Hello, Ray. How are you? 

I am good, David. Thank you. How are you? 

Very good, thank you. I wondered if I could first start with sort of an explainer about what Gilbert-Ash is all about. You're an innovative contractor, and you've done a lot of cultural projects. What else do people need to know about you? 

Well, I suppose that's a very good starting point. We are very well known for being a very innovative contractor, working particularly in that arts and culture space that you mentioned there. So, you'll know that we have had five projects over the last 14-odd years that have been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize. That's a sector that's very important to us. We do work in other sectors beyond that, though. We're particularly well known in the education space. We're particularly in private education colleges. We do a lot of work in hospitality. Whitbread would be a very important client to us, delivering Premier Inns for them right across the country and commercial and fit out too. We have got a long-standing relationship with the Foreign and Commonwealth and Development Office, working in many countries around the world with them. So, there's a broad sort of range of projects, and a broad range of sectors that we're involved in. 

Can I draw you back to those cultural projects, just very briefly? The ones you mentioned are the National Portrait Gallery, which was nominated in 2024, and the Everyman Theatre, which won, I think, in 2014. So, is culture ingrained in the firm? And what makes cultural projects different from others, from the contracting point of view, would you say - if anything? 

Well, I suppose what's different is the fact that they are very much architect led. Well, I mean, most projects are architecturally led, but in these arts and culture projects, these landmark projects we've done, architecture really does matter. So, we've established a really great track record in in turning the incredibly demanding architectural designs that we see from the outset into reality. I'm pretty certain that we're the only contractor that has had five projects shortlisted for the Stirling Prize over that period of time. 

You must be doing something right! (laughs) 

We're doing something! Well, for us, it's all about collaboration. It's all about working in partnership with everybody around the table. You can imagine these are very complex, very complicated projects. They're not straightforward. They're very tricky. But we love that. We actually love that, and turning those visions into reality is what gets us up in the morning, and it's what we really enjoy doing. 

And as a company, you're very interesting, aren't you? Because you became an Employee Ownership Trust last year, I think, and you're constantly nominated in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work list. Well, constantly - 2025 and 2026, I read. And interestingly to me, you were also highly commended in the Best Places to Work 55-plus category, which kind of reflects an attitude to supporting people across their career. That's important to you, presumably, and also being a good place to work is important to you personally? 

Yes, it's incredibly important to us, David. So, our company has been employee-owned for close to 50 years now, but at the beginning of 2025, we transitioned through to an Employee Ownership Trust. So, we moved away from what was sort of a narrower employee ownership base to a situation now where the company is owned entirely by the employees. We talk a lot about working as one with our employees, with our clients, and with our supply chain. And the great side of that was the fact that six months after we moved to being employee-owned, the company was included in the Sunday Times best place to work listing. So, it's all well and good me saying, as you would expect me to say, that we're a great place to work. But whenever you see Gilbert-Ash included in that sort of prestigious listing in the Sunday Times, and included again second time around this year, it clearly does show that we're doing something right. You know, 92% of our people say that they're proud to work for the company. 

Yes. 

So, I think that's a pretty extraordinary metric in the current workplaces that we see today. And as you say, what's important to us too is the whole breadth of people that work with us. So, retaining staff who are beyond the age of 55, retaining that skillset, retaining that knowledge, is very important to us. Also, very important to us is our EDI work too. So, we've, I think, double the percentage female workforce within Gilbert-Ash compared to the industry norm. So, it's a huge focus for us, just to make sure that we've the right people in the right place. 

And on that over-55 thing – is that uncommon across construction, then, as it is, seemingly, across other sectors? And if so, why do you think that is? 

It is uncommon. I suppose construction is not particularly, it's not an easy sector to work in… 

…Do you mean physically? 

…Physically, very much so. Yes physically; it's a challenging place to work, and I think it's important, as I say, from our perspective, that we retain talent that has been with us for many years, that can continue to make a contribution, not just day to day, but in terms of mentoring new people coming into the workplace as well. It's clearly imperative that we have new talent coming into the organisation if they're being properly trained and mentored. And I suppose those people in their 50s have an awful lot to offer in respect to that. 

In terms of current work, I read you're working at the RIBA on their change-around at Portland Place, I'm presuming, and also at Eton College. What else are you doing in the UK? Is the UK a focus for you? How does it split? 

The UK is very much front and centre of what we do.  England primarily. Obviously, we did a scheme in Wales in the arts and culture sector too. We did the redevelopment of Theatr Clywd in Mold in Wales, but in England, yes, England remains a core focus for us. So, as you say, we've just started the project with RIBA refurbing and transforming their grade two listed HQ in London. So that'll be an interesting one. 

Can you say anything about that? Because I'm intrigued about what's going to happen…. 

In what way? (laughs) 

(laughs) Well, I've known that building for so long. I'm just interested in how it's going to be updated, really. 

Well, I think, like a lot of these buildings that we work in, everybody wants the buildings to be more accessible and more welcoming, and that's one of the key focuses for RIBA and for Portland Place – to just turn around their treasured building that exists there, make the space more accessible, make the space more welcoming, improve the catering facilities that they have there, and just bring it into, I suppose the more modern world in which we find ourselves. So, it's been great working with RIBA so far. But as I say, it's not just one architect that will have their eyes on us. It will be hundreds of them, which will be interesting. 

Two last questions on your public-facing work, really. Firstly, the Safety in Numbers scheme that you're doing on site safety – could you say something about that, and then also something about the film that you've produced, back to the culture side of things, 'Building culture'. 

Of course, yes. So, we launched about two months ago a new campaign, or an enhancement of our "Don't Walk By" campaign on the health and safety side of things, effectively to really improve hazard spotting on our sites. We now have a system called 'Spot, Snap, Share', where everybody right across the organisation and beyond it, anybody that visits our site is encouraged, through QR codes that are visible across all of our sites, that if they spot something that they think doesn't look right, spot it and take a photograph of it and share it with our team. And we will very quickly move to make sure that if there is a difficulty or an issue there, then that is closed out. It's clearly very important to us that our people, our suppliers, our supply chain that go to work every day, come home. 

Is this what's called safety in numbers? 

It is, yes; it's our safety in numbers campaign. So, we had two or three branded taxis, two or three branded black cabs that have visited our sites across the UK, reinforcing that message, and so that's just a very important part of what we've been doing recently. In terms of building culture, I suppose it takes us back to the conversation at the beginning, David, about our arts and culture factor. So, when the National Portrait Gallery was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize in 2024, it struck us as I said to you already that that was the fifth project that we were involved in. It was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize, so we thought to ourselves, ‘right, we need to mark this in some way or other’. How can we properly celebrate that achievement? And we decided at that stage to produce a film. We've called it Building Culture, and it is effectively a showcasing of each of those projects across 25 or 30 minutes or thereabouts; a film, which is something we're very proud of. As you can imagine. 

Yes! Where can people see it? 

We launched it – we had a lovely evening at BAFTA's HQ in Piccadilly, where we had about 200 invited guests coming along to watch it. We also had it in the Queen's Film Theatre in Belfast. Anybody that wants to see it now can see it on YouTube on our online channels on our Gilbert Ash website, so you'll see the Building Culture film there. 

Great! I'll definitely have a look at that.  Well, congratulations on all this. It seems like you're a model company and also a sort of filmmaker as well. So very extraordinary, very innovative. 

Very diverse, David! 

Yes, you must be very proud. 

We are very proud. We've achieved a lot, but we never rest on our laurels. We have to keep pushing forward. 

Yes. Well, best of luck in it all. It sounds like you're on the right track. 

Thanks, David