Thursday 23 August 2012

Oxfam Maintenance Initiative

In a new initiative to organise the maintenance and repair of their 128 shops within 30 miles of the Warwickshire area, Oxfam, the global aid and development charity, is setting up a meet event for local contractors to attend.  Over the course of 4 and a half hours on the morning of Wednesday, the 29th of August, a team from Oxfam will personally judge any chain of contractors that turns up. As the event is free and requires no membership in the organisation, Construcionline, that is setting it up, I am sure that they can expect quite a turnout. I am also confident that Oxfam will have a difficult time deciding and judging the relative merits of these excellent tradesmen.

BPM Maintenance is unfortunately too far from the region to participate, though you can count on that we would be there if a similar opportunity opened up in the Bath, Bristol or North east Somerset area. Any contractors that hope for a deal with Oxfam will have to present good evidence that their work is of the highest quality and is affordable for a chain of charity shops. These property maintenance workers will have to remember that Oxfam will not have the budget of a retail company which doesn't rely on goodwill and volunteers to support their business.

Any prospective contractor would need to show good links with local business, especially in the retail sector. They would need to provide a strong range of trades such as plumbing and electrical that may all be required by Oxfam. A charity would certainly prefer to use a single maintenance company rather than organising multiple to work together for a single project, with the escalating costs that would bring. Accreditations and proof of experience and qualifications would certainly be a requirement. BPM Maintenance meets all these stipulations with flying colours; we can only hope that the Bath, Bristol or Somerset area Oxfams conduct a similar meeting with local businesses so we can extend our trade further.

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