Success in Saudi!

The last few years have been significant ones for Hughes and Salvidge and our wider divisions. In 2023 we achieved a record turnover of over £40million and celebrated the 30th anniversary of K&B Crushers, our concrete crushing division. Moving into 2024, we are celebrating Hughes and Salvidge being 60 years old as well as our move to bigger and better offices. During that time, we have also been branching out to new locations and challenges, undertaking our first project abroad in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

To secure this project, we completed an extensive tendering process which included visiting the site in KSA with a strong team of our Managing Director, Cost Engineer, Operations Director, SHEQ Manager, and Structural Engineer, to ensure the project was commercially and logistically feasible. Post-tender, multiple meetings were conducted via Teams with the team in KSA to finalise all aspects, leading to a contract award in 2023.

Following award, our full team tackled the task of organising the logistics of conducting our first project overseas. Our plant, workshop, and equipment were prepped by our in-house fitters, ready to be shipped to Dubai and then loaded onto another ship to Dammam, a port just south of our project located in Jubail. Our Accounts team worked closely with our external Accountants and trusted advisors to establish PE (Permanent Establishment) status in KSA and understand the tax laws, both for the company and our employees. Our Project Administrator and Business Development Manager supported each other in gathering the correct information regarding applying for work visas and arranged all paperwork and Embassy appointments with the project team. Our Health and Safety team arranged for additional training to take place so our specialist team had the correct and appropriate qualifications/cards for conducting their work in KSA. They also arranged for new Hughes and Salvidge PPE specifically designed for working in warmer climates.

Once in KSA, our team on the ground sought out a compound in Jubail, alleviating the need for hotels and reducing the project costs.

The project was the first major demolition project undertaken by our client, and was undertaken whilst the surrounding plant and Industrial City remained operational. Our Senior Management team alleviated any concerns by producing work- and area-specific Method Statements and attending daily meetings with the client’s team.

The scope of works included:

• Separation works from the retained plant.
• Full structural demolition around a live teal plant.
• Installation of protection scaffold screens.
• Checks of service disconnection.
• Removal of a 50-metre styrene column.
• The removal of residual products.
• Three months of manual enabling works.
• Demolition of redundant plant and structures to slab.
• Mechanical demolition of the reactor plant including the removal of 5x 70-tonne reactor vessels.
• Site finishing works to hand over a safe, obstruction-free site to the client.

The project was completed by our top Machine Operators, Cost Engineer, Project Manager and Site team who fully embraced life in KSA during the 8-month project, visiting Riyadh, Jeddah and nearby Bahrain during their time on this project.