An intriguing title perhaps but Graham Hill, Managing Director of R L Lovatt Ltd, set off in late March to walk for 11 days across the roof of the World, through the Himalayas on a fund-raising walk for the charity Bolton Hospice – quite a change from his normal day job at this firm of roofing contractors!
Talking to Graham one gets the feeling of a very caring person and that obviously rubs off in the way in which he runs the family business. “The company was started by my step-father’s father back in 1956 and it is still very much a family business today. I was asked recently what my son and daughter were doing and explained that my daughter runs the accounts department, while my son is at university.” Laughing, he went on to explain that he did not have the heart to say that actually his son was working for him on the roof of a local university!
R L Lovatt specialises in working largely as a sub-contractor to major builders. While much of the work is in Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire, jobs have been carried out much further afield, for example the company has recently carried out some work for the Co-operative Stores Group in London. Similarly, in the past a lot of work arose from the Rank Organisation and involved reroofing work at Butlin’s holiday camps in Pwllheli and Skegness.
As Graham explains, “Because much of our work comes as a sub-contractor, we are generally called in to carry out refurbishment of roofs rather than new build. Many years ago, we did work on new housing estates but the type of tiler that you need for this work is very different to what is required for refurbishment. We moved away from this work and have become specialists in our own field. As a result, we have worked on some very prestigious projects, including Salford Cathedral, where we had to completely re-roof a large part of the Cathedral roof. This involved stripping off the old roof, fixing new battens and felt, laying new slate and finally carrying out all the finishing lead work. One interesting point here is that 10 years ago, you could not find anyone suitably trained and skilled to carry out lead work but, today the number of lead craftsmen is growing again.”
Over the years, Lovatts have worked on a wide range of contracts, including schools, local authority work involving council housing estates. This work has been carried out in a variety of towns including Blackpool, Rochdale, Oldham, Bolton and Clitheroe. Other major work has been for football clubs, including Bolton Wanderers new training ground, the Palace Theatre in Manchester and Macclesfield Town Hall. An interesting new development is the supply and fitting of vandal-proof tiles (pressed metal tiling) for schools and prisons. Today the Company has nine direct employees with 12-25 sub-contractors being used as required. Over the last 10 years, the Company’s turnover has grown steadily at about £250,000 per year until the last couple of years when it has remained stable, despite the current recession.
For further information please telephone 0161 763 6090 or visit www.rllovatt.com.
