If you need a stump grinding in the Altrincham area, the chances are you'll call Wainwright Stump Removal.
Alex Corkill, who has worked in the industry since leaving school at 16, has together with business partner Richard Wainwright turned the company into a local business success story.
We caught up with him to find out more.
ALTRINCHAM TODAY: Can you give us a bit of background as to how you became involved in Wainwright Stump Removal?
ALEX CORKILL: I started in the business when I joined Frankland Tree Services straight from school when I was 16. I’m severely dyslexic so I found school very hard - if it had been down to me I’d have left at 10! Chris Frankland was really good to me - he took a chance on me and I worked my way up the ranks, from groundsman to team leader.
AT: How did the opportunity come about with Wainwright Stump Removal?
AC: Richard Wainwright - who is now my business partner - was one of the team leaders at Frankland Tree Services at the time. He was technically very good at dismantling trees - if you aspired to be a climber, you looked up to him, and he passed that knowledge on to me. It was his father, Rod, who operated Wainwright Stump Removal out of the same yard, and we agreed a deal which saw me take over the business at the age of 22. That was 11 years ago.
AT: How has the business gone since you took it over?
AC: I built the client base up but I kept on getting asked to do tree work, so gradually I got back into the tree work. I brought in Richard and we started doing more and more work together and soon we had built up a decent business.
AT: Your main services are tree stump removal and tree work - what kind of jobs are you most commonly working on?
AC: We still do a lot of stump grinding, but we literally do any kind of tree or vegetation management work now. You can come to us for everything from having your trees assessed and risk reports carried out to the actual stump grinding, felling and tree management.
AT: Who are your typical customers and what areas do you cover?
The hub of our work is in the Altrincham area, but we also go out to Wilmslow, Prestbury, Alderley Edge and Stockport.
AT: What are the pitfalls that people need to be aware of when removing stumps or carrying our tree work?
AC: One of the main reasons for not leaving stumps in the ground is that they can harbour fungus which can spread to other trees and shrubs in the vicinity. Stumps can also get in the way of other projects. We are custodians of trees, but I disagree when people say you can never fell a tree. Sometimes they need to come out for the greater good - replanting is all part of the cycle.
AT: How important is the quality of equipment to the job you do?
AC: We’ve heavily invested in the equipment side of the business so that we can now do any type of tree or vegetation management job. There’s nothing we can’t handle.
AT: With leaves off the trees, is winter a good time to tackle some of those jobs in the garden that people may have been putting off?
AC: Trees are dormant at this time of year so it is a good time to prune trees, yes. With no leaves on the trees it’s also easier to see whether there are any failings or splits in the trees. Most people think that summer is our busiest time of the year but it’s actually winter - it’s a great time to get any pruning work done.
For more about Wainwright Stump Removal, call 07966 490951, visit wainwrightstumpremoval.co.uk or follow @wainwrightstumpremoval on Instagram or Facebook
