As we are now well on our way to Christmas, this seems a good time for a brief update from the team at BBA.

Over the past two years, we have invested significant leadership, thought, time, resource and care into the transformation of the BBA. Our two objectives were:

• to become a client/market/industry-focused business and
• to be a systems-driven organisation, delivering high-quality services to agreed deadlines, time and time again.

Our priorities and our programme of work were based on feedback from clients, partners, data user and industry stakeholders. This help was invaluable, and we continue to benefit from your input and support.

Based on your feedback, our first task was to increase capacity, particularly with regards to product assessment and certification. In September 2020 we opened an additional office in Liverpool to increase capacity by 30%. We have also re-designed our delivery process end-to-end – not only does this add further capacity, but it also improves quality and reduces the delivery timeline. In our financial year ending June 2021, we increased throughput and revenues by 15.3% – growth which was achieved without any price increases.

Some of you also expressed concern about the BBA’s sustainability, based on the losses published for the year to June 2019. In June 2020 we achieved a modest profit and in the most recent financial year – to June 2021 – the BBA reported a much healthier profit. We have also strengthened our balance sheet and reserves significantly, establishing a sustainable basis for growth.

We continue to invest in our business. During 2021 we launched a number of new products. We started with UKCA and UKTA in Q1, resulting in the BBA being appointed as the UK’s first Technical Assessment Body earlier this month. In September we announced the BBA’s Reinforcing Steel certification scheme. As a member of the UK construction community, we have formed partnerships with NBS, NHIC, Barbour, LCRIG and Adept.

We have also worked on improving our client experience. In addition to extra capacity, we have introduced Account Management and Key Account Management and introduced the Client Portal on our website. Our Client Charter launched in October 2021, and since then we have achieved our commitment of a 5-working day turnaround (or less) for quotation and pricing. Further work is planned to improve our service levels and delight our clients.

As we move into 2022, our focus is on further product development to increase the BBA’s relevance in a fast-changing market. We wish to delight our clients, and their clients in turn, making the BBA more relevant and offering additional value through our contributions. A comprehensive programme of work that will simplify the use of BBA information through digitisation, improve co-operation with others and expand into areas our clients, end-users and industry stakeholders will benefit from.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues in the BBA team for embracing the BBA vision, putting our clients first and committing themselves to the substantial role that the BBA will play in the UK construction industry.

And finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year!

Kind regards,

Hardy Giesler

BBA Chief Executive Officer

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