What an exciting morning for our marketing team, a trip down to Ashton Gate to attend the marketingSHOWCASE Bristol.
 
The room was filled with marketing professionals from all industries coming together to share expertise and advice as well as giving away some merchandise (a few particularly nice cupcakes were up for grabs). Many were in attendance offering services to help businesses expand their current marketing activities and improve on points they may currently be insufficient.
 
This was an amazing experience for our digital marketing apprentice Zoe who got to speak with industry professionals who gave her valuable guidance on ways to improve Bray & Slaughters own marketing as well as the future options available to a current marketing student.
 
Exciting times ahead as we explore our new connections.

So today Bray & Slaughter proudly celebrated “Dunk-a-Donut” Day for the Bristol Dementia Action Alliance a local non-profit making community based project mostly resourced by volunteers. The group operate on the generosity of sponsors, donations and goodwill and are working towards enabling their communities to become more dementia aware.

To support this local project, not only have we been dunking donuts but we have been raffling a drinks hamper with a fantastic selection of alcoholic beverages and snacks worth over £200 in value. This would not have been possible without the kind donations of alcoholic beverages received from Barb Dollin of Accolade Wines

Special thanks to Barb for your super kind donations and to all those that purchased a ticket for the raffle (employees, family and supply chain) you are all wonderful! As you can see BDAA were so happy to receive the funds from the proceeds of the raffle. 

Huge congratulations to James Bosley site operative at our Whitchurch site who was the winner of the hamper. 

So earlier this week we had a visit from Tony Hall from Bristol Dementia Action Alliance.
 
In 2022, BDAA launched its awards to organisations, businesses, schools and groups helping to increase awareness of dementia within their group and community.
 
We are proud to announce that during the visit we received a Bronze Award for recognition of the actions that Bray & Slaughter have taken to increase dementia awareness. 
 
Tony and BDAA’s small team of volunteers are doing some great work in the local community trying to raise awareness of dementia and endeavouring to make Bristol a dementia aware city. 
 
Fancy a dementia awareness workshop delivered by Tony at your premises? Then head over to the BDAA website https://bdaa.org.uk/

Following some recent successful project awards, we are excited to announce the arrival of two new employees to the B&S business.

To further support our commercial & operations functions for these projects, we have appointed an Assistant Quantity Surveyor and a Trainee Site Manager.

Kieran Green and Ben Deane have joined us following the completion of their undergraduate studies at the University of the West of England.

A warm welcome was extended to Kieran and Ben together with an informal meet and greet over a delicious breakfast.

Welcome to the team Kieran and Ben!

This week we have been focusing our efforts on raising awareness of mental health and loneliness. Each of us will experience a degree of loneliness at some time in our lives and by highlighting ways to overcome this we can all do better at spotting the signs or just reaching out.

Just by asking a simple question like "how are you?" could change someone's day for the better.

Some interesting mental health discussions took place in our office and on sites with our supply chain and operatives. Sharing time, experiences and conversation, raised awareness and brought people together not just in a work capacity.

During these discussions, we also took part in a mental health quiz and surprisingly learned that in 2021, mental health issues were the primary reason for lost working time. COVID-19 cases were in 2nd place.

We are marking the beginning of March and St Davids Day with two exciting new appointments to Bray & Slaughter.

With over 40 years industry experience between our two new starters, we are pleased to welcome Jon Cooke who joins as Operations Director following a successful career in senior roles with several Tier 1 contractors, and Tyrone Davies who takes up the role of Health, Safety, Environmental & Quality Manager to continue our excellent track record safely delivering construction projects across the region.

Welcoming both gentlemen to the team our Managing Director, Grant Jefferies commented:

"We have been seeking to enhance the quality of service we offer to our Clients and build upon the good work we deliver across the region. Adding professionals of Jon and Tyrone's ability and experience to the business signals our commitment to continuous improvement and I am looking forward to working closely with them both going forward".

A look through our archives has identified this charming photograph from circa 1957, identifying our former Managing Director, Sydney Richard Slaughter (seated second left) prior to the commencement of his second term as President of the Builders Federation.

The wall mounted plaque behind details his previous term in office back in 1941 and the eagle eyed amongst you will not the names Setter (Stone & Co. now Stone BCI), Pearce (now Crest Nicholson/ISG Plc), Cowlin (now Balfour Beatty Plc), J H Perkins (now John Perkins Ltd), J Scull (now Emcor).

There has been an obvious change, businesses have changed, but is also great to be able to look back at our roots whilst feeling excited about the future.

We are pleased to announce that we have secured an internal design project at Keynsham Civic Centre to improve capacity and enable more collaboration between teams.  Originally constructed in 2014 it has been the council’s office through a phased transition from the City of Bath to Keynsham. 

This facility was previously awarded the best place to work after providing an environmentally sustainable, low maintenance and flexible workspace, whilst acting as a catalyst for the regeneration of the town. 

Working collaboratively with David Kent Architects the design and construction will change the internal layout to create flexibility as a workplace office environment. 

Keynsham High Street is a thriving shopping area and we are committed to minimising any noise and disruption on the Keynsham Civic Centre redesign scheme - from its start to finish. We will work with retailers and community groups and provide regular updates to keep people informed about the work as it progresses.

We are excited to continue our working relationship with Bath & North East Somerset Council through the local authority’s four-year contractor building framework.