Our #madeinsandwell Monday star for this week is CLM: Currall Lewis & Martin (Construction) Ltd. Now based in Oldbury, the company is this year celebrating its 150th anniversary.

CLM operates in bridge construction and maintenance, and the team has made many of the road bridges you’ll find around Sandwell. If you’re a West Bromwich Albion fan, you may have walked over a footbridge outside the ground at the Hawthorns. The recent replacement was manufactured by CLM right here in the borough.

CLM takes on highly technical projects, including for Sandwell Council, engineering specialist bridges to cross canals and railways. If you’ve visited the Black Country Museum lately, you may have walked across the new swing bridge. Rest assured you were in safe hands: CLM was proud to undertake the canal works and build the bridge itself . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The company also undertakes repairs to motorway structures and has worked on the M5, M6 and Spaghetti Junction outside Birmingham.

CLM was founded in Birmingham in 1867 as a building company, later diversifying into civil engineering works and open-cast mining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1994 the company was encouraged to move to new premises on Broadwell Road in Oldbury where – according to managing director Ron Pinfield – everyone “instantly felt at home”. CLM has since moved operations to a bigger site on Century Road to accommodate its growing business.

“Sandwell Council is one of our most valued clients, so to base the company within the borough made a lot of sense,” said Ron. “Sandwell Council has offered us a huge amount of support since we moved here in 1994. We were involved with the CIPS programme* and finditinsandwell [Sandwell Council’s former business trading network] and we are now developing our BIM capabilities with their help.”

Sandwell certainly sounds like a great match for CLM, not least for the borough’s convenient location and talented workforce.

“Sandwell is strategically located between junctions one and two of the M5, so we are exceptionally well connected to the road network,” said Ron. “Many of our workforce live in Oldbury and its surrounding areas. They are a mixture of long-serving employees and recent additions – including younger apprentices. We are still small enough to know each other well and together we work as a great team!”

When asked what CLM is most proud of, Ron said: “Our history and the quality of clients we work with today.” The company’s plans for the future include maintaining the ability to adapt to meet the needs of clients and “maintain the highest ethical, social and environmental standards”.

Congratulations and happy anniversary to CLM – we wish the team a year of celebrations and even more success in the future. Would you like your business to be considered for a #madeinsandwell Monday profile? Find out how to apply. 

*Sandwell Council worked with the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply to help local businesses improve their prospects in the tendering process.