There will not be many in the stone industry who do not know and respect the name of APS Masonry, but earlier this year the stone specialist arm of the Oxfordshire Symm Group was in danger of being closed down. Aidan Mortimer, the Chief Executive of the Group, explains why the board changed its mind and how the stone business plans to move forward.
Some of the finest traditional stonemasonry of recent years – for projects ranging from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to the colleges of Oxford and an award-winning private mansion – has come from the workshops of APS Masonry in Osney Mead, Oxfordshire… just it has for the past 195 years.
In the 21st century, the skills of the masons have been complemented by the latest computerised machinery, such as the five-axes Brembana G-Rex CNC workcentre, one of the first in the world to be installed when it was bought by APS in 2005. They have a Bideseimpianti wire saw and just last year added a new BM primary saw to ease a bottleneck in the supply of stone to the Sigma secondary saws.
APS Masonry have a significant presence in the UK stone market, so the announcement by Symm at the turn of the year that the workshops were to close came as a shock. It would strip a considerable capacity out of the industry.
The response to the announcement – by architects, by clients and by the trade itself – surprised Aidan Mortimer, the Chief Executive of the Symm Group. In the light of the reaction to the announcement, the board quickly changed its collective mind and decided to retain the workshops.
The proposal to close them, keeping the name of APS Masonry alive as a consultancy only, was made because the major projects that the company had become used to working on had largely dried up as a result of the downturn in the economy.
“We had a very thin order book,” Aidan says, “which prompted us to look at the industry as a whole. We discovered that no-one really makes any money out of it… although, that said, projects come along that can earn people a decent living.”
Most of Symm Group’s work is building, joinery and heating & plumbing, employing skills more universally required in construction, whereas stone is only required on a select number of projects. As a result, the stone business had extreme peaks and troughs that were difficult to predict and control. “Tusmore Parks are not regular,” says Aidan, referring to the 3,800m2 award-winning neo-classical mansion for which APS supplied and installed the Massangis limestone for a private client in 2003/4.
Restoration had been a mainstay of APS Masonry’s work for many years but the move towards conservation with its minimal intervention and replacement of stone did not favour a company geared up to producing large amounts of worked stone. After 40 years of wholesale restoration in Oxford there was not much left to do, and APS looked for other markets. They found work in major new-build projects, but they were far more erratic than the restoration work had been.
The decision was made last year to wind down the business towards what they anticipated would be its virtual closure, retaining just three of the 20 people on the stone side within Symm to provide the consultancy service.
At the beginning of this year a public announcement was made that APS were pulling out of actively working and fixing stone (see NSS January news). But the reaction to the announcement caused the re-think and in the February issue of NSS Aidan Mortimer said: “It surprised me, the depth of feeling about the quality of what APS do, the longevity of the business and the loss it would represent to what isn’t a large sector.”
APS could not continue as it had been, but the level of support for APS Masonry made the Symm board believe there was still a viable business in stone, albeit on a smaller scale than previously, working on a larger variety of projects and supplying more worked stone to fixing companies.
Plans to mothball the machinery were rapidly reversed to retain the company’s high-tech capability alongside traditional banker masons. A core team of half-a-dozen in production was retained supported by the accounts, marketing and management functions of Symm.
“The team we have are multi-skilled and able to jump into every task required of them,” says Aidan.
Steve Byrne will now be the key technical point of contact customers have with APS. He is employed by Symm & Co, the builders, but has 30 years of experience on the stone side. Dean Fitzgerald will co-ordinate production. An estimating capability has been retained in Andrew Seccull, and Rob Kitching will continue to program the G-Rex.
“The team have taken ownership, in practical terms, of the work,” says Aidan. “We are re-making lots of contacts locally and are very happy to do the flooring, fireplaces and repair & maintenance of local properties as well as the larger works we’re known for.
“We’re happy to slab up stone for others in the trade or to produce a carved capital on the Brembana for other stone companies or directly for our own clients. We have the capability to supply local projects plus the contract management capability to be able to take on large projects when they come along, perhaps in association with other masonry companies.
“We hope there will be a lot more co-operation with other stone companies. We have been in touch with a lot of friends, new and old, in the trade. We want to work with stone companies and main contractors, playing to our strengths in our technical production capability.
“We haven’t got aspirations to be the largest or most comprehensive, but we do have a lot of equipment and experience. We will compete with others in the trade on occasions and on other occasions we will supply them. I’d like to hope that those in the stone industry can work together rather than trying to fight each other. The market is far too fragmented and spiky for that.”
The changes at APS Masonry are intended to bring the stone side closer to the Symm building company and take advantage of that in terms of sharing management functions.
Symm Marketing Manager Marilyn Morris is already working on promoting APS. She has been with Symm for seven years but this is the first time she has been involved with the masonry side. “I’m on a learning curve,” she says.
APS Masonry’s name remains but they are clearly being integrated into the Symm operation with the obvious cost benefits of avoiding duplication of functions.
Most of the work they produce is in limestone, which pigeon holes them into the limestone belt in the southern half of the UK. However, they have produced work in sandstone and would be happy to do so again for the right project. Symm even have an office in New York that they share with fireplace company Chesneys. They have a niche market repairing, restoring and recreating the luxury of bygone days. APS have worked in the USA and are always happy to price stone projects there, especially now the exchange rate favours them.
APS Masonry have won work in the UK since revisiting their business model. Symm say the stone industry is currently working on margins that are too slim to be sustainable and that there will continue to be a buyers market for perhaps another 12 months. But APS plan to be there to enjoy the recovery when it arrives. Aidan says: “You don’t go through the sort of agonies we’ve been through without the belief that it’s going to work.”