TPS360 are a market-leading supplier and installer of flooring and hygienic systems for industrial and commercial applications. The company’s expertise covers three key areas – Resin Flooring, Polished Concrete & Decorative Screeds and Hygienic Solutions.

It may be said that TPS360 has been hiding its light under a bushel since it was founded in 2008, but it is now definitely emerging from the shadows and setting out a bold prospectus, in which the company can promote excellence and capability, backed up by an impressive array of projects and customer testimonials in its portfolio.

“We’re really setting out to be the ‘go to’ partner in all three of our key areas of expertise” – says Darren Watkins, Managing Director. “It’s a bold aspiration, but with the expertise that we have, together with the successful projects that we can point to and the very significant investments that we have made in the business, we have a lot to shout about “and it’s time that we did!”

TPS360’s core expertise is in resin flooring, where the company is now a major player, operating from its base in Caerphilly. It has built up its portfolio in this area steadily over the years, starting with smaller jobs and growing to be involved with some of the major construction projects in the region. In the early days a £25,000 project was a big job, and the company mainly used sub-contract labour. Nowadays it’s very different – a recent job was the £350m Grange University Hospital, Cwmbran, which was an 18-month project amounting to £800,000, during which TPS360 sometimes had a team of ten or more of its own workers on site. Other significant contracts have included St Fagans Museum of Welsh Life, Swansea University and Swansea Arena, working alongside some of the largest Construction Companies in the UK.

Early on, the company joined FeRFA – the Resin Flooring Association, as a sign of its commitment to excellence, and it can supply resin flooring solutions across all eight of the FeRFA resin classifications. The company boasts the experience and expertise to tackle the more technical resin flooring solutions, such as chemical protection systems in aggressive environments, anti-static floors and conductive flooring in electrically sensitive and explosive atmospheres, meeting the exacting requirements in many demanding environments.

The company also leads the way on technical developments within the resin flooring industry, promoting and installing innovative systems such as comfort resin flooring (liquid vinyl), which is seamless, impervious, easy to clean and ideal for healthcare and other hygiene-critical environments.

The ability to install all types of resin flooring system takes us across a wide range of industry sectors including heavy industry, manufacturing, food & beverage, pharmaceutical, aerospace, MOD, warehousing and many more where we are equally comfortable and capable of working for main contractors or direct with the end-clients.

As well as being a sub-contractor, which is the primary historic role of the business, TPS360 has developed into a project management company. Having delivered polyurethane screed flooring, which has been the de facto standard in the food and beverage industry for many years, the company is regularly taking the opportunity to develop a Resin Flooring project into something a lot bigger, where projects include specialist screeding, drainage and hygienic panelling to create a hygienic production environment providing a full project management solution for the customer.

Projects range from a few thousand to in excess of £1 million. Food, beverage and pharmaceuticals are a speciality and form a sector where Darren sees opportunities for the business to grow in the future. Recently TPS360 has become an associate member of the Food & Drink Forum, the specialist trade association which supports food and drink businesses. It is also looking to join the Association for Project Management, which aims to develop project management skills for the benefit of improved project management outcomes throughout industry.

“Given our expertise in flooring, the project management side has developed logically for us, since it means that we are able to deliver a full project solution for our customers rather than just a floor. The floor is normally just a part of what the customer wants to achieve, whether it’s an extension to a food factory, a refurb or a remodelling of an industrial unit as a food production factory. We can handle the whole project, including food grade wall panelling, floors, covings, fire protection and whatever else the customer requires. Our aim is to grow our business in those areas where our specialist skills can really make a difference and provide increased value for the main contractors,” says Sales Director Gavin Ashcroft.

Another significant area where TPS360 is now in a market leadership position is that of Polished Concrete Flooring and Decorative Screeds. This is a flooring solution which the company is now pioneering in the UK.  Mark Jackson, based at the company’s Tamworth office, is the driving force behind the polished concrete business. He has worked for 20+ years in the concrete flooring industry and was in at the start of polished concrete in the UK.

This type of flooring has historically been more popular in other markets, such as America, but has been in the UK for about 30 years now and is growing fast here too. Polished Concrete is a long-lasting and durable alternative especially for installations where a more decorative finish is required. This can include educational facilities, manufacturing, hangars, warehousing, car showrooms and a range of other applications.

A Polished Concrete floor often requires a greater investment than a resin floor, but boasts benefits such as reduced life cycle costs, environmental benefits and life expectancy in excess of 25 years.

“Having invested heavily in machinery in the past, we believe we now have a greater capability in Polished Concrete than any other sub-contractor in the country,” says Mark. “We are now regularly delivering 5,000+ square metre jobs, and there aren’t many other companies out there who have the capacity for consistently completing work on this scale”

The process can be used in new build and refurbishment projects equally well.  However, in some applications where the existing concrete is either not suited because of condition, appearance, when more specific aesthetics are required or there are specific requirements such as underfloor heating – then polished overlay screeds provide an excellent solution. Normally these screeds are installed at around 10mm and polished using the same processes as a polished concrete finish and where control of colour and aggregate provide some amazing results.

The benefits to the customer are many – following the process, the surface will become dust proof, therefore no requirement of a secondary sealing layer for dustproofing; the floor has improved longevity compared to other solutions, leading to cost-savings in the long run; improved light reflectivity, meaning that some clients have found that they can save significant amounts on their lighting costs; environmental benefits during construction, since the process involves limited lorry movements for deliveries of product; also environmental benefits in service, since normally only water is required for cleaning; good slip resistance and finally due to the densification process the floor can end up being stronger than it started.

A polished concrete surface can also be coloured and logos added by means of impregnating colour dyes. The aesthetic benefits mean that polished concrete is increasingly specified by architects.

“What we want to achieve in this sector is two-fold,” says Mark. “Firstly, that Polished Concrete is considered at the specification stage as an effective and durable solution especially for industrial floors, which we view as the biggest opportunity for growth. Secondly that TPS360 is the first-choice installer for contractors and end-users who are committed to Polished Concrete. We can tell them we’ve got something different we want to speak to them about and TPS360 really are setting the standards in this sector now.”

For Darren Watkins TPS360 is fundamentally about excellence and customer service. “We are now going forward on three fronts,” he says. “These are Resin Flooring, Polished Concrete and Hygienic Solutions. These areas complement each other and allow us to offer the best solution to meet our client’s needs. We aim to set the standard in all of them, in terms of the quality of our work and the scale of projects that we can take on. I think our combination of skills and capabilities in all these sectors now means we can speak with unique authority in this industry.”