Product Expertise Wins Airport Business for Polypipe in Jamaica

The ability to recommend the best product for the job, combined with a keen understanding of critical delivery schedules, were the deciding factors when Polypipe was awarded the order to supply cable conduit for an airport refurbishment at Jamaica’s Sir Donald Sangster International Airport.

Regarded as the gateway to the Caribbean, Montego Bay International Airport has been undergoing a major upgrade programme since the Jamaican Government awarded the concession to operate and manage it to MJB airports, a multi-national consortium.  One of the projects has been a runway refurbishment and upgrade, for which the UK company Roadgrip Ltd, a specialist in airport services, was appointed by the main contractor SBI JV. Roadgrip Ltd secured the subcontract to upgrade the Aeronautical Ground Lighting (AGL) system.

Polypipe was one of a number of UK suppliers that Roadgrip approached with its requirement for cable conduit and it was the level of expertise offered that won them the business, as Roadgrip Contracts Director Hugh Blackburn explains:  “It was essential that we identified a conduit with the right compression strength for a runway area.  The technical team at Polypipe got involved with the specification and working with our own people and an outside consultant, they came up with an alternative product which was better suited to the job.  It was this degree of involvement that set Polypipe apart from the competition and won them the business.”

Being able to work to a very strict delivery timetable was also a critical factor in the supply relationship, as Hugh Blackburn explains: “Any work on an operational airport site has to be planned meticulously and we have to pay close attention to details of safety, organisation and operational procedures. We operate within a very strictly defined working window so we need to be confident that our suppliers can support us in this.”

Commenting on this, Polypipe Export Sales Manager Philip Wood says:  “From the start of the supply relationship, it is important to build up a two-way discussion with the customer.  With Roadgrip, this enabled us to come up with the optimum solution and we were then able to meet the strict delivery schedule, even when some of the requirements changed during the course of the work.  We pride ourselves on adapting to our customers’ needs and understanding the constraints that they may have to work under.”

The Polypipe range of cable protection products is independently certified to British and European standards and has been used extensively for highways, housing developments, commercial, retail and industrial infrastructure applications.  The Ridgiduct product supplied for Sangster International Airport is a twin-wall system manufactured in HDPE, specifically engineered to provide a light, yet robust, alternative to conventional cable protection.