Clients working with us can be assured that by choosing BMR they are empowering just and fair business practice alongside responsible environmental management.
Rewind back to 2012, our owner and managing director Tom McDowell having previously served as a Royal Marine until 2006 was then working in construction management as an employee, where, as time passed, he felt unfulfilled and needed a significant change. A life changing event followed where he found Christian faith and with that a desire to start his own business simply founded on a principle that leaders should serve those they lead and the business should serve its clients.
Of course business life is not “neat and tidy”. The reality of running a profitable business in a risk adverse industry, highly dependant on a diminishing supply of tradespersons has often lead to times of severe pressure where the temptation to leave these principles behind has been strong. Thankfully though we come back and fix our eyes on what matters…our people and our integrity to clients.
Our Logo & Name
The multiple colours and design of our logo represents the coming together of different talents, skills and abilities, all crucial for success as one. The name itself, BMR, stands for “Build Maintain Renew”. Whilst this is obvious construction terminology, the words have primarily been chosen to set the aspiration of who we want to be. BMR should be a place where employees are built up and encouraged, where through honest and trustworthy business dealings relationships with our supply chain are maintained for the long term and finally where, when needed our employees have space for renewal.
What are our tangible commitments?
All these things sound great but what do we actual do to deliver this?
Personal Development
There have been a number of success stories within BMR where employees have come with no construction related qualifications and have worked their way through with our support to become qualified and achieve promotion the most recent example of this is Sebastian Webb.
Sebastian worked in a different industry until his early thirties, he wanted a change and came to BMR as a labourer. He pushed himself immediately and soon showed an interest in carpentry as a result we put him through a three year carpentry apprenticeship in which he finished top of his year. Within a short period of time after his qualification, it was clear that Seb also had management potential. He was encouraged to consider taking a management route in his career and after consideration Seb was placed on a management pathway through which he has and continues to excel. It is fair to say that both BMR and Seb have never looked back!
Stand Against Modern Slavery
BMR Construction Ltd undertake all business activities in full compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and are a “Strongertogteher.org” registered company. We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and we are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships. We have implemented effective systems, awareness training and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our own business or in any of our supply chains. These systems and procedures supported by the “strongertogether.org” toolkit resources and rolled out into our business.
Living Wage
It is the unskilled and semi-skilled labouring trades that are most at risk of financial distress and corporate abuse. At BMR we commit to paying these workers no less than £13.15 per hour which is the London Living Wage for 2024 , 26% above the national minimum wage.
Rest, Family Life and Mental Health
As a fixed rule we do not trade on a Sunday, or bank holiday, on occasion our workforce will work on a Saturday but their weekly hours will not exceed 45. We also support our employee’s through health care packages, mental health awareness training and free mental health care. We encourage openness about mental health issues, appoint mental health first aiders and clearly signpost where they can confidentially access help.
Supply Chain Health
We do not operate a “pay when paid” policy as our own payment terms with clients are often in excess of 30 days. We commit to paying all of our sub contractors within 28 days but we actually target cleared payment within 7 days from invoice and achieve this with 85% of our suppliers.
Environmental Sustainability
We recognise that construction has a serious potential to negatively impact the environment through bad management of waste and the use of cheap unsustainable materials.
In 2016 we became an ISO14001 accredited company. This accreditation is granted by an independent auditor and confirms as a business we have demonstrated that we have a systematic management framework in place to manage the immediate and long-term impact of our products and services beyond legal requirements. It also commits us achieving measurable continual improvement through a set of annual targets and results. We are independently audited on an annual basis and must provide clear evidence of complying with our environmental policies and systems.
