Gladedale

Gladedale is a straightforward house-builder with three regional divisions: Northern, which covers north-east England and Scotland; Central, which covers the north-west and down towards the west Midlands; and Southern, which is everything below the west Midlands. The growth rate for the Group has been pretty impressive over the last five or six years.

Nabarro has been working with us for around a year. They handle all our dispute matters - primarily covering customer care issues and also supplier disputes that we might face from time to time. We have also used Nabarro for data protection matters - a one-off major task with regular follow-on sessions.

We chose Nabarro because of their prior experience, knowledge and success in achieving the desired results for their clients.

The most significant case so far has been a dispute at one of our sites involving an environmental matter. The whole thing went on for the best part of six months, during which time the Nabarro team came across as knowing exactly what needed to be done. They were extremely confident, focused and to the point. They did what needed to be done and the end result was successful - the entire case against us was dropped.

Not having succeeded in this case would have meant some very serious problems for us in delaying our development of that particular portion of the site. So, winning it and winning it as quickly as possible was important.

In terms of customer care, Nabarro has allowed us to become quite a bit more proactive in our approach. This is more damage limitation rather than actually curing a particular problem. They have been having detailed sessions with us, which has led to our customer care procedures being redrafted, refreshed and standardised across the Group.

What the business has gained is a lack of problems arising - it’s a preventative thing that adds value.

Nabarro is very professional. Everything they have done for us has been executed well and in good time. The partners and associates who have been engaged on various tasks have carried out their work professionally, in a very efficient way and friendly manner.