The SIG Construction Accessories (CA) Division provides products and specialist technical support to many construction sectors. Jason Bland is the National Geotechnical Manager for the business, a technical specialist in his field. We talked to Jason about his background and the assistance he provides for his customers in his specialist area…
Plotted Career history
Following a Business Management Degree, Jason ran his own gym for 5 years before deciding to embark on a new career path. He trained to be a Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) Engineer working in landfil and he worked freelance for sometime overseeing site works. The role included the providing of evidence that all steps had been taken, testing for the welding on geomembranes etc and providing validation reports for the chief engineer to gain sign off on the site works.
During this time he was approach by Naue and for 3 years worked as a Technical Specification Manager within their environmental team where he worked in the areas of landfil, flood and coastal protection. After a short time working for a contractor specialising in soil stabilisation, he joined the SIG Construction Accessories team in 2020 to provide specialist support for their Geotechnical product offer.
Geotechnical Function within SIG CA
Geotechnical products cover a wide range of specialist applications, largely for temporary or permanent road foundations, retaining walls, water retension, slope stability and erosion control. The projects vary hugely as does the ultimate customer, but have included highway construction, water industry works, access roads for wind & solar farms, airports, ports and the power sector. Products like geogrids, geotextiles, plastic liners, erosion control matting and reinforcement mesh are key in providing product solutions in this area and Jason is THE specialist in all Geotechnical products both sourced and stocked by the business.
Jason helps SIG customers, be they architects or contractors at all levels, by providing his technical expertise and impartial advice when specifying products in this area. His approach is often to see if they have a problem and he looks to providing them a solution. So the problem could be for example “we have to get heavy construction equipment across a peat bog for a period of two years for a project” Jason will look at value engineering and provide them with a design solution. If accepted he then shares with the nearest SIG branch to quote and supply.
The difference of the offer from Jason is that SIG, as a distributor, deals with and stocks many different manufacturer products and can therefore provide impartial technical advice on the best solution for a specific project.
“In geotechnical we are usually providing the
solution to a difficult problem for a contractor.”
Jason explains that as the geotechnical products are usually supplied at the early stages of a project it often results in being able to offer other SIG products within the overall project, providing more of a one-stop-shop to simplify sourcing for their contractor customers. Jason works with many manufacturing suppliers with a focus on adding value for the customer. This specialism provides a solution for the SIG customer so that they don’t have to approach multiple manufacturing suppliers to pull a project together.
So what would a Day in the Life of Jason Bland actually look like?
It is very varied from liasing with the SIG Project Tracking Team to identify and map future infrastructure projects, to directly engaging with tier one contractors, to training and supporting SIG branch network enquiries in this specialist area. Jason explains it’s a big team effort as new leads come from various areas within the business.
“The SIG Branch network, internal sales teams and regional Business Development Managers all have relationships with different customers, so my role here is to support and upskill them in my specialist area so that they can develop future enquiries within their current customer base. We’ve had great success from this over the past two years, it has been really helpful to our customers, so that plan will continue.” Said Jason.
For more information on what the Geotechnial offer from SIG CA, view the latest brochure at https://sigca.co.uk/downloads/ check out some of their latest case studies at https://sigca.co.uk/projects/ or contact Jason via https://www.linkedin.com/in/jase-bland-6b2a97103/ or [email protected]
