Our Managing Director, Chris Cordner recently sat down with the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce to discuss our company, mission, and future.
CCBD Group’s strength is streamlining operations for companies in the construction industry to save valuable time.
Managing director Chris Cordner talks about his route from chippy to a business owner, why he loves Medway, and why he has set up a charity event raising funds to support children’s mental health.
Streamlining operations for companies in the construction industry to ensure growth whilst saving valuable time – that is CCBD Group in a nutshell, says managing director Chris Cordner.
Chris “started out as a chippy, just like my dad” and worked for a joinery contractor after gaining his carpentry qualifications, but when the firm he was working for went bust, a friend of his found him a job in business development to tide him over but then never looked back.
“I’ve always had a background in the construction industry and have gained many years of experience in business development supporting this industry,”
he said.
“I started providing freelance services to family and friends and built up a good network of people that we could help. Building good rapport with people and forming good relationships is key to our success.”
Now the UK’s No.1 fully integrated construction growth service, CCBD Group has grown from strength to strength streamlining construction and counts McLaren Construction as one of its major clients under their business development service.
CCBD Group is split into seven divisions: The five core divisions are business development, consultancy, digital marketing, health and safety and tender pricing, with architectural design and labour supply completing the seven areas.
“We started with consultancy and business development, which marry together well, and then, as we’ve grown, we have introduced the other divisions to form a fully integrated service,” he said.
“Essentially, we wanted to be the only company that a contractor needs. We use the term fully integrated because each of our divisions and services all work together with the one common end goal of growth."
“Businesses use our time and resources which means they can focus on the day to day running of their business and manage their projects and tasks more effectively while knowing we are taking care of the required needs in the background.”
The firm provides consultancy (specialist contractor supply chain management and procurement) services for more than 5,000 clients across the UK consisting of End clients, Architects, Consultants, Main Contractors, Developers & Local Authorities and have supported the growth to just over 400 contractors in total under the business development division. The health and safety division enables contractors to obtain all their vital policies and accreditations such as Constructionline, SSIP and Acclaim Accreditation which enables them to engage with specific clients. The tender pricing division helps companies submit accurate and competitive bids for tender contracts, saving businesses valuable time.
“The construction industry is about a decade behind other industries in terms of digital marketing, so having a division tasked with digital marketing works well for contractors looking to modernise their marketing literature and needing support with social media content, video marketing, e-brochures and logo design/ rebranding."
“Our digital marketing literature is custom designed and unique to the client; there are no stock pics or templates,” added Chris.
“Marketing is so powerful. An e-brochure can target all your clients within a couple
of minutes.”
By combining all the services under one roof, Chris says it gives their clients one point of contact for all their needs.
“We build relationships with our clients so we know what they need,” he said. “We take away all the stress and all the time spent on these tasks when that time can be used more effectively on their own work and clients.”
The company is based in Medway, with clients from across the UK. Having lived in Medway since he was one years old, Chris loves the region. “Kent is the garden of England; I love Kent,” he said. “It’s good for my kids, it’s good for family life, and it’s a great location for business. It’s great for my staff commuting and has good travel links to go and see clients.”
As a father of two young daughters, Chris was keen to organise a charity event in aid of Place2Be, a charity supporting children’s mental health.
“I suffer quite badly with my own mental health,” he said. “Plus, now I am a dad of two girls, aged three and four, it changes your outlook and priorities. As a dad, I want my children to grow up with support and the charity Place2Be does a lot with children in schools and families to support their mental health."
“I love football and I love Soccer Aid and I wanted to do something similar, a Soccer Aid for the construction industry if you like. It will be good fun.”
