SGB; good or bad company to work for

Well Lads, I just gotta add my recollections of SGB.

I worked for them a few times at some of their London depots...nothing special at all....and preferred working for the likes of Big Ben, Peter Cox's Cradles, Tasker and Booth, Norstel etc ....(anybody recall any of these?)......Anyway, what a great job I had with SGB between 1979 to 1981.

We were on a massive extention to the Texaco Oil Refinery at Pembroke and the money flowed in.....any of those who were with me on the Spheres will know what I mean. Apart from that, we were in the village pub at Rhoscrowther every lunchtime, all in all it was Happy Days.

We even managed to go on strike for 4 weeks (they had sacked the Steward) and they reimbursed us to get us to go back. Amazing!

However, these Happy Days were doomed. The main contractor, an Italian outfit called Snamprogetti had discovered that we were on price so SGB were kicked off site and Palmers took over our work. Some of the boys went with Palmers but I stayed with SGB, driving the lorry and still having fun, but that's another story........but I have to say Ken Rossiter was a great manager and I worked with him on Capes, ISG and MSL too.
 
PW said:
I worked for SGB at Nottingham for 10 years as a Scaffolder and then into Management, I've got to say I wouldnt have the skills (Or lack of them!!) I have now if it wasnt for my time with them. Overall I found the experience to be positive.

The company was purchased by Harsco about 8 years ago and have just recently removed the SGB brand and are now called Harsco Infrastructure. Friends I have that still work there or have just recently left tell me it has been slowly declining since the Harsco takeover as they are not really intrested in Major Contract Scaffolding so the days of massive SGB jobs in the city centres or on huge developments has sadly gone, they are heavily targeting the Industrial Market as they have just aquired a big insulation company and will be set up along the lines of Cape etc.

In regard to are they are good company to work for? I certainly think they were, I cant think of a Scaffolding Company in my region whos Owner or Manager did not spend some time there, in fact I always used to advise any youngster who wanted to get into the game to try and get a start with them as their training regime was spot on, give them 5 years (An old fashioned apprentership really) get some experience as you will do jobs at SGB that you will simply not do at other business's, get all your qualifications and then move on if your not happy, alas no more.:sad:

As for witholding Cards/Certs etc...dont f*ck about with the morons...contact your training provider for duplicates, it might cost a little but it gets you sorted pronto!
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I was the Training Adminstrator at SGB, until I got made redundant in Nov 2008, the cards & certs were the lads & I made sure they got them, nice to see so many names coming up from the past, Scaffolders are a brilliant bunch of lads & I loved my time working with them xx
 
cambs scaff said:
hello all, i worked at Cambridge contracts for 3years then worked for industrial for 1year, they both have the good and bad points, i personally wouldn't work for them again. but as harsco now have full control of the company i have been told that its got worse but it depends on the manager that you work under. same goes for any firm you work for really.
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Do you know Mark Raegan then?
 
Yes I knew Mark Regan quite well, he left Cambridge as they closed the Contracts part there & went to work on the Underground project back in 09, don't know if he is still with them or became another casualty of the Harsco strimmer, I also know Keith Dorling
 
He's now project manager on Victoria station with Harsco. I worked for his brother at MR Scaffolding (anglia) for 9 years. Was a family business at some point I believe
 
Hi All
Worked for GB's most of my scaffolding career with Tony and Jim Smitheram(still work with Tony on the training side of things). This was in the eighties and what a great firm they were(we were subbies). If it wasnt for them I wouldn't be where i am now but the names have long gone, Bill Basher Banks looked after us Wembley Depot, Heathrow and Powerchem were the main areas we worked. Finished up at the Cross as a supervisor in 1998 f**king hated it told Kevin Mouatt I was leaving and getting into safety. He told me i was making a big mistake WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
liked to be a pound a day behind you tufty let alone a week cant remember how told me lol me lips are sealed good luck to you anyway tufty!!!
 
lol tufty you were so right there look where kevin got to and where he lies now,powerchem now havent heard that name in a few years good for you mate.
 
i remember when sgb had nearly all the stations and industrial jobs grand a week all year long 500 quid for a scaffolders mate as much coal dust you could eat and that was 20 years a go there was that much overtime people used to moan now there ante none people still moan lol!!!
 
I started at sgb preston 81 and did 7 years with them the first time, the good old band and plate and dh's, propper way to learn how to scaffold. the crack was good and we made great money and worked in some great places.
When it was quite up our way we would go to other depots and work for them i was up whitehaven for 18 months at the depot there ******* great times. I went back 6 years ago and it was *****, another great firm gone to the wall.
 
I Worked For GB A Few Years Ago Wasnt Impressed Really Same Story With The Management Promised You The Earth And Sadly Did Not Deliver Loads Of Arguments About Money Etc, In The End Told Them To Poke It Never Again (What Is It With Multinationals) Cause Interserve (GKN) Are Every Bit As Bad
 
dont forget capes they promise you imortal life. lmfao all there lies are true!!!!
 
hi mate make the the best of it at the mo it will all be good soon i have been there all the best mate from the 1st shankill

---------- Post added at 09:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:16 PM ----------
shankill said:
hi mate make the the best of it at the mo it will all be good soon i have been there all the best mate from the 1st shankill
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billy boys
 
theres one scaff i know who worked for sgb and hes in his 80s as for me bein in the game 25yrs and cant remember even seein a gb job in liverpool and reading most of the post on here i think you can take it sgb are *****.
 
Worked for SGB in the late 70's and 80's on target work, always found them ok then. used to do a bit of business with them buying gear etc and their prices and credit terms were'nt bad, but since Harsco took them over you couldn'nt touch them, lost a lot of old customers, heard that from one of their long time sales managers. Pity, because in their day they were a class outfit.
 
Gerscaff said:
I Worked For GB A Few Years Ago Wasnt Impressed Really Same Story With The Management Promised You The Earth And Sadly Did Not Deliver Loads Of Arguments About Money Etc, In The End Told Them To Poke It Never Again (What Is It With Multinationals) Cause Interserve (GKN) Are Every Bit As Bad
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SGB were once a great company. Their level of training nowadays is pretty poor though which is a real shame. Having squads made up from Part One scaffs just isn't on.
As for Interserve, their Dundee branch is a feckin joke and should have been closed by now. I'm guessing that's where you had the bad experience from mate.
 
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