Neil Armstrong, owner and Chief Executive Officer of the Fastflow Group has been named among the top three bosses in the UK.

The Washington based independent utility services provider has consistently improved performance and turnover since Neil acquired it through a management buy-in in 2005.

This week he was honoured at the Institute of Gas Engineers and Managers Awards lunch at London’s Park Lane Hilton Hotel with a top three place in the Chief Executive of the Year category.

Said Neil:  “It was a very pleasant surprise which is reward for the efforts of the whole team at Fastflow.  It shows how far we’ve come in recent years and is another step along the road to becoming recognised as a national presence in the utility sector.”

Fastflow’s new Scottish office in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, was officially opened today, providing a hub for operations throughout Scotland.  Fastflow are currently working for Scottish Water who, having recently reviewed their supply chain, have reduced those approved for pipeline activities from eleven to four, Fastflow being one of the preferred partners.

The Fastflow Group has gained full Water Industry Registration Scheme (WIRS) accreditation.

The assessment of Fastflow’s capabilities was conducted by Lloyds Register and demonstrates that safe and effective water mains and services installation can be undertaken under the Lloyds WIRS banner. Extensive development of the spray head has enabled unmatched levels of cleaning to be achieved in a single pass of the cleaning head.

Fastflow, the utility infrastructure services provider, has won the clean water contract for the Asset Management Period 5 with Northumbrian Water commencing April 2010. The contract is likely to be worth approximately £200m over a 10 year period. Fastflow will become Northumbrian Water’s sole Clean Water Contractor with responsibility for carrying out water network rehabilitation / renewal work, new connections, repair and maintenance, reinstatement and metering works.

In June we were assessed by ‘Verify' on behalf of the Achilles Utilities Vendor Data Base (UVDB) over a two day period, one in the office and one on site. The UVDB is used by utility clients to identify good quality suppliers and we are assessed annually to determine how we compare with other suppliers on the database.

The results of this latest assessment are shown in the table below and clearly demonstrate that our commitment to continuous improvement is resulting in consistent and significantly high standards. As you'll see, Fastflow's results (in bold type) are considerably higher that industry averages in all categories; a testament to the hard work and ongoing quest for excellence.

The British Standards Institute (BSI) have undertaken a rigorous evaluation of Fastflow Group’s Environmental Management System (EMS) and confirmed that it fully meets the International EMS Standard (ISO 14001:2004).

BSI recognises that Fastflow’s environmental performance meets the demanding needs of the Standard, environmental legislation and delivers the objectives of our environmental policy, including the reduction of our carbon footprint, effective waste management and the prevention of pollution.

Fastflow’s innovative and award-winning trunk mains cleaning system is to start cleaning the strategic trunk main pipeline running from Gosforth in Newcastle to Warkworth on the Northumberland coast on behalf of Northumbrian Water. The pipeline runs for a total distance of approximately 84km (52 miles) supplying Tyneside, Blyth and Morpeth.

As part of our continuous improvement and compliance with national and international business standards, Fastflow have successfully obtained the following accreditations: -

• Water Industry Registration Scheme (WIRS) Accreditation (Partial) January 2007
  
  
  
• Gas Industry Registration Scheme (GIRS) Accreditation (Partial) April 2007

We expect to obtain National Electricity Registration Scheme (NERS) Accreditation (Partial) and then full accreditation of all three by the end of 2007.

Following the recent successful on-site assessment, Lloyds Register have confirmed that the Fastflow Group has been awarded full Gas Industry Registration Scheme (GIRS) Accreditation.

This validates our gas pipeline capabilities and enables us to install gas mains and services on behalf of developers.

We expect to obtain Water Industry Registration Scheme (WIRS) full accreditation by the end of 2007 followed by National Electricity Registrations Scheme (NERS).