Roger Sutton: “Delivering projects is a passion”

“I am very passionate about my job because I like delivering projects. They can be stressful at times, but to go through that stress on a good way and to deliver the project in the end and get a good feedback from the client, that really gets me out of bed every morning,” says project director for NIRAS in United Kingdom, Roger Sutton.

And with more than two decades of experience as a project manager in primarily the food and beverage sector, chemical engineer Roger Sutton knows a thing or two about delivering projects.

Transparency and accountability

Despite Roger Sutton’s extensive experience of 23 years, not everything on the job is smooth sailing because large and complex projects do inevitably run into different difficulties.

“We do have a lot of challenges with projects. No project is the same and they are very fluid. Recently we had problem with a piece of equipment that was delayed, but we were able to liaise with our client quickly, and we were able get another supplier to deliver the equipment instead. The client was quite happy with our response to that situation, and by being up front we gained credibility,” he says.

Being transparent and up front with the client is precisely a key to good customers relation and ultimately also to success in the consultancy business, according to Sutton:

“We meet different challenges for instance in terms of installing, but generally we have very good site teams that have regular meetings with the client. We are very up front with the clients and we discuss openly with them.”

Process experts give added value to clients

Another key factor to success in the consultancy business is employing the right people and having a high a level of expertise.

“The team of NIRAS in United Kingdom has a wealth of experience. Many of them have been with the business for more than twenty years. We are very dynamic, so a client can call us and we come and try to sort their problems,” says Roger Sutton.

Sutton emphasizes that NIRAS’ experts are not limited to their own field of expertise, but they are also very experienced in terms of process and this enables them to go to site an identify problems, which give added value to the clients.

The NIRAS way: Listen, learn, deliver

According to Roger Sutton one of the advantages of NIRAS’ approach is its flexibility and ability to listen to the customers’ specific needs and design the projects accordingly.

“We are different to a lot of our competitor because we are solely independent. If you go to a lot of our competitors such as a an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) supplier, you will get what they give you. Whereas NIRAS allows the client to specify valves, pipes, pumps and tanks from different companies, so effectively the clients get exactly the project that they want,” he says.

Sutton also stresses that another advantage is that NIRAS has very good purchasing power, either on its own behalf or on behalf of the clients, which also adds value to a project.

One global NIRAS

“Being part of a global company as NIRAS, has given me the opportunity to work both with the Danish team and on projects abroad. Some of our projects in United Kingdom have been integral with the Danish team, and we have also worked on cross country tenders together. So it is one NIRAS, effectively. It is not two different countries,” says Roger Sutton.

He also stresses the work environment as one of the benefits of working in NIRAS:

“We are very lucky here at the NIRAS office in Ascot, because many of us have known each other for some twenty years. Even though we have moved from being a smaller company at Penborn Technical Services to being a much bigger organization in NIRAS, we have still retained that energy and friendliness which makes it a really nice place to come. We are more friends than work colleagues, which is really nice.”

Facts about NIRAS in United Kingdom

NIRAS contributes to innovative and sustainable solutions all over the world. In the United Kingdom we have 100 experienced engineers and consultants with special interest and expertise in cross-disciplinary projects. 

NIRAS’ specialists in Food & Beverage offer support in decision making, investment processes, project execution, strategic production optimization and operations service. The in-depth industry knowledge of our experienced consultants, specialist engineers, project managers and site managers allows us to offer advice on all aspects of production within Beer & Beverages, Dairy, Spirits, Food and FMCG products.

NIRAS has offered a wide variety of solutions to Food & Beverage markets leaders in the UK and globally.