Toby Irvine
Director
What is your background? Civil Engineer and Project Management in Construction
What are you most proud of in your career so far? Although I have worked for large International construction Companies on some notable projects across the UK, my highlight has been the formation of Naturalis Limited including the Raised Floor Systems division and exclusive partnerships with leading design and manufacturing companies such as Buzon and Caesar Ceramiche to mention a few.
How did you come up with the idea of creating Naturalis? It was purely born out of locating products and solutions for external areas to projects and then snowballed into further sales and increased importation and being first to market with Class A fire rated raised floor systems for Balconies, terraces and winter gardens.
What obstacles did you have to face? It has been a rocky road since the formation in Autumn 2019 as with many businesses who have had to cope with Brexit, Global pandemic and high inflation.
Can we afford to doubt when we are an entrepreneur? Not really, you must have the confidence in the services and products you provide as well as the calculated risks you must take in order to achieve a position in the market place. We have always aimed high and with numerous projects on going and in the pipeline across the Channel Islands, including the Horizon Development on the waterfront St Helier we will always aim to be the best at what we do and learn from any problems on the way.
What strategy do you employ for building an efficient work team? Allow those around you to have a voice and input into the business, the old cliché that a happy team is a productive team is certainly true with us and we embrace all ways in which we can perform better to provide a quality service to our clients and customers.
Quick quiz:
To be on site or to be in the office? Both, you can’t have one without the other.
Work or politics? Work (Although politics has a way of creeping into all aspects!)
Formal or informal? Formal
Vertical or horizontal organization? Diagonal! We are really a mix of both as we provide a wide range of products but specialise in certain areas.
Idealist or optimist? Again both, I don’t feel you can have one without the other in business. We must be optimistic in our Goals but realistic in how much we can achieve.