilities for blue chip developers, retailers and funds.
At the turn of the century Goodrich continued to develop its range of services with industrial/commercial and office appointments from local Northampton developer, Hampton Brook, adding the care home, education and healthcare sectors to their portfolio, all of which the team are keen to expand on into the future.
A crucial venture into the industrial market in 2004 enabled Goodrich to branch out into a wider forum – acting as project and cost managers on a major distribution facility for Graftongate, who remain one of Goodrich’s oldest clients. The site was let to the Co-op who went on to appoint Goodrich as part of their team for Project Lidia, providing distribution facilities across the country. With major facilities being built in Thurrock, Birtley, Andover, Avonmouth, Castlewood Nottingham and Scotland, Goodrich was now officially UK-wide.
As a result of the influx of work Goodrich outgrew their office, now occupying a whole floor with conference facilities at Malsor House in Northamptonshire, providing an ideal location, situated centrally in the UK with links to the M1 and all major road networks.
April 2013 saw Mark Plowman, Paul Riley and Richard Goodenough form Goodrich Consulting LLP as Equity Partners. With a dynamic and vibrant partnership structure, Goodrich strengthened the expertise and value their clients have come to appreciate.
Goodrich continues to innovate and add to their diverse consultancy to this day.
“The delivery of our ‘on time, on budget and to the highest quality’ ethos, together with our proactive approach to our contracts, ensures we provide a unique service to our clients regardless of the size and complexity of the project,” said Richard.
Whilst modernising and restructuring has its place in creating the successful project and cost managers they are today, upholding the Goodrich values has guaranteed a return client base.
“Although we work on large scale projects across the country, we still have an attitude of a family-run business offering a professional and personal service, ensuring we are always available to our client,” said Mark.
Goodrich maintains this outlook as they continue to be one of the leading construction consultancies in the UK. With numerous appointments from Legal & General over the last 10 years, Goodrich has become one of their top specialist project and cost management consultants in the Industrial sector.
Projects
Over the last 25 years Goodrich have worked on a variety of projects – producing a great repertoire and an excellent reputation. Known as ‘shed experts’ in the construction industry Goodrich gained this impressive title after carrying out significant industrial projects for clients such as, Hampton Brook, Graftongate, Travis Perkins, Roxhill Developments, Co-op, Debenhams, Goodman Logistics, Barwood Capital, db Symmetry, DHL, Wrenbridge Land, Darby Investments, UK Mail, Legal & General and many more blue chip companies.
Following the successful completion of the Thurrock project, Goodrich were appointed directly by The Co-operative to partner on a number of new schemes modernising their logistics network. These facilities ranged in size from 420,000 – 550,000 sq ft, full turnkey solution, temperature controlled providing an energy betterment of a minimum of 23 per cent from the Birtley facility. All units achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating and further appointments with The Co-operative are on the cards, including sites all the way up in Inverness.
Goodrich acted as project and cost managers for a new stylish, contemporary office building The Pinnacle in Central Milton Keynes for Hampton Brook Developments in 2005. This prestigious multi-storey office development was made up of three buildings with 205,000 sq ft net lettable space. The building benefited from many innovative features and won the Sustainable Achievement Award at the Property Week’s Office Development Awards 2009.
In 2007 Goodrich broke into the healthcare market and have, to date, successfully delivered over 35 care schemes from residential through to secure facilities for a variety of clients including BUPA, Avery Healthcare and St Andrew’s Healthcare, building substantial expertise in this sector.
Soon after the success in the healthcare sector, Goodrich had the opportunity to enter into the education sector where they were selected to act as project and cost managers on the merger of Bedford High School for Girls and Dame Alice Harpur School to create Bedford Girls’ School. This was a challenging project with a seven-week construction period in order to complete the works in time for the start of the new school year. Goodrich has now successfully carried out six projects for Bedford Girls’ School.
Following on from the success of this project, Goodrich has continued to develop their education portfolio with various institutions including Hazelwood School, Marymount International, Stamford Endowed School and Northampton School for Boys.
In addition to education they’ve also had success within the area of sport and leisure, having delivered indoor sky diving centres for iFly, a competition swimming pool and an outdoor playing field with a club house. The Goodrich portfolio also includes projects involving the Imperial War Museum, Bradgate Park Visitor Centre and they are currently working with Merlin Entertainments.
In recent years Goodrich have built up a strong relationship with the Travis Perkins Group having managed over 20 new TP branches and Wickes Home Improvement Centres throughout the UK.
Goodrich recently completed two major distribution hubs for parcel delivery giants DHL. The first a new 142,350 sq ft DHL Express Headquarters and Parcel Sortation Hub in Poyle and the second a 232,506 sq ft extension and turnkey to the existing aviation hub at East Midlands Airport. Another impressive project was for UKMail, with the creation of a new National 189,450 sq ft sortation hub and a 32,500 sq ft detached three storey office building for the new UKMail headquarters.
Goodrich are thriving in the current construction market and have many developments on site and at pre-contract stage. These schemes include a new care home facility for Taylor and Taylors Shires in Shipston-On-Stour and new Performing Arts Centres for Marymount International and Bedford Girls’ School. Marymount reappointed Goodrich after the successful completion of their kitchen and dining hall extension the previous year. There are also a number of opportunities in the pipeline with local developer Barwood Capital, in particular the new office refurbishment at Riverside House, Northampton.
The industrial market today is showing real growth and Goodrich have been awarded some major appointments, including a new development for Equation Properties in Raunds, a new project in Gateshead for Legal & General and two new schemes in Desborough for Hampton Brook.
They continue to flourish in the care and education industry and are looking to expand on the amount of work carried out in these sectors, extending into student accommodation. With their ‘multi room’ expertise this is a natural fit for their skill set and the team are currently looking at a number of projects in this sector.
Who we are, what we do, our ethos. Team & looking to the future
The Goodrich of 2017 sees a much larger team of construction consultants that are renowned throughout the Midlands and beyond for quality and reliability.
The 25-year milestone also marks Richard’s move from Partner to Consultant, with a focus on the marketing function within the company. Goodrich continues to welcome new business with the market showing growth and a healthy portfolio of work. The next quarter century looks full of promise with a refreshed senior team as Partners, Mark and Paul introduce Tom Lo’ Monte and Laurence Alden as Associates.
Paul continues to grow the education, leisure and healthcare sectors within Goodrich and with a background as a Chartered Builder, he brings a wealth of experience into this long established firm.
“It is an absolute pleasure working with the Goodrich team. We have a great mixture of youth and experience which brings a real vitality to every day and helps the firm function in a proactive, forward thinking way,” said Paul.
Mark brings a real depth of experience from the industrial sector in various roles for funders, occupiers and developers, giving a real breadth of technical knowledge unparalleled within the industry.
“A huge part of our business is within the industrial development sector and the majority of this is from repeat work, recommendations and referrals. We see ourselves as an extension to our clients’ existing businesses. This record really is a credit to the Goodrich team and how we react positively to our clients’ needs,” said Mark.
Goodrich has taken part in a range of charity fundraisers over the years with a Charity Ball at Whittlebury Hall, raising nearly £30,000 for Northampton General Hospital. They recently Cycled 4 Cynthia raising over £3,000 and also arranged a sponsored two-hour spin-a-thon raising another £2,500 for the Cynthia Spencer Hospice. With the Goodrich Charity Poker event taking place later this year, in aide of the Alzheimer’s Society, the team at Goodrich are always on the lookout for opportunities to lend their support to local and national causes.
Goodrich continues to grow as a business with new team members joining this year. Their graduate scheme encourages industry training through the professional body Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and the Association of Project Safety (APS). Training enables them to harness the strategic knowledge within the company whilst fostering and developing the potential of the next generation within a Partnership structure.
They came runners up at last year’s SME Northamptonshire Business Awards for Velocity Business of the Year and have an ever-growing team of experts advancing them into the marketplace.
The Goodrich team would like to say a massive Thank You to all clients and industry colleagues for the support over the last 25 years and they look forward to working with them in the future.
