News

Tony Cottee Signs for Rudridge!

We are delighted to announce that Tony Cottee, former West Ham, Everton, Leicester and England football player, has joined the company in the position of ‘Marketing Executive’. Tony has worked with Rudridge on various projects over the last 4 years and will be combining his role with Sky Sports and other media commitments.

Tony’s objective is to help promote and raise awareness of the Rudridge ‘brand’ and service. This includes assisting the company with the strategy planning, advertising, public relations, organising and attending events, sponsorship opportunities and research.

Tony is pictured right with Directors Alan Betteridge and Robert Rudd at our Customer Football Day and after recently meeting the team at the Brentford Branch.

We hope you will join us in wishing Tony every success in his challenging new role.

‘Rudridge 6-a-side Football Tournament'

Rudridge were delighted to recently hold the annual ‘Rudridge 6-a-side Football Tournament’. Held on Friday 10th June 2010 at the home of West Ham United, ‘The Boleyn Ground’ (or as it is better known, Upton Park), it was fantastic to experience playing at a ground steeped in history and tradition, with greats such as World Cup Winning Captain Bobby Moore having graced the pitch.

Not only was everyone excited about playing at the ground, but also playing alongside famous football personalities. The football ‘legends’ who attended the day included our host Tony Cottee, Nigel Winterburn, Viv Anderson, Ray Parlour and Julian Dicks. As well as having one of our legends playing in each of the 10 participating teams, each player provided us with the benefit of their coaching skills (which was certainly needed!!)

A competitive and very enjoyable tournament saw ‘Bretts Bullets’ face ‘Stantons Strikers’ in the Grand Final. A well contested and competitive game was eventually won by Bretts Bullets who were quick out of the blocks and produced an excellent team performance. Former Liverpool and West Ham striker Don Hutchinson was influential on the winning side, proving he had lost little of his ability since his playing days!

The winning team members were, Paul Harvey (Goalkeeper), Terry Bollard (Captain/Bretts), Jamie Whetton, Graham Heneghan, John Brightly, Neil Davies and Legend Don Hutchinson

‘Savage Shooters’ were the Wooden Spoon winners, proudly captained by Dean Boyce.

Many thanks to our sponsors Marshalls, Day Aggregates, Rouden Pipetek, Charcon, Milton Pipes, Naylor Drainage, Stanton Bonna, Brett Landscaping, Peter Savage, Wavin and Aco PLC.

‘Rudridge 10 Year Anniversary Charity Ball'

Rudridge are very proud to have recently celebrated the 10 year anniversary of our company.
To help mark the occasion, a party was held in a Marquee on the football pitch at Selhurst Park, the home of Crystal Palace Football Club.  Hosted by David ‘Kid’ Jenson, approximately 350 people attended and were entertained by hilarious comedian Ian Irving, and amazing Brit School Pupil.... singer Shanice Smith.

After the entertainment, the serious business of raising money for our nominated Charity ‘P.O.R.T.’ (see below) begun.  Ian Irving was an incredible auctioneer and managed to raise an impressive £3.5k from the auction.  Assisted by the raffle and a donation from Rudridge, we were able to raise a grand total of £8,500 for the Charity.  A huge thank you to everyone for being so generous, especially the companies who donated prizes for the auction/raffle, and the successful bidders on the auction.

The evening ended with music from Live Band ‘Payback’, with some classic ‘Dad Dancing’ moves on view from the men.

A memorable evening and one that we hope to repeat at our 20 year anniversary.

P.O.R.T

As well as celebrating our anniversary, we were delighted to also use the evening as an opportunity to raise money for a very worthwhile cause.  We had recently received an email from a friend at one of our Suppliers, informing us of a very brave 6 year old girl called Daisy Palmer, who is suffering from a very serious and rare condition called C.I.P.S. (Chronic Intestinal Pseudo-Obstruction).  The email asked if we would be able to offer help in any way, to raise awareness of the disease, or where possible raise money to fund urgent research.  The timing of the email made perfect sense to help Daisy and the Charity, and so subsequently, with great pleasure, we offered our support to the P.O.R.T (Pseudo Obstruction Research Trust).

Damon and the Charity would really appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes of your time to click on the link to the website to help raise awareness of this very rare condition.  www.port-charity.org.uk.  Under the index heading 'PORT Stories', you can read details on Daisy’s story.

Click here to see the gallery of photos from this event!

‘NEW BRANCH NOW OPEN!!!!'

We are delighted to formally announce, the opening of our new Branch in Brentford, West London. This essential new Branch will provide us with the facilities needed to support, service and develop our growing customer base in this area.

We are proud to have established a reputation for offering an exceptional ‘user friendly’ service, and hope that our existing customers can see how beneficial this additional Branch will be. We would of course welcome the opportunity to introduce our company to those who do not know Rudridge, or may be interested in learning more about us.

We hope you will join us in wishing the Brentford team every success for the future.

Please Contact Us At:

12 Transport Avenue
Great West Road
BRENTFORD
Middlesex
TW8 9HF

Tel: 0208 569 8888

‘Northfleet Nursery'

Click on image to enlargeRudridge were delighted to recently support our local ‘Northfleet Nursery’ by supplying one of our lorries and a driver for the Northfleet Carnival. All of the Mums’ from the Nursery arrived early at the Gravesend Branch, and spent many hours decorating the vehicle. As you can see from the image, the result is very impressive!! We are told that both the children and the Mums, had a fantastic time.

‘South Pole Success!'

Click on image to enlarge‘Do Something Different’ is the current theme for Children in Need and Murray Howitt, Marketing Manager for concrete precaster Stanton Bonna, did exactly that – and walked to the South Pole!

As one of a team of 7 novices led by two polar experts, travelling on skis, living under canvas and pulling 55kg sledges, Murray walked the 180 km to the Pole to complete the unfinished polar attempt made by Sir Ernest Shackleton 100 years ago. Shackleton had to turn back or die of starvation and Amundsen claimed the Pole a few years later in 1911.

Late January marks the end of the Antarctic summer, so along with a few sunny days, Murray and his team mates also endured whiteouts, winds in excess of 80 mph and wind chill temperatures down to a bitter -45ºC. The team were affected by altitude, minor injuries and tent damage but overcame the challenges to complete the expedition.

The Antarctic interior is a very difficult place to access and the weather controls all forms of travel. Surprisingly, in the last season about 20 times more people climbed Mount Everest than walked to the South Pole.

“So few people encounter the beautiful but brutal interior of this continent and it feels such a privilege to experience a small part of what the great polar explorers achieved while raising money for a worthy cause in the process.” said Murray now safely back in the UK and who has raised over £13,000 for Children in Need.

Congratulations Murray on your fantastic achievement, from everyone at Rudridge.

‘Mark Taylor – Nepal Hike’

Click on image to enlargeBelow is a summary of Mark Taylor’s (Gravesend Branch) recent adventure to Nepal. Mark had planned the trip for over a year, and it was finally time to start his journey.

‘We were hiking for six, very long hours. The destination we had arrived at was Gorak Shep, which is 5180metres above sea level (the date is 14/05/2007). Just when I thought I was going to get a well deserved rest, our guide named Pemba said, ‘Mark, the weather is clearing so we are going to Kala Phata. Kala Phata is a peak 5635 metres above sea level, and with excellent views of Everest. The peak would give us amazing views above the Everest base camp (our planned destination the next day). We arrive, and although it was many miles away, the breathtaking clear skies, give us the illusion Everest is only a quiet, Sunday stroll away! We take our photo’s and head back to Gorak Shep.

The next morning came and I was awoken from a deep sleep by Pemba at 4.30am. It’s time to head for base camp! A few expletives mumbled as I force myself to get up for the hike ahead. We set off with my hiking companion who had decided not to go to Kala Phata the previous day. Unfortunately, about half way to Base Camp, severe tiredness sets in and she is unable to continue. We are in the Himalayas approx 5200metres up and an argument ensues regarding whether I should turn back with my companion. After much debate and argument she insists that I must continue.

This was it, I had done it! I was standing at the Everest base camp (picture attached) and I suddenly realised that all my hard work had paid off. I was so tired, but also euphoric at finally achieving my ultimate goal. After hiking for 14 exhausting day's’, it was time to head for home.

‘Impressive Tank’

Click on image to enlargeRudridge were pleased to recently supply Gallagher Contractors with this impressive water storage tank opposite, to the ‘20/20 Industrial Estate, Maidstone, Kent’. The specified ‘Spel’ Tank is being used to collect roof rainwater from the roof of the structures, for reallocating via pumps, to other parts of the working process plant.

Although the tank only weighed 6.5 tonnes, it measured a massive 20.6mtrs long and 4mtrs in diameter! The “oversized” tank arrived under a police escort and required 5 working days notice to the highways agency.

35 tonne excavators, working with all terrain dumptruck’s, were needed to physically break-out and excavate the underlying strata. A concrete pump was used to cover the formation level with concrete, to create a level working surface, which could then be used to construct the base.

Contracts Manager for Gallagher’s, Jason Lilley said ‘Logistically, we needed to meticulously plan the installation of the tank. The tank was lifted into position under a contract lift, with an 80 tonne all terrain mobile crane and using specialist lifting tackle, the concrete base and surrounding concrete backfill material was placed to the outside of the tank with a concrete pump. We then needed to concurrently fill the inside of the tank with 250m3 of water ballast to vitally ensure that the pressures were equal to the outside. This process is needed to avoid flotation or implosion of the tank’..

‘New Lorries at Rudridge’

Click on image to enlargeWe are pleased to have recently added two new Leyland Daf 75 commercial vehicles to our fleet of delivery vehicles at the Farnham Branch. One being an 8-wheel Rigid with a carrying capacity of 18 tonne and the other, a 6-wheel rigid with a carrying capacity of 14 tonne. The latter, also has the added flexibility of attaching a trailer unit, to increase the capacity to an impressive 23 tonne. Both vehicles have a flat bed, 1mtr high curtain sides and 4-tonne Hiab mechanical off-load.

Our commitment to progressing and improving our, already impressive, delivery service, will continue with further investment in the fleet, in the next few months.