| Cockram Construction
Cockram Construction | Willetton Senior High School Redevelopment - Stage 1 THERIGHTSKILLS
| Cockram Construction
Cockram Construction | Cockram Construction is a privately owned, multidisciplinary construction services company with a proud history in the Australian building industry that dates back to 1861. Over those many years, Cockram has developed the people, building skills, resources, and innovative approach to deliver high quality projects safely and successfully, on time and on budget – no matter how complex or challenging those projects may be. Today, Cockram operates in Australia, Asia, America and New Zealand. They have capabilities spanning many sectors and regions, and have earned the loyalty of repeat clients across the country and internationally. When it comes to servicing those clients, Cockram covers all facets of the industry from inception to delivery. In particular, they have carved a niche in delivering highly technical projects, including laboratories, hospitals, pharmaceutical and manufacturing facilities – often while those facilities are fully operational. Their projects mostly range in value from $5 million to $150 milWestern Australian Institute of Sport - High Performance Service Centre
| Cockram Construction Willetton Senior High School Redevelopment - Stage 1
Cockram Construction | lion, but they will deliver any size project for the right client. “We don’t have a minimum project size,” explains Greg Mithen – an Associate Director at Cockram, and the State Manager for Western Australia. “If the company’s a long term client, we’ll help them out, no matter how big or small the project is.” Greg joined the company in 1994, and was promoted to his current position in 2011. Like most Cockram teammembers, he brings extensive experience to his role – having personally been involved in the delivery of large scale complex facilities in Australia, USA and China. Greg says he joined Cockram because it was a longstanding, stable company that did interesting work and took care of its staff. The company has 600 staff and upwards of 3000 personnel on its projects at any given time, and Greg says most of those staff were attracted to Cockram for similar reasons as him. “Cockram offers its staff fantastic opportunities across Australia and internationally as well,” he says. “Those opportunities aren’t typically available at other Tier 2 organisations.” In general, Greg credits the company’s ongoing success to that strong corporate Western Australian Institute of Sport - High Performance Service Centre
| Cockram Construction culture. According to him, that culture has helped Cockram foster a reputation as “a contractor that cares about and delivers on the safety, quality, professionalism and development of its people.” That reputation is also evidenced by the very high retention rate amongst the company’s staff, including Greg. “The staff turnoverwithinCockramis one of the lowest in the industry by a significant number,” he says. “That’s even true in China, where staff turnover rate is usually very high amongst engineering and construction companies like ours. That’s because of our strong culture, and the way we strive for excellence while always treating people fairly and with integrity.” As part of that culture, Cockram is also heavily commitment to safety – which Greg describes as the “foundation of all our operations.” He says they are constantly challenging and improving their safety performance, and they have developed a “robust safety risk and management system” in an effort to operate incident and injury-free. Cockram’s safety system is federally-accredited and has won numerous industry accolades over the years. At the 2014 WA WorkSafe Work Safety Awards, for example, it was named a finalist in the category Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital - Adult Mental Health Unit
Cockram Construction | for Best Workplace Safety & Health Management System. In a review of their safety, WorkSafe praised Cockram for its S.T.O.P. initiative – which stands for Safety first, Think, Organise and Proceed. WorkSafe said S.T.O.P. “improves employees and subcontractors knowledge of the company’s risk management process,” and “encourages everyone to proactively identify and control uncontrolled hazards.” “It’s just the right thing to do,” adds Greg, describing why Cockram has made safety such a high priority in general. “We want our employees and our subcontractors to turn up in the morning and go home at night in the same condition they arrived.” In addition to forming strong and long lasting relationships with staff, Cockram also forms enduring partnerships with clients. “We deliver complex projects on time and on budget across the globe,” Greg says. “We’ve proven that over many, many years, and that’s why clients continue to return to us. We don’t do a lot of marketing or advertising, but we’re never short of projects, and Australian Red Cross Blood Service - Perth Processing Centre Refurbishment ACHIEVING CLIENT OUTCOMES
| Cockram Construction that’s because of repeat clients.” Cockram’s professional expertise covers the full spectrum of specialist construction services skills. Their staff and systems are also highly mobile, ensuring the right project team with the appropriate skills are assembled for every project. According to Greg, that capability is one key part of ensuring client loyalty. The other key part is collaboration. “We put ourselves in the client’s shoes,” he says. “We work side-by-side with them and we make sure we achieve their outcomes and meet their expectations.” Cockramofficially established an office in Western Australia in 2011, but the company has already developed a track record for delivering high quality projects for the government, including health and medical projects, pharmaceutical and lab projects, education projects, defence projects and more. TheWestern Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) is just one of many high profile examples of a local project that benefited from Cockram’s experience and expertise. That project – valued at roughly $30 million – provides WA athletes with access to the best facilities of their kind in Australia, with the latest technology in sports science and recovery. The WAIS facility was built near Challenge Stadium in Mt Claremont and was completed in April 2015, in time to provide WA athletes with a quality facility in which to prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The two-storey building includes gyms, an 80 metre four lane indoor runway, hydrotherapy and recovery pools, laboratories, consulting rooms, office space, and other amenities. BUILDING A NAME
Cockram Construction | “That’s a great project, and we’re quite proud of it,” Greg says. “It’s an excellent demonstration of what Cockram is capable of, and it has helped build the Cockram name in Western Australia.” Greg says that Cockram was the right choice to deliverWAIS due to the company’s history delivering high end technically complex projects. He says they have proven that they can do projects for the right price, while also achieving a high quality, because they have the right teams with the right skills. “It’s a government project, so price is important,” he admits. “But the government also recognises that we have the capability to achieve a strong result. So it’s a combination of factors.” Another notable example of Cockram’s exemplary work in Western Australia is the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Perth Processing Centre Refurbishment. With that project, Cockram is undertaking a major refurbishment and modernisation of the Blood Service’s 55-year-old Wellington Street Building – the place where all of the blood donated around Western Australia ends up before going to the hospitals. Stage one of that project was valued at $8 million and was completed in December 2014. Cockram is currently taking on stage two, and in roughly two years will have a finished facility. Altogether, the refurbishment will involve substantial construction and fit out work, including: a high proportion Western Australian Institute of Sport - High Performance Service Centre
| Cockram Construction of laboratory and production facility areas; storage and cold/freezer rooms; an electrical andmechanical services upgrade; ITcabling; as well as highly sensitive civil works specific to the operation of the Blood Service. According toGreg, the project is especially challenging – and Cockram is especially proud of their high quality result – because construction is occurring whilst maintaining all operations of the building’s processing and testing functions. “That’s a very, very complicated project,” Greg says. “It’s an existing six-storey building, and the client is operating in the building as we construct above, below and beside them. We can’t interrupt the client’s activities. So we’ve staged it in such a way that we move into an area, get it up and running for them, move the client in and then move into the next area.” “It’s in the heart of the city as well, which comes with its own set of challenges,” he adds. “It’s on Wellington Street in Perth, which is a very busy road. There’s a train line behind us. There’s a Western Power substation beside us. There’s limited access. Any challenge a project can throw at you, this one is throwing at us.” Greg says that overcoming those obstacles was a matter of both determination and communication. “We believe that there’s always a way,” he says. “If we understand the client’s requirements, we can come up with a plan to meet Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital - Adult Mental Health Unit
Cockram Construction | them. All we need is the right people with the right attitude.” “We also coordinate closely with the client,” he adds. “On a twice-daily basis, we’re chatting with all the relevant stakeholders to make sure everyone knows what’s happening and that what’s happening works for all parties.” It’s also a matter of experience, Greg says. Cockram has done blood processing facilities for Red Cross in the past, as well as numerous other projects in the high-tech pharmaceutical sector. “We can provide the right people with the right skills,” he reiterates. “That’s how we secure and successfully deliver those projects.” Moving forward, Cockram’s vision forWA is to continue securing projects like WAIS and the Red Cross Blood Service Perth Processing Centre Refurbishment – projects that challenge them and prove the company’s vast capabilities. In addition, withinWA they are also delivering a Neuroscience Research Institute, a number of hospitals and a data centre amongst numerous other projects. As a result, they aim to grow, and to cement their name as the preferred builder for top end clients in Western Australia. “We’re definitely here for the long haul,” Greg says. “The goal is to deliver the same kind of projects in Western Australia that we’re already delivering elsewhere in Australia and across the world.” Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital - Adult Mental Health Unit
| Cockram Construction Australian Red Cross Blood Service - Perth Processing Centre Refurbishment
Cockram Construction |
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