The newly re-branded repairs and maintenance specialist Fortem, formerly Willmott Dixon Partnerships, is quickly expanding into sectors outside its traditional focus on housing repairs and maintenance.
The company has landed its first project in the ‘blue light’ sector, with a contract for Derbyshire Constabulary to refurbish nine police stations across the county including the police headquarters. The pilot, procured through the Efficiency East Midlands framework, could lead to more work to improve another 74 stations across the county with a total value of £8 – £10m.
Following the rebranding, the senior executive team at Fortem have greater operational autonomy to design bespoke service offerings that allow Fortem to grow outside its core social housing market.
The company, which also incorporates what was Willmott Dixon’s Energy Services business, is expanding into the energy efficiency sector, with new work from London Borough of Havering and Hull City Council for a host of home efficiency upgrades.
In the case of Havering, the work was procured through the Green Services Hub and involves loft insulation, replacing doors and windows, plus renewing external wall insulation on 151 homes. In Hull, the company is also upgrading 136 Victorian street properties worth £2.1m as part of a four year programme of works negotiated with the council.
Fortem is also improving the wellbeing of hundreds of people living at the Coney Green House tower block in Birmingham, in a contract worth up to £4m. This is part of a long term relationship with Birmingham City Council that could potentially involve improvement work on 17 more tower blocks over the next five years.
Fortem is currently responsible for repairs, maintenance and cyclical work on over 110,000 homes, working as a key partner for local authorities like Birmingham City Council and Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, plus housing associations like Midland Heart, Metropolitan, Orbit and Paragon. Its team of 800 directly employed engineers undertake over 400,000 repairs each year.
Fortem managing director Mick Williamson said, “These new projects expand our presence in the energy and blue light sectors. Fortem is positioned to grow its specialist services in new markets where responsive and minor planned work on large real estate portfolios is business-critical. I’m really pleased to see this latest tranche of work is doing just that as we’re passionate about providing the very best service for our customers.”
