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
AA Woods is born
Our journey begins from offices in South Woodford, Essex.
People Investors
We are the first asbestos remediation business to gain Investors in People accreditation.
The buy out
Woods is acquired by the current owners David and Tara Petri.
Relocation
We relocate to larger head offices in Harlow, Essex.
Regional
We open our first regional office located in the South West of England.
For Rhyl
We secure a £15m, 8 year remediation contract at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Rhyl.
Frameworks
We now deliver in excess of XX? public OJEU tendered frameworks.
Cardiff
We open a further regional office in Cardiff, South Wales.
Wellington
We expand again and open an office in Wellington, further servicing the South West.
Our friends electric
Our first electronic vehicles enter our company fleet.
Crest of a wave
We acquire Crest Environmental Ltd to service the North of England.
Carbon neutral
We reach our environmental target of becoming carbon neutral.
Silver Jubilee
We celebrate 25 years of growth and successful trading.
Bristol bound
We consolidate our Cardiff and Wellington offices by relocating to Bristol.
Employee owned
We are now fully owned by our employees, everyone now benefits from our on-going success.
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.
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.
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.