Four-Tees Engineers (FTE) is celebrating its 40th year since incorporation on 21st March 1986.
Founder and Chairman John Pettitt commented, “Starting a business now is so much more difficult than it was in the 1980s. For example, FTE has developed into an 80% design and project management company and a 20% fabrication company. Starting now with just high-quality certified fabrication would leave your offering falling well short of what customers demand. What really matters is how you can make your customers’ lives easier, deliver their projects more efficiently and remove risks.
I take great pride in seeing people we have brought into the business grow their skills and confidence and consequently prosper. Many of our leaders started out on the tools; some had no experience in steelwork at all, while others have gone from delivering pizzas to delivering major projects.
Around 2014, I realised that the time was coming for me to step back from the day-to-day business. Several of our long-standing FTE leaders were coming to the end of their working careers, and we needed a new, experienced leader with the skills to guide us through the next stage of our business journey.
I was fortunate to find the right person and appointed Civil Engineer Tim Stedman as Managing Director in April 2018. Tim carried out a business review, stripped out historical inefficiencies and introduced the best of the processes and systems that had served him well through his comprehensive main contracting background.
Tim went on to complete a management buyout and restructured the business, adding a dedicated commercial team, an estimating function and greater accountability for quality management, while maintaining industry-recognised assurances and accreditations.
Tim identified an opportunity to provide more reliable and efficient project delivery and established an in-house design service from scratch; the design team now annually undertakes circa £800K worth of design remits, incorporating structures, associated civil engineering, foundation design and temporary works.
Design appointments are undertaken directly for major customers, such as Network Rail and local authorities, and FTE recently secured a professional services framework with Southern Renewals Enterprise (SRE). In-house design also supports FTE design-and-construct projects for main contractors in our core markets of rail, highways, marine, energy, water and wastewater. The design team’s strong growth is a consequence of evidencing the substantial cost and programme advantages of in-house design in comparison with traditional fragmented project design and delivery approaches.”
Managing Director Tim Stedman adds, “I place enormous importance on the training and development of our people. All FTE Project Managers go through a management development programme, and there are graduate mentoring and apprenticeship schemes. In addition to educational and practical skills training, softer skills have been enhanced through HR and management-style training, including the delivery of a bullying and harassment training programme to all employees.
The business is continuing to invest in sustainable and carbon-reducing operations, with the growing adoption of electric-powered vehicles, 60% of FTE fabrication workshop energy provided by solar PV panels and its own research into real-world HAVS exposure and management. We have recently launched a specialist plate preparation process that significantly reduces cost and exposure to HAVS-intensive operations associated with preparing steelwork for International Standard ISO 8501-3. Part 3 of the Standard details the quality requirements for the preparation grades of welds, cut edges and other areas with surface imperfections for high-quality specified paint applications.
I am immensely proud to be part of a business that has successfully delivered projects for its customers for over 40 years and constantly evolves to meet economic, industry and market challenges. Front and centre is the FTE intelligent integration ethos, creating steel structures using an end-to-end design, fabrication and installation process that cuts out disconnects and conflicting priorities. Solutions can then be manufactured, installed and maintained efficiently and without complication.”
