SPOTLIGHT ON THE BALL
Tomorrow’s Contract Floors editor Sarah Robinson gets hands-on at
F.Ball’s newly refurbished Centre of Excellence to find out how the company is helping flooring contractors gain the competitive edge and closing the industry-wide skills and labour gap.
L-R: Rhys Tummey, Tim Green, Jake Skinner, Tom Clayton, Crispin Mabey, Harry Burr, Darren Berriman and Daniel Felgate.
On a Thursday morning in early October, I made my way to the Staffordshire village of Cheddleton to visit F. Ball’s newly refurbished Centre of Excellence and take part in the one-day Subfloor Preparation and Adhesive Selection course. This isn’t the first time that I’ve been to the facility but a lot has changed since my last visit.
Retail sales representative Rachel Sorroll is joining the course today as a number of her clients are also attending. Rachel explains how the company used the Covid lockdowns as an opportunity to revamp the facility and bring the seminar room within the practical area instead of being in a separate room as it was before. This was to improve the experience for contractors, facilitating a more hands-on approach rather than feeling like a formal classroom.
F. Ball runs courses throughout the year that are open to anyone within the flooring industry as well as offering bespoke packages at the request of individual companies. All facets of flooring installation are covered and new offerings include a three-day course on installing luxury vinyl tiles and a
14
four-day masterclass for apprentices on subfloor preparation and floorcovering installation.
While waiting for everyone to arrive, I grab the opportunity to chat to some of the contractors and what strikes me is how far they’ve all travelled to take part. A few are based in the Midlands but two have come up separately from London. Rachel tells me that attendees regularly travel from as far afield as Cornwall and Scotland.
Today’s group is made up of contractors from a broad range of backgrounds and with diverse levels of experience, I find out.
Crispin Maby, owner of London-based office fit-out specialist Octupus Interiors, said: “We work predominantly in central London and work on all aspects of office fit outs from supplying furniture and partitions to the flooring. We are mostly involved with carpet tiles at the moment but LVT is getting more popular and we fit entrance matting as well.”
“At the moment we hire contractors but I want to broaden my knowledge so I know what to look for and how to cost jobs
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