Moving with the times: partition firm sees surge in education sector demand

PARTITION specialist Style has revealed that the business has seen a surge in demand within the education sector over the last decade, with space ‘always at a premium’ in education facilities.

This, in turn, has had a knock-on effect for Style’s service and maintenance department.

“Schools and colleges have come to rely on their ability to quickly divide a room so that two classes or activities can run concurrently,” said Julian Sargent, MD for Style South. “Our service engineers are extremely busy ensuring moveable walls that we have installed, and many others too, are kept safe and fully operational.”

One recent example of a call-out was to a school in Falkirk, where a 6.2m-high moveable wall had incurred damage to the roller assembly. Style explained its Scottish service team was able to safely lower the panel, remove and repair the damaged part before reconstructing the wall at ‘minimal cost’.

“Our technicians will always carry out a thorough assessment and on this occasion, it was decided that it was most cost-effective to send the damaged roller assembly to a metal specialist for repair,” said Angela McGowan, sales and service manager at Style Scotland.

At a nursery in Dundee, Style had been awarded a contract to service and maintain a folding wall with pass door, even though the firm did not originally install the system. During the first servicing visit, Styles’ technicians raised concerns about children potentially trapping their fingers in the door, recommending a protective hinge cover be added.