Stirling Stone have just celebrated their 20^th anniversary in the Great Hall of Stirling Castle that they played a major role in restoring. NSS paid them a visit at their headquarters in Stirling to talk about the past 20 years – and the next 20

William Wallace. Robert the Bruce. Mary Queen of Scots. They have all played their part in the long history of Stirling Castle. And so has Harry Turnbull, through his Stirling Stone group of companies that were responsible for the stonework restoration at the castle’s Great Hall for Historic Scotland ahead of its re-opening by the Queen on St Andrew’s Day in 1999. Harry was among those presented to the Queen.

So it was fitting that the Great Hall of the Castle, built around 1500 by the Scottish King James IV, was the setting for Stirling Stone’s 20th anniversary celebrations on 29 November, when Harry, who was born in Stirling, was joined by 220 guests, including members of his family, directors, employees, clients and friends.

Although Stirling Stone did not in fact start trading until 6 January 1989, Harry says his first company was actually registered on 25 November 1988. The 29th was the first Saturday after that date, as well as being the day before St Andrew’s Day.

And, of course, the celebrations were thoroughly Scottish, with even some of the English guests opting to wear kilts and the dinner kicking off with haggis, neeps and tatties. Entertainment for the evening included fire jugglers to greet the guests, Highland dancers, a display of falconry, a rendition by singer Tony Henry, and bagpipe music from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

The evening was rounded off with Harry accepting the salute from the Pipe Major, which involved each of them drinking a whisky from a quaich before the Royal Borough of Stirling Pipe Band beat the retreat.

Nobody was left in any doubt about Harry Turnbull’s pride in his Scottish roots, yet he emphasises that his business is a UK group.

Their first project, Lutyens House, was in London and Stirling Stone have an office there, which moved from the Building Centre to premises in Tottenham Court Road 18 months ago.

There is a full-time contracts manager in London in Garry Marshall, who came from Scotland but now lives near Cambridge, and Harry says a substantial element of the group’s work is south of the border – indeed, until now, at least, the largest growth has come from the London office.

From the early days when Harry Turnbull decided to go into business for himself he was aware of the need to avoid being too exposed to any one particular market sector.

It is why Stirling Stone operate across the full range of stone markets, from new build to conservation and hard landscaping to interiors, with their own in-house laboratories, workshops and design studios. They can undertake any work in natural stone and can carry out all the stages necessary, from design to procurement and installation, whether the project is valued at just a few thousand pounds or many millions of pounds.

Although they have their own stone extraction company working five quarries, they will work in marble, granite, limestone, sandstone, slate and any other natural stone from anywhere in the world and offer a contracting service from design to installation from Shetland to the Channel Islands and into Ireland.

The Stirling Stone group is comprised of various individual companies with their own managing directors, while Harry is chairman of the group. Having separate companies allows the 39 people within the group (which also employs 120-150 people in the quarries, factories and on site) opportunities for personal development. Some of those people have worked with Harry since before he left Balfour Beatty to establish his own company. Others are apprentices just starting out on their careers.

“Each of these companies has its own managing director and its own identity,” says Harry, “but they all work with each other.

“Every Tuesday we get together round the table in the boardroom for an informal meeting. I try to encourage people to interface with each other.

“When you see someone with potential, you try to build something round that. You have to allow space for people to grow. We have no regular starting or finishing hours here; no set time for lunch break. People are trusted to come and go as they need to. Everyone has a key to the door and the code to the alarm.

“You have to stand back and allow people to have their own identity. The minute people think they are being monitored they don’t get the same level of fulfilment in themselves.”

That policy of building the business around the people is bringing through a new generation on the management side to ensure there are no gaps when anyone leaves.

“There will be an on-going, seamless succession,” says Harry, talking as much about his own position as anyone else’s as the next generation have already been groomed and are well placed to take the company forward. That includes his own family. His daughter Karen heads Stirling Stone’s accounts department and his son Jim is a Group Director.

Not that Harry is ready to retire yet. But he says: “I have had the privilege of building the foundations of this business. But I have just built the team. I think we’re the best and most diverse stone company in the UK. We have a modern management style that delivers a unique professional service with a smile. But it’s the next generation, who are more gifted people than I am, who will take this company on to a different platform. All these people are showing this promise now. It’s immensely satisfying to see it happening.”

The five active limited companies trading in the Stirling Stone group are: Stirling Stone (MD Harry Cairns); Stone Design (Andy McMillan); Construction Materials Consultants (Bill Revie); Toffolo Stirling (run by Harry’s brother Kenny Turnbull); and Natural Stone Quarries (Andy McMillan).

But Stirling Stone is not static. Just as Harry has built the business around its people, he has also built it around opportunities as they arise. In November, they sold their 11-acre site in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, six miles east of Stirling, for housing development by another company.

That has left them looking for a new site on which to relocate the block processing business of Natural Stone Quarries.

The acquisition of the Alloa site was itself making the most of an opportunity. It was bought when Stirling Stone were cutting the Clashach stone for the Museum of Scotland and needed extra capacity.

Some of the saws from Alloa are currently stored at their 21/2 acre site in Stirling, which has its own marble and granite works and the Group’s headquarters of Wallace House that were opened by Margaret Thatcher when Stirling Stone moved there in 1997.

The site they relocate the Alloa factory to will, they anticipate, be less than its previous

11 acres, but that is not a concession to the economy. Stirling Stone are entering the recession in a position of strength.

In the coming year they have three big shopping centres to work on, a university building at St Andrews, a new mansion in England plus numerous smaller jobs. One project, Penrith town centre, has been suspended with the withdrawal of funding, but Harry is sanguin about it. He suspects it will be no more than a delay until alternative funding can be found.

He shrugs off the downturn. “I keep repeating to my people: You only live once and you have to live life to the full as it’s given to you. Don’t watch the TV and don’t buy a newspaper. Don’t buy into the negativity. All you can do is run your family and your business to the best of your ability. If we all do that we will be fine.”