Sub-Sight, and parent company Aspire Recruitment Group, got this summer’s entertainment calendar off to a flying start with a fantastic day out at Towcester Races last week.

The Towcester Races trip is just one of a Summer full of events planned for clients in 2009 with further events such as the final British Grand Prix at Silverstone, further racing days at the Cheltenham Festival and Ascot, a charity Sky-Diving event in aid of Global Angels and a ‘Beat the Recession’ seminar aimed at our partners in the construction industry.

These are just a few of the corporate events planned for the coming year:

• Friday 19 June – Sunday 21 June 2009 – British Grand Prix, Silverstone
• Tuesday 16 June – Saturday 20 June 2009 Royal Ascot
• Saturday 15 August 2009 – Global Angels Skydiving Event
• November 2009 (date TBC) – ‘Beat the Recession’ Seminars, Various Locations

Interested in taking part in one of our corporate events and networking with contacts form companies who can benefit you or your business?

Email or call Ashley Percival-Smith on 01604 609010 for more details.

Sub-Sight have agreed a partnership with construction intelligence giants Glenigan, and construction marketing company Quest Construction Marketing in a deal which will allow Sub-Sight clients to take advantage of market-leading business intelligence and leads live via the site.

Added features will include:

• A brand new look
• Project details via live feed
• Improved member control panel

Watch this space for more developments. Or why not contact us to find out what the new-look Sub-Sight can do for you?

Sub-Contractors – Why not find out more about advertising your business on Sub-Sight and taking advantage of our 100% money-back guarantee?

Click here to find out more and register your interest

Principal Contractors – Find sub-contractors local to your projects in Beds, Bucks, Cambs, Herts, Northants, Oxfordshire & Warwickshire

Click here to register for your free login

You’ve read and heard us shouting about Sub-Sight, and the inherent benefits to the UK construction industry over the past few months. At this point you would be right in thinking, “Why should I believe what they say?”.

Then we’d just ask that you take a read just some of the comments we’re getting back from your contemporaries in the building industry (you can read more on our testimonials page).

Here’s what people in the industry are saying about Sub-Sight:

Simple search system, user friendly menus and options… I think the more it is used, the more useful it will become… The potential for this site is considerable.

Richard Woolmore, Contracts Manager, Kier Marriott

I think you are on to a winner. Looking for good, competitive subcontractors has always been a problem for us and we tend to rely on people we have used historically. Having a good selection of contractors in the area where the job is will be great.

Steve Daya, Site Manager, Lodge Park Homes

The site is a very useful tool, especially in the current economic climate when tendering has become a much more open process.

Simon McDonald, Technical Director, Persimmon Homes

…Beneficial for us to use for works around that area, as much of the time the more general directories such as Yell.com do not provide the same level of background information given by Sub-Sight.

Neil Milburn, Quantity Surveyor, Starkold Construction

I think, in principle, the concept is a good idea… very easy to use… not at all complicated.

Darren Wright, Construction Director, Lagan Homes

Sub-Sight is set for a huge boost in exposure after parent company the Aspire Recruitment Group secured a deal to have an on-site presence at the London 2012 Olympic construction project in and around Stratford, London.

St Albans City Football club manager Steve Castle has declined to comment on his future after rumours surfaced that his contract has been terminated.

According to sources, Castle and club secretary Steve Eames have been made redundant following the collapse of Verry Construction

Saints chairman John Gibson, who was the man at the helm at Verry Construction, has been holding meetings this week in an attempt to secure the future of the football club. The club alledgedly has debts of over £500,000, but it is believed that developments relating to the club’s ownerships may be in place by the weekend.

The latest news comes after a meeting over a proposed scheme for a supporter’s trust.

Fans voted in favour of the trust and it was also strongly rumoured that the club was about to be taken over by Leadbitter Group, the Oxfordshire-based construction firm. There are strong rumours that Leadbitter have taken on John Gibson as joint-director in return for winning the Oaklands College development contract.

Prince Charles visited the site of an eco-friendly construction project this week and was left with a cut hand and a costly dry-cleaning bill after trying his hand at a bit of bricklaying.

The normally immaculately turned-out heir to the throne covered his expensive suit in cement dust and grazed his hand as he struggled to lift a clay building block at the site of the project, which is being constructed using all-natural materials.

Clay blocks, lime plaster and insulation made from wool are just some of the materials being used for the building at the Building Research Establishment’s Innovation Park in Watford, Hertfordshire.

“Price or Loyalty?”

… is this the question being asked by building firms during these financially trying times?

It’s well documented that certain companies, or more correctly, certain people, just work well together. After all, there’s nobody as reliable as somebody with whom you’ve worked alongside for years. They’ve delivered time and time again on site after site and have never let you down. At the very least if you have been let down you’ve put processes in place to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

So, without doubt, when that kind of professional relationship is built between a contractor and a sub-contractor – and the same can be said to be true within any industry – it tends to last.

Now, just throw the small matter of a major economic downturn – one that very few people alive have seen the like of – into the mix. The pressure which this type of financial climate brings can be felt in many ways and the construction industry is, historically, one of the first to be hit by such a downturn.

Despite the calls by economists for us to spend our way out of the recession, and as people inevitably stop spending money, businesses are forced to cut costs. Plain and simple.

So, the completion of projects on or under budget is a major concern in these times. Costs are driven down at each stage of each project. Subbies feel the pinch. Some may go under. Some have. Those principal contractors which do not react quickly enough to the financial contraction may also suffer. Some may go under. Some have.

So what is the net result of all this? Many companies will survive this financial crisis. A number will not. And what happens to the business relationships enjoyed in the past when at least one of the parties no longer exists? It is as if it has never been. What happens to the fantastic camaraderie enjoyed on site when a contractor is forced to drop a subbie because of financial constraints placed upon them by the company which has just taken them over? It’s as if it never existed.

So the upshot is that principal contractors are being forced to find new sub-contractors. Building firms are being forced to take work outside their usual catchment areas. Subbies are having to find new contacts at main contractors in order to find work.

Networking within the building business – a normally important process within any industry – becomes vital to the survival of any company at times like these. This is where a concept such as Sub-Sight comes in.

Then why is this online directory different to any other and why can it really make a difference to the construction sector? The secret is really to be found within the organisation behind Sub-Sight, the Aspire Recruitment Group – one of the largest independent recruitment agencies in the south of England.

Having been recruiting for construction companies for around a decade, Aspire consultants are in contact with over a thousand contacts at principal contracting firms every week. Thus, the Sub-Sight concept is fuelled by some of the best relationships in any industry, not just in construction. As a trusted recruiting partner to many of the largest building and civil engineering firms in the UK, Aspire staff have been there to advise developers from outside the geographical area on local subbies on many occassions.

What Aspire have done in this instance is to put a more structured process behind this by launching an online construction supply chain mechanism at a time when the industry needs just such a networking tool. Sub-Sight aims to connect principal contractors with sub-contractors

If you represent a sub-contractor based in Beds, Bucks, Herts, Cambs, Northants, Oxfordshire or Warwickshire, and your company is not already on www.sub-sight.co.uk, then please click here to register your interest and find out more.

Alternatively, if you work for a principal contractor why not click here to register, for free, for your login to Sub-Sight.