THE REMARKABLE TALE OF VINCENT FENCING!
Every now and then you come across a story that’s far from the norm. That is most definitely the case with Vincent Fencing based at Sonning Common in Oxfordshire.
Founded in July 2014 by Nick and Mariann Vincent, just a couple of months after they tied the knot, the business focuses on delivering groundworks contracts and fencing across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire. Mariann, who moved to the UK from Hungary 22 years ago to work as an au pair for a very prominent politician, juggles the bookkeeping and admin work with looking after their two adopted youngsters. It wasn’t always thus.
Mariann explained: “Nick had been doing fencing on and off since he started working for one of his father’s old friends Dave Fisher at 16 doing pipeline and demarcation fencing. He had acquired all of the relevant qualifications along the way and could pretty much drive every machine there is so he was well-placed to set up on his own.
“Following a year of Nick working on his own, using a hand drivall and dreaming about buying a Fordson Major with a Parmitter post knocker, I went and got the relevant qualifications including a CSCS card and was soon ‘on the tools’ with Nick.
“A year or so later we went on to buy our first homemade tracked post banger and a U17 digger and we carried out various fencing and groundworks projects including highways work around the region.
“Things progressed and the existing machinery was no longer sufficient for the larger and more complex projects that they were undertaking so the machines were upgraded to a tracked Protech post driver and a U27 excavator that are still a part of the ‘team’.
“The business has continued to develop well with a solid pipeline of work keeping Nick and his two full-time staff, Raynor and Darren, busy. Ray has been with the company since 2016 and is an essential part of the business. Darren has only recently joined the team in January 2023.
“We’ve got a full order book stretching two to three months ahead and find that around 60 to 70% of our work comes from repeat business or referrals.
“The guys at McVeigh & Parker’s Reading branch and Bouchier Fencing, based in Woodcote, have proved to be trusted partners and supply us with high quality materials for ongoing domestic, equestrian, agricultural and highways projects.
“Nick and I love what we do and work hard but we have some choices to make in the near future regarding the direction the business will be going in. We have to decide whether we will continue installing domestic as well as equestrian and agricultural fencing or focus on just the former.
“Whatever happens, we will continue to thrive and enjoy the good times. Life can be testing and taxing at times but it isn’t all work and no play! We’re trying to pass the adventure bug on to the children so we go off exploring around the UK and across Europe in our recently acquired VW T6 campervan,” added Mariann.
Nick and Mariann really are one special team!
