A FAMILY-RUN maintenance company, which has carried out work on St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace, is restructuring and re-branding ahead of plans to create more jobs. 

Stone Technical Services will now be known as Stone Technical Services Group which will incorporate its four divisions: STS Lightning Protection, STS Restoration, STS Maintenance and Facilities Management and STS Conservation.

Bosses at the Darlington company reported a successful 2013 with turnover steadily growing to over £2m. Five new jobs were created, taking staff numbers to 35. The company hopes to create around six new jobs in 2014 and boost turnover by around 30 per cent.

Dave Stone, managing director, said: “Our company has grown a lot more quickly than we planned as we have attracted major contract wins within our diverse range of products and services. This, allied with our constant efforts to recruit the highest skilled people across the portfolio, means we now have a number of different divisions and by re-branding under the Stone Technical Services Group name, we are simplifying our offering for customers and streamlining the business as a whole.

“This is all in preparation for further growth and job creation in the North- East and at our locations all over the UK from Edinburgh to London. We’ve managed to thrive during a difficult economic time- thanks to our skills, reputation and zero tolerance policy towards bad industry practices, so the time is now right to consolidate what we do as we move into a development phase.”

Stone Technical Services Group is well known around the UK for its work with organisations such as English Heritage, Ineos, Network Rail, British Waterways and the NHS as well as local authorities, architects and construction companies.

The business has also been the primary contractor employed to work on St Paul Cathedral’s lightning protection for the last 15 years and also works on other high profile buildings such as Lumley Castle, the Royal Courts of Justice and various buildings in the City of London.

Darlington brothers, Dave and Grahame Stone, established Stone Technical Services in 1998 and now have offices in Edinburgh city centre, near Stockport in Cheshire, close to Piccadilly Circus in central London and Pinner in Middlesex, as well as their headquarters on Kellaw Road.