Today we're celebrating 10 industrious and successful years being Recclesia! On this landmark day we asked Jamie Moore, our MD and founder, to give us a few words...
"When I was asked to put some words together for a blog post about our tenth birthday as a company, I was a bit astonished. As I counted backwards and ran out of fingers, I couldn’t help but wonder whether we had succeeded for all that time or simply survived. I started Recclesia on a shoestring in the midst of global economic turmoil, a difficult recession, and countless companies in the conservation sector crumbling and falling over. When I approached a bank about opening my first business account, they looked at me as if I’d fallen out of the sky. When I asked for an overdraft, they bundled me out of the door. We carried on regardless. Our first project was managed from my garage, hastily converted into a makeshift office. Our first glass repair project, possibly unbeknown to the client, was completed in a stable – but only whilst the pony was out. Within a couple of months we had an office and workshops, within a couple of years we had found our feet."
Jamie founded the company with the aim of building a conservation firm with wide-ranging skillsets all under one roof – placing the individual specialisms and craftsmanship of the team at its heart – and their work is testament to his achievement.
"Ten years on we’ve come a long way. With three workshop locations serving our various conservation disciplines and our second glass studio now open in Manchester, we continue to build on the values that we put at the heart of Recclesia - they being a thorough understanding of conservation theory and practice, leading to properly researched and informed conservation and design work, relying on the expertise, skill and knowledge of our stellar staff of craftsmen and women. Throughout our first ten years, we’ve built a team of outstanding people who have invested themselves fully in the company. We’ve grown together, learnt together, survived and succeeded together, and I owe a debt of gratitude to every one of them for helping me mould Recclesia into the company I wanted it to be. Similarly, I am thankful for the support from numerous clients and conservation architects who recognise us as something out of the ordinary and continue to involve us in fittingly extraordinary projects."
And as we move forward over the coming years, Jamie concluded his thoughts for the future.
"None of us know what the future will hold, but I do know that our core principles will remain the same and that our approach to our work will always put quality and integrity over timescale and margin. We will continue to invest in our people, continue to grow and learn, and continue to pass on our skills to a new generation of conservators and craftspeople. We will continue to be Recclesia."
Jamie Moore - Recclesia 2019