Growth & Innovation Award: AM Griffiths & Son Sponsored by BDO

And it was well deserved, as judges revealed it had been a hard-fought category and the final decision was extremely close

They said: "Arthur M Griffiths and Son’s rapid expansion has been achieved through a combination of modern building methods and a traditional adherence to the highest industry standards. Their determination to ‘put something back’ into the local community is striking."

Company chairman Maurice Walsh said: "We are absolutely delighted. It was a tough category, the other two finalists were extremely good so we are delighted that we were successful."

Managing director Richard Green added: "I think what separates us from the rest is that the responsibility for success lies with us, as directors, but the reasons are all our employees, our clients and our supply chain. There's a big credit to them.

"We are Wolverhampton based and it's a Wolverhampton award. We have been in for a lot of awards this year but the one that meant the most to us was the one in our home town. It means a lot.

"We are all local people and we feel, as owners of the business, that we need to give something back to Wolverhampton. We concentrate on employing local people, we take on a lot of trainees in the area. It's all about Wolverhampton really."

Maurice Walsh added: "We have heritage in Wolverhampton; we have been here for over 120 years and we hope to be here for another 120 years."

Hard graft and commitment to a vision and a well thought-out plan are behind the growth of Wolverhampton’s Arthur M Griffiths & Son.

The business in Thomas Street, which dates back to 1899, enjoyed a record year in 2015-2016 with turnover of £23 million.

AMG, which now employs 56, has become one of the Midlands foremost providers of construction solutions to the education, industrial, commercial, healthcare, housing, retail, leisure and heritage sectors in the region.

Since the implementation of its five-year growth plan AMG has seen an increase in the company turnover from £9m to almost £30m in the three years to the end of March this year.

With £20m of future orders already secured the AMG target of a £50m turnover by the end of year five is in sight.

On the back of seeing turnover increase by an average of 51 per cent over the last three years, AMG was named the fastest growing construction industry company in the Black Country in the November 2016 BDO growth list.

It placed seventh overall in the Top 50 of high growth Black Country companies which put it firmly amongst the top 100 growth companies in Europe.

Throughout this journey AMG has always retained and built on its core values of honesty, integrity and dependability to provide an excellent construction service that ensures delivery of a quality product, on time, safely and at a competitive price for all of its clients.

The company identified the importance and need for change if it was to grow and develop to its true potential and in 1997 the decision was made to appoint outside directors, which led to a management buyout in April 2015.

New recruits added further strength and skills to a growing and motivated management team.

AMG has been working with its IT partner in the development of a smartphone app to assist in the management of its construction sites, and is currently the only construction company in the Black Country to use this.

The bespoke app allows site managers to manage on site quality assurance and health and safety issues in real time.

In order to reduce the considerable risk of delays and associated costs that all stakeholders face as a result of unpredictable weather, AMG have developed and successfully used the AMG RoWeRS method of building on a number of recent projects. RoWeRS utilises on site construction techniques and technology to reduce the amount of wet trades required in the building process, this optimises the construction process so programmes are less reliant on drying times, whilst also avoiding potential delays caused by down time due to inclement weather.

The company’s success in winning new work and increasing turnover has seen the creation of 29 new jobs with a further five positions for apprentices and trainees in the current year alone.

Plans on the horizon include a proposal for a new development at the company’s head office of a construction-related business park that will provide further employment and business opportunities for the local community.