Turner Access officially opened for business in April 1984. The initial aim was to establish a company trading locally to specialise in Contracting and Rental of scaffolding products produced by others. However this changed as the potential for sale of equipment developed, taking us then into the design and development of our own products and in house manufacturing.
Today we are one of the few companies left in the UK scaffolding industry involved in all aspects of scaffolding provision from product development, design and manufacturing through to installation and the full turnkey service. Providing this service can take our products and personnel to almost any part of the world.
We have recently installed our equipment in Kenya and the Philippines; in fact we trade as far afield as Australia.
Over the years we have gained some unique achievements with world records involving the construction of the fastest scaffold, the highest freestanding scaffold situated at the Niagara Gorge between the USA and Canada, and the longest continuous access platform, which was suspended under the M1 and over a river, canal and two main railway lines at Sheffield.
Access continues to evolve and progress within its field, this has been recognised by winning a variety of prestigious awards in recent years with our most recent award being ‘Best Health & Safety Achievement in Construction' (SHP IOSH). Our success can also be attributed in no small part to being part of a Group of Companies which is invested and nurturing.
From a personal viewpoint, I could immediately see and feel the benefit of that support in starting with the business with my predecessor Brian Houston MBE in April 1984.
We had come from an organisation where meeting the Chairman might be a once in a lifetime experience to talking to the Chairman of the Turner Group on a day to day basis.
Those aims have led to Turner Access being recognised now as a truly innovative company leading our industry in terms of safer product and practice, particularly involving fall prevention.
On this subject we have recently accepted an invitation from the SIA (Scaffolding Industry Association) USA, to speak about Turner fall prevention and to illustrate the type of equipment and methodology necessary to eliminate the risks that have been present since scaffolds were first constructed around 6000 years BC.
Written by Gary Gallagher (Managing Director of Turner Access Ltd).
