June 2020

Total Talk: Jason Wright
“GETTING HOLD OF THE CORRECT
PPE HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE”
Total Contractor caught up with Jason Wright to hear first-hand what the last couple of
months have been like for a roofing contractor and how he feels things will develop for
roofing and construction as we move forward...
Can you tell us a bit about your company
and the types of projects you get involved
with…
We are a traditional family business who have
been established for just over 29 years.
We are a multi-disciplined company with a strong
emphasis on slating, tiling and flat roofs, and
cover most of the Central England area from the
Humber and over to the Bristol Channel and East
Anglia. We employ just under 80 people from our
Main Nottingham office and also our Leamington
Spa office.
We put a strong emphasis on training and
apprenticeships and currently have 12 apprentices
in the system with a view to recruit another four for
this year both in pitched and flat roofing.
Can you give us a timeline of when you
started to feel the impact of coronavirus
and how you reacted as a business…
From the PM’s announcement on Monday 23rd
March we immediately ceased all site works on
the Tuesday after making sure all sites and roofs
were secure and wind and water proof. We
mothballed all our vehicles at both of our
offices/yards and furloughed all staff and
employees with a further 27 sub-contract labour
given advice and support where required.
How did you personally fill your time
during lockdown?
For the first few weeks I was busy in my garden
and like everyone else doing all the jobs I had
been putting off for years. We had some key staff
working from home and picking up emails, paying
suppliers, putting valuations together and also
trying to get our heads around the
furlough scheme which has been a
tremendous support from the
Government to all businesses
but especially the SMEs.
In May you initiated a soft
return to work following the
easing of lockdown restrictions.
How have you had to adapt your working
practices and what sort of extra strain
has this put on the business, workforce
and projects?
The soft return has proved very challenging in
terms of implementing the Covid-19 guidelines
within our site teams and in providing the
confidence to our key clients that we can work
safely but still provide a service.
The main problem is that we can only have a
skeleton office staff due to the social distancing
conditions, site teams are limited to two per van
with face masks compulsory, getting hold of the
correct PPE has been an absolute nightmare and
when we have, we have been quoted inflated
prices of up to £15 for a 75p P3 mask!
The other problem we have encountered is that
we have genuine staff/employees who cannot
return to work because they live with vulnerable
partners/parents and others who quite frankly are
very comfortable on furlough! So even if we
wanted to go back up to 100% capacity we
simply cannot and this must be the same right
across the construction Industry.
Do you feel the new working practices
you’ve initiated are something you will
maintain going forward and will become
Left: Jason Wright, J Wright Roofing.
second nature for best
practice on projects?
I think for the foreseeable future
this will have to be the norm and
can only be good of our industry in
terms of making basic hygiene second
nature. How many times do you see lads using
the toilet and not washing their hands?
Is it fair to say you’ve had mixed emotions
about getting back to work – good for the
business in terms of generating cashflow
but difficult to balance from a personal
point of view with regard to the virus?
Absolutely; the Government and our own trade
federations should have come out with a clear
message that ALL construction work unless
deemed absolutely essential should have ceased.
Unfortunately we had many sites still operating
with many merchants still operating up to the end
of March and even then saying they could supply
materials via deliveries. The message was mixed
and as such many smaller companies clearly
flouted the stay at home message which put their
staff/operatives in harm’s way.
With the PM’s announcement that construction
could go back if deemed safe to do so on the 11th
May we were put under pressure by some key
clients to do just this.
As I have stated, at the time of writing I am still
not entirely comfortable with this, but also
appreciate that we have to provide a service and
also weigh up the economic needs of both our
employees and the economy in general.
18 TC JUNE 2020