Warren Access owners, Michelle and Graeme Warren. PROBLEM SOLVING
Warren Access has been solving work at height problems for decades. Dan Jenkins finds out about their niche in the increasingly crowded powered access hire sector.
A
client threatening you with a prison sentence if a job goes wrong would be
enough to send most hirers running for the hills – but not Graeme Warren. He’s built a business on the back of solving problems and still thrives on doing so. “My eyes light up when a client comes to us with a real challenge,” he says.
His company, Warren Access, which he co- owns with his wife Michelle and Dad Derek, regularly provides access platforms to work on listed buildings and historic monuments across North-East England and the East of England. “We had one client who needed pigeon netting replacing on a site of major religious and historical significance. They warned us that it’s a criminal act to damage the fabric of the monument. For some people that might scare them off but for us it is exactly the type of problem we love to get our teeth into.
“It was a real puzzle in terms of working out how to get an access platform across the
site and then deploy and elevate it, but we solved it. The job itself might take minutes but the planning is the most important stage. On the client’s side, you have a lot of nervous people who are trusting you to get it right. But we get to work on some of the most historic buildings and sites in Newcastle and the wider region and as a proud Geordie I absolutely love that we’re helping to maintain these landmarks.”
Warren Access is based in, Cramlington, Northumberland, and also has a depot in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, which it acquired when it bought independent rental company Height for Hire in 2013. Warren Access was originally founded in Newcastle in 1993 by Graeme’s dad, Derek. Derek previously worked for Marshall Branson Plant Hire, which folded in the early 1990s.
“Derek was known as the man to call if you wanted a vehicle-mounted platform,” says Michelle. “He was still getting calls after Marshall Branson collapsed, so we helped him set up on his own. He was 53, had worked there for more than 30 years and knew the business inside out. He was applying for other jobs and asking us to help with his CV. But he had such great contacts and experience that we thought he could make it working for himself.
30 YEARS OF
Warren Access has depots in Northumberland and Cambridgeshire.
20 Executive Hire News - October 2022
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