Expanding asbestos and building services specialists are relocating their headquarters to Lincoln, in a move which promises to create more jobs.
Lincoln-based chartered surveyor Banks Long & Co has revealed it has sold former Lincolnshire Co-op premises in Portland Street to the BESA Group, which offers expertise in a full range of asbestos surveying, management and removal services for domestic and commercial customers.
BESA Group’s sister company, UP Construction, which carries out groundworks and civils as well as external works for a wide range of clients will also move its headquarters to the site.
Both businesses are currently based in Saxilby. BESA Group also has a London office and UP Construction a South Yorkshire depot. The move to Lincoln (from Saxilby) follows a two-year search for the right premises.
BESA Director Benn Kay, who started the Group eight years ago with fellow Director Sam Scoffield, is delighted about the Lincoln purchase, which puts the businesses closer to many of their local mainstream clients – although both companies work countrywide.
“We currently have a 25-strong team working across our businesses. Most people are directly employed by us and we are looking forward to creating more jobs when we relocate, hopefully by July,” said Mr Kay.
“The Portland Street site provides really flexible accommodation which extends across two-storeys. The premises will give us office accommodation, storage and warehousing for our equipment, parking space and future expansion potential.
“Everything we do at BESA is aimed at offering the very best service to our valued customers, which include the Lindum Group, Lincolnshire County Council and Lincolnshire Co-op.”
The company has worked on hundreds of schools in the area and further afield and was also involved in the renovation of Lincoln Castle!
Mr Scoffield said: “Before work started on the £22 million revamp of Lincoln Castle, which was completed in time for the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta celebrations in 2015, the BESA Group was contracted to identify the use of asbestos at this historic site, take samples and analyse these to see if any materials posed a risk to workers on the project.”
Banks Long & Co Director James Butcher said: “The premises, which were formerly home to Lincolnshire Co-op’s Portland Street funeral service, until it moved to the Society’s purpose-built Tritton Road Funeral Home in Lincoln in 2015, provide a mix of buildings over a quarter-of-an-acre site.
“We were offering the site for sale or to let and so are delighted to have completed a sale to BESA Group, who were looking for city centre premises that would accommodate different aspects of their businesses. We wish them the best for the future.”
