Fife-based home improvements firm CR Smith has created 150 new roles as it scales up to deliver major social housing projects for councils and housing associations across Scotland.
The expansion cements the company’s move into public sector work and underlines its ambition to be a long-term partner in modernising Scotland’s social housing stock.
Best known for supplying high-quality windows and doors to private homeowners, CR Smith has spent the past four years broadening its focus to include social landlords and local authorities. Building on its established trade and commercial operations, the firm has taken what it describes as a strategic and carefully phased approach to entering the social housing market.
To support rising demand, the company has significantly scaled up its capabilities, adding 150 roles across the business. This investment is designed to strengthen operational capacity and ensure CR Smith can meet what it calls the complex and evolving demands of social housing delivery at scale.
CR Smith is now delivering replacement window programmes for a growing roster of public sector clients including Fife Council, the City of Edinburgh Council, East Lothian Council, West Lothian Council and Dundee City Council. The business has also built partnerships with more than a dozen housing associations as it deepens its presence in the social housing sector.
Earlier this year, the company sponsored the CIH Scotland Housing Festival at the SEC to showcase the role of advanced window design, precision manufacturing and efficient on-site delivery in raising standards. CR Smith says continued investment in people, processes and innovation will underpin its role as a key delivery partner in Scotland’s drive to improve and modernise social housing stock.
The firm has been a prominent name in Scottish homes for more than 50 years, with a reputation built on product quality, skilled installation teams and consistently high service standards. CR Smith argues that this track record in the private sector gives it a strong platform as it broadens further into social housing.
CR Smith maintains that what truly differentiates the business is its focus on people and service, describing the customer experience as central to everything it does. The company says this service-led mindset has guided its approach to all markets and all householders over the past five decades.
The business believes that everyone from private homeowners to social tenants, and from housing associations to housebuilders, deserves clarity, care and respect in how projects are delivered. It says providing that level of service consistently is fundamental to the brand and a key part of its proposition to social landlords.
CR Smith highlights its collaborative approach as a way to support long-term value for housing associations and local authorities. This includes providing greater certainty in planning and budgeting so social landlords can manage investment programmes with confidence.
The company says its design and manufacturing expertise ensures quality, performance and durability in window installations, which can in turn help reduce ongoing maintenance costs. By aiming to exceed expectations and push up standards, CR Smith positions its offer as both a quality and whole-life cost play for social landlords.
CR Smith also emphasises the wider community benefits that can flow from its partnerships with local authorities and housing associations. It points to opportunities to support local employment, skills development and community investment, aligning its work with landlords’ shared social value objectives.
Working side by side with public sector clients, the firm argues that this model can bring certainty, consistency and innovation, while supporting the sharing of best practice. CR Smith believes this approach will support improved outcomes for tenants and communities and underpin its position as a long-term partner to the public sector, matching its decades-long role in the private market.
Gerard Eadie CBE, Chairman of CR Smith, said: “It has been a carefully considered journey to ensure that we bring the same exceptional standards we are well known for in the private sector to the social housing sector.
“We have invested heavily to ensure that we can deliver the quality, scale and reliability Councils and Housing Associations require. It is important to us to exceed expectations, and we do this by focusing on the details – doing things right – while upholding the values of customer service that have defined our brand for more than 50 years.”
Danny McArthur, Director of Commercial at CR Smith, said: “Our focus has been to bring the full strength of CR Smith into social housing – our people, our products and our service culture. Central to that is the customer experience, ensuring every householder receives professional care and respect.
“Equally important are the working relationships we build with our clients. Our growing client list shows the demand for a supplier committed to both.”
