SureSet Approved Installer networking event 2018

On April 16th, 2018 BALI Registered Affiliate member SureSet hosted their second Approved Installer networking event with the support from Long Rake Spar. This year the event was opened to all our Approved Installers who were invited to join SureSet for the day at the National Self Building and Renovating Centre (NSBRC) where SureSet have a permanent exhibition stand.

Our Approved Installer Network are chosen for their passion for landscaping and understanding of how the SureSet product perfectly complements their other services, high standard of skill, and technical knowledge that is unrivalled within the sector. This helps us all to mutually benefit as a network, and to spread the word about the unique properties of resin bound paving within the permeable, and hard landscaping family.

The event was planned to be informative, by providing speakers from within the industry as well as a live demonstration of the Hover Trowel, which SureSet, strongly believe is the future for resin bound installations.

Our network of Approved Installers, laid a record amount of material last year, up nearly 20% from the previous year, which points to SureSet’s continued investment in marketing, and our networks efforts on the front line, we value the relationships we make, as they often prove to be formed on strong common ground, which in turn makes it mutually beneficial for years to come!

Commercial Director Ben Shave and Head of Marketing Yvonne Holloway welcomed our installers with an important announcement of the SureSet Guarantee being increased on 1st May to 21 years to celebrate our 22nd year of successful trading, followed by our first guest speak, Lee Cockerill from Barbour ABI. Lee gave a presentation on the Barbour ABI lead source system and was happy to answer questions from our UK and Global installers about the benefits of Barbour ABI to their businesses.

SureSet’s Key Account Manager, John Fletcher, gave a recap of our 2017 Elite Approved Installer Award Winners, who were announce towards the end of last year.

• Perma Stone Paving won the Outstanding Customer Service Award for their incredible 80% return of customer questionnaires, with over 90% of these offering nothing less than full marks.
• Project of the Year Award went to David Crowder Landscapes Ltd for a driveway project they completed which required a fair amount of regulating prior to the resin bound paving being installed, the result was as close to perfection as you would expect from one of our Elite Installers.
• The main Approved Installer of the Year Award went to Gibson Gardens Ltd which was based on sales and conversions, customer feedback, timely finance and admin. Gibson Gardens completed some of our favourite projects from last year and also some of our most popular projects with customer enquiries.
• The final award was the SureSet Spotlight Award which was won by Lockwood Landscapes for a long sweeping residential driveway. A stand out feature from the project was an area to the front of the property, which instead of installing a step to the front door the resin bound materials were regulated to form a gentle rise to the doorstep and thus not breaking up the seamless, smooth and sweeping lines of the driveway.

Dural were in attendance too and spoke with our installers about their high-end edging systems and flooring solutions. This then followed neatly into a live demo of some new products SureSet have been trialling with fantastic results. Firstly, was a new ‘hover trowel’ product we have introduced that is designed to be run over hand floated surfaces to remove any imperfections and trowelling marks and improve the finished product. All our Approved Installers were keen to see the tool in action and were all impressed with the results.

The second new product SureSet wanted to show was their resin batching van. As well as eliminating plastic buckets from the installation process it has also improved the efficiency and speed of the installations. Our team have perceived the new machine in a positive light and expressed how helpful it has proven to be.      

Once the Approved Installers had a chance to see both innovative installation tools in action and any questions were answered the second half of our event resumed with a presentation from Giant Peach Digital’s James Read, Founder of Giant Peach, discussed content creation, digital branding, website design, strategy and digital marketing.

The final guest speaker of the day was the owner and creator of PavingExpert.com, Tony McCormack. Tony has over 60 years of experience in the paving industry and every person in the room would have taken something away from his talk on sub bases, bases, edging restraints and drainage. His knowledge of all things paving is second to none and anyone who is seeking impartial advice on any paving related question should make pavingexpert.com their first port of call.

The overall feedback received about the event, was the presentations were beneficial to our installers, the demonstration of our two innovative tools were insightful and everyone left the event feeling they had learned something new.