Build Magazine May 2016

Build Magazine 22 Thomas Bell-Wright International Consultants is a privately-held Dubai based company providing Testing, Inspection and Certification to the building construction industry under multiple accreditations. We spoke to Tom Bell-Wright to find out more about the company itself and to hear his thoughts on the construction industry at present. Please give me an overview of your company and the services/ products you provide. Thomas Bell-Wright International Consultants is a privately-held Dubai based company providing Testing, Inspection and Certification (“TIC”) to the building construction industry under multiple accreditations. We are in our 20th year and employ over 80 people. Our main business lines are Façade Consulting (principally third party design review and inspection of curtain walls), Curtain Wall Mock-Up Testing, and Fire Compliance which comprises fire testing for Resistance-to-Fire, Reaction-to-Fire and Fire Propagation in facades; Passive Fire Protection Inspections and Product Certification. How long has your company been established for in this industry? What changes have you seen during this time and how have you adapted to them? We have been in Dubai since before MacDonalds. I myself came to Dubai in 1993 to oversee the installation of the curtain wall on the then tallest tower in the Middle East. The company was established in 1995. We recognised the need for testing and had the first permanent curtain wall testing equipment in the region. From there, laboratory premises were established to provide the full range of performance mock-up testing. In 2007, it was recognised that there was a need for fire testing, and from that has grown our present Fire Compliance business. When undertaking a new client or project what approach do you use to ensure the best possible outcome? For us, the ‘best possible outcome’ is that everyone is happy. For our clients that often means that their product or system passed the testing, but equally, we have to be nice to work with and do a professional job – and they have to appreciate the value that our services have created for them. For us, happiness is seeing our clients happy and not having too much hassle in getting paid. A happy client will speak well of us and will come back: that is the best possible outcome. What sets you apart from other companies in this industry? What marks you out as the best option for your clients? We strive to be nice to everyone, we think that being nice is extremely important, particularly in business where we interact with so many people and spend so much of our lives in doing so. Within the wider industry, how do you distribute your knowledge and experience (for example, do you speak at industry conferences or write literature on your area of expertise)? Yes. We participate in a half dozen or more industry exhibitions and conferences a year, and are increasing the amount of speaking participation. We also contribute articles on cladding and fire-related topics to industry magazines, some on a regular basis, some occasional. Please give us an overview of your industry currently? Have you had to overcome any challenges that have strengthened your company values? Our little corner of the TIC / Building Products industry involves us a lot with the cladding fires which have received so much attention over recent years. I hasten to mention that our company appreciated the danger of the ACP cladding very early on and tried to bring it to general attention in addition to warning our clients. We are now installing the equipment required by the new local codes in order to test materials for new projects, and participating in discussions on how to reduce the potential for fires in the large number of buildings which still have this cladding. What are your overall aims and what strategies do you employ to achieve these? We want to provide a range of services contributing to the safety and value of buildings in our adopted home and neighbouring countries. We want to expand into new types of testing where these are extensions of work we are currently doing, and also into new markets besides buildings, such as the oil industry etc. What is your most successful project to date and what has been the most important thing you have learnt from working on this? One project does stand out – the National Museum of Qatar. This was a huge project for us, far exceeding in overall scale anything we had done before – in fact we had to rent new premises in order to accommodate it. There were many challenges, starting with the architectural design which was made to resemble the mineral formation call ‘desert rose’. However all was successful and the result was high on the happiness scale for everyone. Do you have any new projects/business ventures you would like to share? We are in the process of relocating to new premises that are 3 times the size of Special Feature Ones to Watch for 2016: Construction UAE