BAM moves its Welsh premises to Caerphilly after 30 years in Cardiff as it prepares to sponsor Wales’ National Social Value Conference
Hemel Hempstead/Caerphilly, 18 October 2021 - One of Wales’ most progressive built environment firms – BAM – has re-located its offices from Cardiff to Caerphilly.
One of the UK’s most sustainable built environment firms, BAM is the lead sponsor for the Wales National Social Value Conference, 16-17 November, where its team will speak and host workshops for Welsh businesses and suppliers.
The company is behind Welsh landmarks such as the National Museum of Wales and the iconic Hoover Factory, Merthr Tydfill, providing work for 1,000 people in Wales every year. BAM already has a strong local presence in Caerphilly having completed the £130 million Ysbty Ystrad Fawr (Caerphilly Local General Hospital) in 2011.
Since 2019 the added value of BAM’s social and economic investment in Wales has been over five million pounds, enhancing almost 5,000 lives. This comes through helping people back into work, providing work and educational experience, training and apprenticeships, and support for communities.
The local companies BAM has used in Wales have proven to be so strong that BAM uses them across many of its projects in South West England and further afield.
BAM is currently delivering a range of essential public buildings including Gwent Police HQ, the Centre for Student Life at Cardiff University, Abbey Primary School in Neath and the second phase of John Frost School in Newport and restoring one of Wales’s much-loved historic venues - the historic Plaza Cinema in Port Talbot.
Justin Price, Construction Director, heads BAM’s Welsh office. He explained: ‘Clients across all sectors are starting to explore how they can achieve net zero carbon buildings, use renewable energy and reap the benefits of a more digitalised and modern way of creating new buildings, allowing them to look into the future and influence their running costs. That’s what we specialise in. For BAM it has always been a story of not just what we build, but how we build it – how can we use our time in a location to create that extra bit of benefit for a community, to help develop lives and leave a legacy of social value. Not long ago we created a terrific new headquarters for Caerphilly Council. Now we find ourselves re-locating to the same neighbourhood as our lease expires in Cardiff.
Its very pleasing for us all to renew our commitment to Wales. We opened our first permanent office here in 1989 but we’d built scores of buildings already by then. We are the perfect example of a historic business that has always moved with the times and in terms of sustainability, we are now running ahead of them. There is a lot more to come from us in Wales.’
BAM’s whole Western team, incorporating South Wales and South West England is led by Tim Chell, who said: ‘This new office cements our commitment and focus on the big issues for our industry, on our communities and on the strength of our team in Wales. I’m very proud of our partnerships and of what we do here.’’
BAM’s new address is: Britannia House, Caerphilly Business Park, Van Road, Caerphilly, CF83 3GG
The National Social Value Conference event is supported by the National Social Value Taskforce in Wales, including members of the Welsh Government, the Welsh Local Government Association and the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. BAM’s Head of Social Impact Danni Aberg will speak at it and host workshops.