Design & build powerhouse, Concorde BGW Group, is broadening its services to new horizons 

Where design-build prowess meets engineering excellence, Concorde BGW Group (Concorde) offers a wealth of project management and fit out expertise. Specialising in interior and exterior fit out for the hospitality, commercial and public works sectors, the company is renowned for delivering award-winning, bespoke solutions for a wide multitude of applications, continuing to impress its clients time and time again. 

Construction & Civil Engineering last spoke with Sophie Oldfield, Operations Director, back in 2024, when she discussed the company’s approach to cultivating a positive corporate culture whilst maintaining strong client relationships. In our interview, Sophie also shed light on Concorde’s growth trajectory and its plans to upscale its business into new markets. Today, we reconnect with Sophie to learn how these plans have progressed since we last spoke and what may lie ahead in the company’s next chapter. Sophie starts by reflecting on Concorde’s past year and all the developments that have taken place. 

 “We’ve continued to grow. Our headcount has increased, which of course, presents its own challenges in maintaining the family culture of the company, but it’s also exciting because it means that the business is doing so well,” she begins. “We’re diversifying into different markets and sectors and are picking up commercial projects as well as some new local authority regeneration contracts. We’ve also focused on bringing in new technology and infrastructure; we’ve got a new CAFM system and we’re exploring how AI can assist our customer service journey.” 

Proven success 

Diversification into new markets has played a key role in Concorde’s growth strategy. Traditionally working on projects within the hospitality sphere, the company has faced its fair share of challenges as the market’s fluctuated, particularly following the Covid-19 pandemic. However, its highly skilled team have applied their expertise to new sectors, resulting in sustainable growth and expansion for the company. 

 “It can be hard transitioning into new markets. We have spent a lot of time finessing our tender writing process to get a seat at the table, but it has really paid off and we’re now working with lots of different local authority and commercial clients, word of mouth really helps too especially within the local authority sector. It’s been important to reassure and show these new clients that you’ve got proven success on similar contracts. Historically, we’ve focused on hospitality projects, but over the past few years, we’ve been diversifying into regeneration work with the local authorities around our office bases, and we’ve also taken on some large commercial projects,” Sophie explains. “After Covid, we learned that, by moving into new markets, we could level out some of the curves that come from predominantly working in hospitality. It’s been a great success for us and we’re picking up more reactive and planned maintenance contracts with other hospitality groups alongside those we already work with too, which is testament to the level of service our FM team provide. 

“One core project we are currently on site with is a disused bank in the Peak District, which we are repurposing into a new public house. It will be a flagship for the Longbow Venues group and will be something very special for the market town of Bakewell. It’s great to be opening pubs when pub closures have been publicised so much recently. We’ve done lots of jobs like this before. These buildings are usually listed, so there are lots of planning restrictions we need to consider, but we love the satisfaction of doing exciting large projects like this, and our team know how to get the best out of these beautiful buildings. We work across large and small projects as well as our maintenance services but its jobs like this one that really can make a difference to a small town and in turn the local economy too.” 

Investment programme

With so many interesting projects on the horizon, Concorde has implemented a new digitalisation strategy, investing in additional technology to help streamline its project management and onsite processes. 

“We’ve been trying to do this for a few years and have never quite found the right system, however we’re confident that we’ve now found the best fit,” Sophie says. “People can sign onto site with an iPad with all the documents and permits on, rather than having a site file. It’ll save us lots of time and costs in the long run as we won’t be sending out these large files. We want everyone to be safe on our site, so it’s really important that we do anything we can to make that easier.” 

Concorde’s overall investment programme is centred around innovation and development, focusing on how it can further improve its operations for its clients and workforce alike. Over the past couple of years in particular, the company has invested heavily into its Nottingham operations, purchasing and refurbishing a new office that brought all its teams under one roof. As a testament to this advancement, Concorde achieved the title of SME of the Year at the Constructing Excellence Awards for the Nottingham region. What’s more, Concorde’s Managing Director, Richard Wilson, was awarded Fit Out Leader of the Year, further exemplifying the company’s success. 

 “We’ve invested a lot into our Nottingham operations over the past couple of years. We bought a new office there, undergone a full refurbishment, and brought all our teams under that one roof to provide reactive and planned maintenance services,” Sophie reflects. “Winning the award was amazing and meant so much to the team. The recognition for the changes we’d made gave us all a real morale boost.” 

Springboarding off its previous successes, Concorde is excited to continue to grow and evolve, expanding its services and solutions to new horizons. With its digitalisation strategy in place, the company is well-positioned for the future, moving forward with its dedicated team to take on more projects, both designing and building. 

“We want to really embed our new software within the team so that it becomes second nature, and we can move forward positively. We’re going to continue to look at new clients in new markets; there’s a lot going on at the moment and it’s shaping up to be a very exciting year. We’ve currently got the biggest design team that we’ve ever had and we’re working on a great range of interior design projects. We have such a robust set of skills within the business; no two days are the same,” Sophie concludes.  

www.concordebgw.com