People

Andrea Saranga

Market Research Leader

Year Joined: 2018

Andrea has been working at Sapphire as a Market Researcher since 2018. She identifies areas of market growth within the UK and globally. She is now the Market Research Leader working with a team of leaders to discover and outline growth opporutinities.

Andrew Parsons

Founder / Technical Consultant

Year Joined: 1992

Andrew has been allied to the industry for over 40 years, and following a hands-on grounding in general construction has for the last three decades focused his attention entirely on balustrades and balconies.

His passion for aesthetic, structural and technical detail regarding design has led to many of the innovative and creative solutions which Sapphire now offer the UK and Global market, and his enthusiasm toward continual development is an inspiration to all their employees.

Building on his practical background, he has been instrumental in developing an impressive test facility at Reading to gain a deeper understanding of the range of materials they work with and to provide backup evidence to verify complex structural and thermal calculations.

His role now as technical consultant and trusted advisor, together with his contribution to the BSI committee for balconies, gives testament to his technical expertise and specialist industry knowledge.

Angus Robertson

Contracts Manager

Year Joined: 2009

Angus became a design manager at our Reading head office in 2009. Before joining he had worked for a safety workwear and equipment supplier, which gave him a background of serving clients including Berkeley Group in the construction industry. Angus now works as a design manager, attending coordination meetings and working with site technical teams to be able to turn their key design intents into practical, safe balconies.

Carl Hext

Commercial Manager

Year Joined: 2019

Carl started his career as a professional tiler after studying building studies. He initially worked with one of the UK’s upmarket tiling brands before working for a high-end stone and tile brand where he then spent many years. In 2019 Carl joined our commercial team where he works with others to agree terms of our commercial contracts with customers.

Carl Judge

COACH Bid Manager

Year Joined: 2016

Carl’s career started with Estimating with a building contractor. Carl then progressed into quantity surveying, again for a construction company, before joining our team in our Reading head office in 2016. As our bid manager, Carl works with our estimators to coordinate the estimating process and ensure customer needs are interpreted correctly for us to build competitive quotes for our clients.

Cassia Haughton

Marketing Assistant

Year Joined: 2016

Cassia joined Sapphire after she relocated to Berkshire in 2016. Her previous background was working for a construction product manufacturer where she worked as a receptionist and a marketing assistant. Cassia facilitates our internal newsletter and oversees the collation and judging of our monthly MOT (Moment Of Truth) scheme which recognises employees who have stretched beyond expectation to better a customer experience. She will be off most of 2019 on maternity leave.

Chris Goffin

Buyer

Year Joined: 2020

Chris joined our team in 2020 as a Buyer within the Supply Chain team. He will be working in close collaboration with the purchasing team to source materials for our balcony projects. He began his procurement career in 2016 working at Optima Systems as a Procurement and Sustainability Officer moving on to be an Estimator before joining the Sapphire family.

Chris Jermy

Site Operations Manager

Year Joined: 2014

Chris started his career as a sheet metalwork fabricator before becoming more involved in site-based installation of steelwork, balustrades and balconies. Chris worked for a number of specialist balustrade and balcony companies before joining our team in 2014. Chris now works with others internally to coordinate site requirements to ensure that balcony installs can be met with fulfilling deliveries and ensuring the correct Sapphire install equipment is on site when needed. Chris has numerous site qualifications and is one of our certified Appointed Persons as well as being SMSTS trained.

Crawford Dixon

Market Development Manager

Year Joined: 2020

Crawford joined Sapphire in 2020 beginning as an estimator and now responsible for UK business development and lead generation. He reviews all incoming technical enquiries, arranges CPDs and Design Meetings and follows up projects to receive enquiries through telemarketing.