meet the bosses
with Liz hillary & John Robinthwaite - Name
Liz Hillary and John Robinthwaite
- Company
JPR Environmental
- Position
Company Directors (and husband and wife)
- Industry
Ecological contracting
What does your company do?
‘shop’ at home.
We provide a landscaping service specialising in Ecological works on development sites and wetland works for both habitat improvement and water treatment.
L: Deciding to work together as partners in the business when we were also partners outside work! It could have gone horribly wrong not to mention the fact that both of our livelihoods were now dependent on one source of income.
When was the company started? L: John started as a sole trader in the autumn of 2000 and the company was incorporated in November 2002. How does the company differ today from when you started 21 years ago? J: 21 years ago, I started as a sole trader, it has since developed into a skilled landscaping team able to offer a variety of services to clients. We work as the main contractor on larger scale projects or offer solutions to issues on development sites, both in a timely and cost-effective manner. What has been one of the bravest decisions you have had to make in the 21 years of the company? J: Working with my wife! Whilst it made a lot of sense when our son was young and allowed a lot of flexibility – it also meant that we had to succeed because there was no other income coming into the family. It takes a strong relationship to both live and work with the same person – luckily in our case this has been so – though it does take an effort not to talk
However, there have been plenty of other nerve-wracking decision-making experiences since then from employing more staff to deciding to carry on through the pandemic and trust that there was light at the end of the tunnel. How important have staff been in your development as a company? J: The staff within the company have been essential to our development – from project managers, site supervisors, office managers and plant & machinery operators. Our work is very physical and requires a good degree of self-motivation (despite the vagaries that the British weather can throw at us). Having a good team with a good team spirit has been the driving force behind our success. L: Our staff have been essential to our development – their skills and experience, commitment and hard work continue to impress us. We are able to leave more and more to them and ourselves, concentrate more and more on developing the company. What are your company values?
