About us

walesThe company was founded by M Woods and J Harper in 1982 to offer specialist contracting services in the investigation and stabilisation of mineworkings and mineshafts, concentrating its activities in the South Staffordshire Coalfield. It has grown steadily, investing heavily to provide state-of-the-art drilling rigs and associated equipment, and now operates nationally from its base in the West Midlands.

The founders started to withdraw from the business in the late 1990’s, retiring fully in 2001. A new management team was put in place during this phase and is now well established. They are supported by a team of engineers, geologists and surveyors, and have the benefit of a highly experienced, stable workforce.

Drilling for a client

The company has always invested time and money in the training and development of the work force, ensuring that employees are able to work safely and efficiently so that they can help the business to grow. This ongoing effort has been recognised in a number of ways, firstly in August 2002 when we achieved the Investors in People award, which was re-accredited in 2005, 2008 & 2012. In 2015, rather than renew with IIP, we decided to seek accreditation to Building Confidence, operated through Achilles. The company continues to follow the principals set down by IIP. In addition the company gained Certification for its Quality Management Systems to ISO 9001:2000, from Lloyds Register for the Provision of Contractor Construction Drilling Services in April 2006. We retain accreditation to the QMS ISO 9001:2015 Standard. Furthermore the company achieved its Accreditation to the Constructors Health & Safety Assessment Scheme – CHAS in October 2006, and met the requirements of Constructionline in November 2007. The company has for a number of years held CSCS Platinum Status having in excess of 90% of the workforce registered under the Construction Skills Certification Scheme. In actual fact we have a 100% registration level. The company has been a member of the British Drilling Association for many years and over the past 15 years has been training all operatives to the requirements of NVQ Level 2, such that we now have all our field operatives either qualified as Lead Drillers or Support Operatives in Land Drilling.