As we continue to celebrate our 30th anniversary, we’re taking a closer look at the man behind it all, and how Robert Collard has grown Collard Group into the business it is today.
How it all began
Our founder and CEO Robert Collard had his first taste of the demolition industry when he was just 15 years old, working for his father’s waste recycling and small-scale demolition business.
Since then, his passion for the industry has continued to grow. At the age of 22, Robert left his father’s company to set up his own business as an independent sole trader, working as a mobile mechanic to repair diggers and lorries. Then came a workshop, an old lorry and a JCB digger, and small demolition projects started to flow in as he operated out of a rented farm building.
Our infrastructure
Since then, Robert has continued to prioritise investing in our operating site and infrastructure. As a result, he’s gone from fixing lorries in his garden and renting a small farm building to a portacabin in a corner of Eversley Haulage Park, and now to multiple sites.
The entire six-acre Eversley Haulage Park site is now home to our flagship purpose-built headquarters, our fleet workshop, and one of several recycling centres. Just across the road is our 28-acre urban quarry with fixed crushing line, washplant, concrete plant and plant workshop. We’re also proud of our nine recycling centres across the South – servicing Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey – which are kitted out with multi-million-pound recycling infrastructure.
Our people
As well as our focus on our infrastructure, Robert’s commitment to his employees has undoubtedly played a key role in our success over the past 30 years.
Collard Group wouldn’t be where it is today without our loyal team, and we’re proud to regularly give out long service awards including for people who have worked with us for 20 years or more. We maintain our team through developing their futures as well as showing our appreciation through regular social events, including our family bonfire party which included our employees, their partners, and children and grandchildren.
As well as ensuring our existing team are happy, we’re proud to continue to recruit for new roles in line with our business growth. We also provide opportunities for young apprentices as part of our vision to see 30 apprentices through our doors by 2030 – demonstrating our commitment to playing our part in the future of the industry.
Collard today
Now, in our 30th year, Collard Group is an industry leader with 440 full time staff and an annual turnover of £70 million. Our fleet of over 150 HGVs and trailers has collectively travelled around 64,500,000 miles over the past year alone, and we’ve become one of the largest privately-owned waste management companies in the south of England, diverting over one million tonnes of waste from landfill every year.
Robert is still very much at the heart of the business, still working six days a week as a hands-on CEO – he’s regularly the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave at night.
Commenting on 30 years of Collard, Robert said: “The demolition, waste and aggregates industries have evolved significantly over the last 30 years. I’m proud to have grown a dynamic team and continually invested in our fleet, our people and our infrastructure to facilitate year-on-year growth and stay at the forefront of our sectors. Our 30-year anniversary is a significant milestone for the business and for me personally, and I’d like to thank our loyal customers, clients and our people for being part of the journey.”
