Waller Associates Limited was incorporated in July 2000, but we have been around a lot longer than that! Waller Services was founded in 1975 by my father, Bill Waller. He worked as, among other things, a Bill Poster as his father had done before him. But he felt extremely restricted working for one company and decided to take the step to become self-employed and Waller Services was born. Times were very hard to begin with but with perseverance and hard work, Bill slowly built the company up over the years to become the biggest bill posting subcontractor in the South East.

In 1993, after lengthy discussions with my parents, I decided to set up a separate construction company, Waller Building Services.  I had completed my training as a Quantity Surveyor with a local building firm but I, like my father, had the desire and the need to run a business of my own.  Over the next few years the company grew, and it was in July, 2000, when the decision was made for Waller Building Services to become a Limited company.  Waller Associates Limited was set up and Waller Building Services became a trading division within that company.

In the meantime, my brother Andy had taken over the management of Waller Services.  To assist in that company’s stability it also became Limited in 2003.

Waller Building Services had branched into property development and on one of the larger projects which it was particularly proud of, we did not really want to sell it on.  In 2008, Andy and I, along with a third-party investor, set up Waller Property Services.  This company was set up for two reasons:

1. To build a portfolio of  rental properties using the initial development site as leverage.
2. Once enough properties were owned, then Waller Property Services would become a rental agent in its own right.

Waller Associates Limited & Waller Property Services, along with private investments by the directors, have built up a reasonable portfolio.  This has ensured the stability of both companies through rental income and a high level of fixed assets.

From 2008 through to 2010 the country went through a period of recession.  This had variable affects effects on the individual companies:

• Waller Building Services (now a trading division of Waller Associates Limited) was hardly affected by the recession.  This was due to a number of factors but mainly because of the following reasons;
  • it operates with fairly low overheads.
  • its rental income helped bolster it through the downturn.
  • it was fortunate enough to secure some excellent contracts with existing clients.
  • it continued to invest in the development market both in house and with outside investors.
• Waller Property Services continued to tick over through this period.  It’s portfolio did not grow but, due to the drop in interest rates, was able to lower its rental prices to ensure most properties were continually rented.
• Waller Services (now a trading division of Waller Services Limited) had been struggling due to the down turn.  The recession had caused a drop in advertising generally which meant the agencies it worked for were tightening their belts to such an extent that the bill posting rates and the new payment terms they were imposing made it unviable to continue trading with these companies.  The industry had changed to such an extent that my father no longer recognised it and, to be honest, we no longer wanted to work for these corporations.  However, there were still some private companies that had the same working ethos as ourselves but the revenue stream from these was not enough to maintain the company so the decision was made to incorporate it into Waller Associates Limited.  Andy still looks after these clients personally but also has trained as a fully qualified Quantity Surveyor.  He now is an integral part of the management of Waller Associates Limited.

In 2010, an opportunity arose that dove tailed well with the existing company structure.  A long-established local Glazing company went into administration which produced the need for a commercial and domestic glazing supplier in the area.  Their commercial glazing manger, Paul Hayward, liked the way we operated as a company and a new division was formed, Waller Glazing Services. This dovetailed perfectly with the other services we already provided and meant that we no longer needed to rely on third parties, which historically provided a very poor service, making us both more efficient and competitive.

Since opening our doors back in 1993, we have undergone numerous incarnations.  But the real catalyst for where we are today was back in 2010 when we made the decision to grow, but to do this we needed a clear strategy and that is something the management team has continually worked on and continues to do so.  Up until then, we were sort of growing organically but the plan we put in place not only helped us grow but also to focus and improve whilst maintaining our core values and beliefs.

These are our Vision & Values which the entire management team has signed up to.  These are the core of what makes us different and sets us apart from everyone else.  Our vision is ‘To be the best building & glazing company we can through our core value of building on trust… together’. And the ‘together’ is the important bit! But to be the best we actively have to change and evolve and we call that going from ‘Good to Great!’ and that is the journey we are now all on.

In 2020 we were awarded UKAS accreditation for both ISO 9001 Quality & ISO 14001 Environmental which took a lot of work and something that we are continually audited on.  We were recently assessed again and I am pleased to say that we have been fully accredited for another 3 years.  To put that into context, there are half a million companies in the UK with over 5 employees and only 27,000 are ISO 9001 certified putting us in the top 5% in the country.

The core to both of these standards is continual improvement and that dove tails perfectly with our ‘Good to Great’ journey.  But that can only happen if you look at things and do them differently.  If we genuinely want to improve then we have to actively focus on what we need to change to be better.

Our attitude towards our customers is the same now as it was when we were founded in 1975; to do the best job we can and to have an honest and open relationship with our customers. As we grow, this ethos, along with our vision and beliefs, will ensure that we not only have a company that we are proud of but we enjoy working for!

I am very proud of what we have achieved over the past 30 years and grateful to everyone who has helped us get to where we are today.  But I am also excited to see what tomorrow will bring and I have every confidence in the team here at Waller World to continually strive to meet our vision ‘To be the best building & glazing company we can through our core value of building on trust… together’