Cappagh Browne Partnership

Introduction

The partnership between Cappagh Browne and Conquip goes back over 10 years, with both companies working for the Water Company servicing the southern region in the UK.

The businesses work together to provide the client with proven service levels on both planned works and reactive, emergency works. With Cappagh Browne needing to respond to call outs 24/7, 365 days a year, it chooses and relies on Conquip to support teams on excavations across the entire region.

How the partners work together

Working on such varied, constrained sites and ground conditions, next to live gas, electric, telecoms, water and wastewater services, it comes down to having a reliable partner, like Conquip.

“Our relationship with Conquip goes back over 10 years, for as long as we’ve been operating on this contract. Given the scale of our operations, we need to respond 24/7, so we rely on suppliers who can support us across the entire region. Conquip has been able to do exactly that.”

Jeff Birtwhistle | MD, Cappagh Browne

In practice, what this means is:

• Design: A next-day (or less) turnaround time on temporary works designs from an in-house team, when required.
• A 24/7 call-out response if urgent works take place.
• Reliability and fast-response: From quoting to design and delivery, from invoicing to on-site technical support.
• Engineered Equipment: High quality, durable, engineered equipment, including shoring box systems, trench sheets and sheet piles, hydraulic braces, waler frames and a large range of essential safety equipment to secure operatives and the excavation.
• Hire Supply: Availability of kit to hire, to suit ever-changing needs.
• In-house FORS Gold transport service: Maintaining fast turnarounds for on-hire and off-hire of equipment.
• Technical Support: On-site support whenever, wherever needed.

The various teams at Conquip are always there to support Cappagh Browne with fast equipment hire and deliveries, design packages and technical expertise, for:

Emergency Works

Where Cappagh Browne delivers reactive emergency work on failed or exposed infrastructure, the priority is making it safe and operational again with minimal disruption to local communities, residents and the landscape, whether urban or rural.

“With Conquip, we can receive designs in under an hour, at any time of day or night, which is absolutely fundamental to what we do.”

Jeff Birtwhistle | MD, Cappagh Browne

Follow-On Works

This is a different requirement, with time to engage and the focus shifts to planning, design, and value engineering. Getting the right approach in the early stages makes everything smoother and safer as the project progresses.

Both types of projects present different challenges, but the same expectation of high-quality service, reliability and support throughout are needed from Cappagh Browne.

Innovation achieves safety and operational speed

Throughout the partnership, Conquip and Cappagh Browne teams have collaborated to ease operational challenges.

One example was a need to improve and simplify the ordering process for operatives – often working out of hours. Teams needed to specify all the main equipment, components and safety items on an excavation site. Forgetting items could cause delays to vital services being restored. To solve this, the teams developed a menu-style system, where several standard ‘set up’ packages were created with a set of all required components, including the boxes or frames, sheets, driving caps and extractors, edge protection, lifting chains, ladders and safety access equipment. This ensures everything arrives on site correctly the first time, with extras being added at the time or later if needed.

Additionally, both businesses worked together to develop an end waler strut. This component means Cappagh Browne operatives can safely support the ends of excavations while working around existing utilities running through the trench.

Finally, Conquip has supported a number of stand-downs events across the region, bringing equipment, and safety systems on-site to demonstrate best practice. The continual goal is to give Cappagh Browne confidence in what they’re ordering and using, creating a complete, end-to-end service.

“One of the reasons we are a strategic partner with Cappagh Browne on these projects is the infrastructure we have behind our business. From equipment to technical backup, design capability, vehicles, and delivery—we’ve built everything specifically to support a company like Cappagh Browne in maintaining the water network.”

Matt England | Director, Conquip