Harlow (HQ) 01279 444 630​

St. Helens 01744 750 100

Our Story

About Us

AA Woods was originally formed in 1994 to provide high quality asbestos remediation services across the South East of England.

In 2003, the current ownership acquired the business with a vision to become a multi-disciplined national contractor.

Today, we operate in a broad range of market sectors on a national scale providing solutions to some of the most challenging projects within our industry, delivering asbestos remediation and other environmental services across three offices located in Harlow (HQ), Bristol and St. Helens with depots in Reading and Milton Keynes.

Our People

Meet our Directors

Dave Pienaar

Projects Director

Dave has been with the company since 1999 and has over 30 years’ experience within the asbestos industry.

Based in our Head Office, Dave oversees the larger, more complex projects. Recent examples being works in live hospitals, hotels, and remediation works on large demolition sites.

In addition, Dave is the key contact for some of our larger long-term framework agreements.

Rob Beale

Finance Director

Rob joined the company as Finance Director in 2023, bringing with him over a decade of experience in the accounting sector, working within audit, corporate finance and the advisory space.

Rob has supported a number of SMEs in differing sectors over the years, predominantly construction, technology and insurance.

Prior to joining AA Woods, Rob had a strong focus on technology, harnessing off the shelf products as well as bespoke solutions to make businesses more efficient.

Tara Petri

Commercial Director

Together with David Petri, Tara acquired the business in 2003 and now undertakes the role of Commercial Director, working with the senior management team to promote the development of the business.

Tara has accumulated over 30 years’ experience within the asbestos industry and provides advice across all major projects and frameworks to ensure that value added initiatives are reviewed and implemented.

David Petri

Managing Director

David acquired AA Woods in 2003 and as Managing Director has successfully led the company to become a well established market leader in asbestos remediation operating nationally across three offices.

David’s primary focus is to ensure that the business continues to provide its ever growing diverse range of clients across all market sectors with a consistently high level of service, whilst ensuring that the business maintains its excellent standards in Health and Safety.

Luke Mulvey

Contracts Director

Luke started his journey at AA Woods as an Operative and after climbing the ranks and serving as Contracts Manager for the past decade was recently promoted to Contracts Director.

Luke has gathered a wealth of knowledge and experience across both our larger projects and Home Care Division. Luke is responsible for the performance of our South West Office and is the key contact for some of our larger long-term framework agreements.   

Ben Crawley

Contracts Director

Ben joined AA Woods in 2008 and after fulfilling the role of Operations Manager for the past few years was recently promoted to Contracts Director.

Ben operates within our South East Home Care Division, where we successfully complete thousands of jobs annually.

In addition, Ben plays a key role in the bidding process for securing new clients and frameworks.

Dave Phillips

Regional Director

Dave is based in our St. Helens office and is vastly experienced at estimating and managing large challenging projects having been in the remediation industry for over 35 years.

Dave was responsible for delivering our Glan Clwyd Hospital project in North Wales with a contract value in excess of £15m.

Through the years

Our timeline

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AA Woods is born

Our journey begins from offices in South Woodford, Essex.

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Relocation

We relocate to larger head offices in Harlow, Essex.

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Frameworks

We now deliver in excess of XX? public OJEU tendered frameworks.

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Our friends electric

Our first electronic vehicles enter our company fleet.

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Silver Jubilee

We celebrate 25 years of growth and successful trading.

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People Investors

We are the first asbestos remediation business to gain Investors in People accreditation.

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Regional

We open our first regional office located in the South West of England.

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Cardiff

We open a further regional office in Cardiff, South Wales.

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Carbon neutral

We reach our environmental target of becoming carbon neutral.

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Bristol bound

We consolidate our Cardiff and Wellington offices by relocating to Bristol.

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The buy out

Woods is acquired by the current owners David and Tara Petri.

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For Rhyl

We secure a £15m, 8 year remediation contract at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Rhyl.

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Wellington

We expand again and open an office in Wellington, further servicing the South West.

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Crest of a wave

We acquire Crest Environmental Ltd to service the North of England.

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Employee owned

We are now fully owned by our employees, everyone now benefits from our on-going success.

Asbestos - The Facts
Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous material regularly used in building work from the 1950’s up until the late 1990’s. Any building built or refurbished before the year 2000 may contain asbestos. Asbestos was often used as an insulation and fireproofing material and is regularly found in products such as ceiling tiles, pipe insulation, boilers, sprayed coatings and garage roofs. There are three main types of asbestos, chrysolite (white), amosite (brown), and crocidolite (blue).

Removing asbestos is particularly dangerous as the fibres become harmful when disturbed and released into the atmosphere. The risk of releasing these dangerous fibres is particularly high without proper training, equipment and control measures. If handled incorrectly and inhaled these fibres can cause serious asbestos related diseases. It can take as little as 10 years and up to 50 years to develop these diseases depending on exposure. Asbestos exposure causes 5,000 deaths every year, vastly more than the number of people killed on UK roads.
Technology
We operate a cloud-based business platform that standardises the way our staff undertake business critical tasks, providing them with the necessary tools to aid them in completing their job more efficiently. Each Site Team is assigned a ‘tablet’ handheld device which allows them to access all work instructions and relevant documentation required for the task. This platform streamlines the management of asbestos contract processes and adherence to sector legislation.

Planned and responsive works such as risk assessments, re-inspections, asbestos removal and containment are effectively scheduled and managed. The system digitally deploys compliance checklists and records key data on ACM’s, air testing, waste consignment, exposure rates, H&S, staff training and sustainability. A centralised management dashboard allows multiple sites to be monitored in real time and records of scheduled works are updated instantly.
Skills and Training
We recognise the value and importance of providing opportunities to staff to develop their job related knowledge and skills and expect that with development and training, individual effectiveness and motivation will increase.

All our staff are continuously assessed through audit and competency checks carried out by our Compliance Team, Managers and Site Supervisors. This information is gathered to enable us to produce a relevant training needs analysis (TNA) programme delivered using our state of the art training facility, ensuring all individuals’ needs are met.
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