2025 has been a strong year for HW Martin, marked by award wins and a diverse market presence
The HW Martin Group of Companies (HW Martin) is one of the UK’s leading independent groups providing specialist solutions to the transportation, energy, and waste recycling sectors. Since its first local fencing contracts in the 1970s, HW Martin has grown substantially over the past five decades and now delivers specialist contracts for a diverse customer base across the country.
Headquartered in Alfreton, Derbyshire, the company has 21 strategically sited operations centres under Group ownership, providing comprehensive national services and encompassing several specialist businesses, including HW Martin Traffic Management Ltd, HW Martin Fencing and Forestry Ltd, HW Martin Safety Fencing Ltd, HW Martin Waste Ltd, Premier Waste Recycling Ltd, Lochrin Bain Ltd, Fewzed Ltd, and King Vehicle Engineering Group. 
HW Martin works with public and private sector organisations, and online it describes its vision as: “To deliver to our customers a fully integrated, seamless service. We have achieved this for over 40 years, and it is our mission to continue. We retain a motivated and well-trained workforce whose experience benefits every aspect of everything our customers ask for.”
Diverse customer base
Recently, multiple group companies have been delivering packages of work for HS2 across a range of specialisms supporting the client since the commencement of the early works in London right up to Birmingham. HW Martin is proud to have supported HS2 in achieving some complex engineering milestones, including the optimisation of a carriageway possession to enable the large bridge slide on the A46 Kenilworth. The bridge slide was completed 30 hours ahead of schedule, enabling the road to reopen earlier than expected, as HS2 engineers were able to slide a 14,500-tonne concrete box structure beneath the road. Now the UK’s heaviest bridge slide, the structure was pre-built on-site and allows high-speed trains to pass under the road.
2025 has been a rewarding year in the context of delivering a range of specialist services for a diverse customer base, including new opportunities in the defence and nuclear sectors. The company reports a particularly pleasing year within those sectors and ongoing consolidation with clients with whom it has had a longer-term relationship.
Furthermore, the Group continues to see the value in achieving client and sector recognition for its achievements. In fact, HW Martin (Traffic Management) Ltd was presented with two awards at the 2024 National Highways Industry Awards: the highly coveted Chairman’s Award and the Exceptional Contribution to Safety, Research and Innovation Award. These prestigious awards were given in recognition of the company’s work on the pioneering Sign Asset Monitoring System (SAMS), which was developed in collaboration with Virtus, Fewzed and Morgan Sindall and represents a transformative approach to highway safety.
Dedicated to safety
As an expert in traffic management, its services include both low speed and high-speed solutions that meet quality standards within a temporary environment, as well as a range of digital techniques that aim to create safer temporary environments.
Not only dedicated to safety, HW Martin is also investing significantly in green initiatives. With over £100,000 already invested into a facility in Essex with solar power, rainwater harvesting, EV charging points, and feeding electricity back into the grid, sustainability is highly important to the PAS 2080-accredited group.
Gold standards
HW Martin has continued its investment in cyber security and business continuity in recognition of the internal and external risk from cybercrime in the rapidly developing digital age. The company outlines its commitment to cyber security with Group COO David Shaw observing, “Cyber security becoming a standard expectation and minimum of public procurement. It is vital to evolve to and eliminate reliance on human intervention by embedding gold standard information management and cyber security into all operations.”
When asked about the importance of people to HW Martin, David explained that “from investing in the environment to investing in its employees, HW Martin has become a significant employer across many sectors. The traffic management business continues to offer entry level careers in the highways sectors, and offer a unique opportunity for anyone from anywhere, to thrive and develop with a progressive career in the highways sector.”
Collaborative approach
Collaborative approachThe HW Martin (Traffic Management) Ltd website states: “We want each of our employees to have the opportunity to achieve their personal best, whatever that looks like for them. The People Development Academy ensures our people receive regular training to help them thrive in their roles and stay at the top of their game. We work closely with our staff to develop personalised career progression plans that are designed to help them reach their full potential. Our People Development Academy is advantageous for our clients too as it ensures their projects are carried out by competent, capable experts that possess exactly what it takes to deliver the very highest of standards.
“The Academy allows us to offer comprehensive apprenticeships and traineeships, which are a crucial part of our succession planning, and strategy for combatting the industry skills shortage. Our apprenticeships and traineeships are open to all but are particularly aimed at underrepresented groups in the community such as those who are NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) and not from a construction background. We provide a structured training plan, personalised to everyone, and a vital step up into a skilled profession with the promise of further development.”
HW Martin also emphasises that all employees of the Group share its core values, which incorporate team and collaborative working, efficiently meeting customer needs, sharing knowledge across the business, supporting each other, welcoming ideas, rewarding commitment and high performance, aligning employee satisfaction with customer satisfaction, and ultimately putting the customer first.
With such outstanding achievements to build upon, and despite some uncertainty in relation to the UK economy, HW Martin’s success looks set to continue. Its unique offering and customer focused approach to client relationships across a mature range sectors provides a positive outlook for the forthcoming years.