Technical support is key to business success – helping your business to solve product challenges, research new industry opportunities or solutions, and thoroughly test new formulations before launch. And it’s more important than ever today, with companies across the construction ecosystem needing to focus on increasing sustainability and reducing environmental impact.
If you’re one of the many businesses that are short on time or resources and are looking for a reliable external technical partner, it’s essential you find the right company to work with. In this guide, we cover:
● Rakem Group’s company values and how they support technical excellence
● An overview of the Technical Support Service team at Rakem Group
● And we meet the team you’ll be working with
You’ll see how technical support delivers results across the Rakem group of companies – and how we can help your business too.
Technical support from an industry leader
Since Rakem was founded in the 1990s, we’ve grown to become a well known and respected group of brands, dedicated to solving a wide variety of chemical challenges through a combination of technical expertise, cutting-edge equipment, and quality service. As we’ve grown, so has our experience and expertise, with many of the Rakem Group companies now ISO 9001:2015 certified.
Today, we run a team of research and development chemists operating across two state-of-the-art labs, dedicated to helping us and our customers to deliver even greater business success.
But it’s more than our resources. At the Rakem Group, we’re proud to have a culture of innovation and success that runs through everything we do. We focus on three priorities as we run our business:
- Delivering value to people through innovation and compliance.
- Delivering value to the planet through increased sustainability and environmental awareness.
- Increasing profit – using our product ranges, people and technical expertise to help our customers to greater business success.
Our Values
● Family. We’re more than a team. People are the heart of our business, a community that thrives on creating solutions from a collective care and commitment and shares a passion for innovation.
● Fun. Innovation drives us and family binds us, but it’s the fun and passion that defines us. We believe in celebrating every challenge and taking delight in every solution.
● Integrity. We’re committed to upholding the highest standards of performance and compliance, and our business thrives on trust and transparency. We simply don’t cut corners, and if we were to make a mistake, we’ll own it and make it right.
● Innovation. We make sure we’re always at the forefront of new opportunities, addressing and surpassing our customers’ biggest challenges, as well as continually adopting new and better ways of running our own business too.
● Friendly. We don’t just serve our customers, we build lasting relationships with them. We value every interaction, and our commitment to quality is matched by our warmth and approachability.
Meet your team
Our highly experienced R&D and Technical Support Services team is a perfect example of our brand values in real life: a carefully curated group of talented, curious and inquisitive chemical scientists, having fun as they work across the Rakem Group to deliver innovative R&D and business solutions.
We’ve found and invested in some of the best people in the industry, making sure their skillsets cover a wide range of areas and knowledge. But we also trust them to know what they need to succeed both now and in the future. For example, we continually invest in the latest technology for our R&D lab, but if the team wants to experiment with something particular, we love hearing their requests for new or different equipment. Giving people the freedom to try new things encourages them to continue driving forward to discover new possibilities.
Here’s the people you’ll be working with.
Alistair Sharp, Group Technical Services Manager
Alistair leads Rakem Group’s Technical Support Service, helping every individual to develop new strengths and achieve their best. He’s a passionate believer in exceptional product quality, and ensures that sustainability is a fundamental part of the team – and wider Group – strategy. He backs this up with extensive construction chemical experience and years working with the Rakem Group. Like the rest of his team, Alistair is brilliant at unravelling complex challenges and enhancing our customers’ products, so you can absolutely trust them to solve any of your industrial chemical challenges.
Usman Rasul, Chief Chemist (Construction)
Our chief chemist Usman is our technical expert, finding solutions to the problems other people can’t solve. He has a PhD in Biological Chemistry but also huge amounts of cross-sector industry expertise, bringing the Rakem Group years of experience from the pharmaceutical and nuclear sectors. He is obsessed with R&D and loves our well-equipped labs. He’s highly intelligent and very proactive. And one of his favourite things is finding innovative, sustainable solutions to customer challenges and achieving product perfection for our own portfolio. He’s just right for us.
Scott Tilley, Chief Chemist (Coatings)
There are many reasons to love Scott. A time-served chemist, who has over 20 years experience working in the coatings sector. Scott developed and honed his expert skill-set working for a global leader in coatings additives. We know we can give him anything to look into, whether it’s construction products, water-based or paint/spray applications, or in fact anything else, and he’ll find a way to reliably test it and deliver the results. He’s an essential part of our offering to customers and to the Rakem Group business – well-tested solutions with results you can rely on. Scott’s communication skills are legendary too – he generates the perfect report to make his findings easy for our commercial teams and customers to understand.
Stephen Headley, R&D Technician
Ste has a great instinct for the art of the possible. He came to the Technical Support Service after years of working in our production team. He’s also worked in quality control for a number of Rakem Group companies. It gives him a unique insight into how it all works and makes him a key part of the technical team, supporting Usman and ensuring the quality of our products. Ste is particularly passionate about the R&D part of his role – he loves the challenge of solving the problems he’s given.
Mohammed Saif, Apprentice R&D Technician
Saif is the newest member of the Rakem Group’s research and development team. As an apprentice R&D technician, Saif helps to support Scott with the work he does testing and delivering coatings R&D and Technical Support Services projects. Saif already shows the Rakem values, approaching projects with passion and enthusiasm and with a great appetite for learning.
Andy Byrne, Business Support and Compliance Manager
Andy is a bit of a legend. He’s well known throughout the chemical industry, and there’s not much he hasn’t worked on during his time in the Rakem Group. He’s the original mastermind behind the Technical Support Services team, responsible for identifying the skills and competencies we needed to deliver innovative R&D and recruiting the experts you’ve already met above. Today, Andy’s role extends beyond the technical team, but he’s alway ready to bring them his experience, skill and passion.
Find out more
The Technical Support Services team works across the Rakem Group companies to make sure our customers get the best, most innovative solutions to their challenges.
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