Company Profile and History

Rugby Ground Information Ltd was formed in 1989 by John Dempsey and Simon Bingham. Both directors met while working in the services location industry.

John Dempsey's background was initially from an apprenticeship with British Gas, which developed a clear understanding of underground services. John joined the utility survey industry in the 1982.  As a surveyor, he gained vast experience in the UK before also working in America and Ireland.

Simon Bingham studied Civil Engineering specializing in Engineering Surveying and initially worked in Saudi Arabia. Following a contract surveying in the UK including road surveying contracts for Cornwall County Council, Simon was employed on a two year contract with BKS Surveys in the United Arab Emirates, involving mapping the entire electricity network of Al Ain. On his return to the UK in 1987 he joined the same utility survey company and met John.

Rugby Ground Information was formed through a Princes Youth Business Trust loan and the company went on to win the West Midlands Region PYBT award with presentation by HRH The Prince of Wales at the BAFTA theatre.

Through attention to detail and thorough working practices, Rugby Ground Information built up a strong Client base and a reputation for comprehensive, accurate and detailed underground services surveys.

A one year contract was awarded in 1990 by Norwest Holst for Severn Trent Water to locate existing water mains in Leamington Spa for a water main rehabilitation programme.  This also included providing record cards detailing every water service installed.  This contract was particularly invaluable as the water mains were being replaced after location, enabling verification of actual location work.

Following this contract we were awarded further work to topographically survey detail, and locate all underground pipes and cables for over 80 water pumping stations throughout the South Warwickshire district.  We also produced over 70 environmental drainage surveys within a strict timescale, positive feedback was received regarding the quality of our work over our competitors.

In our early days services surveys were plotted by traditional draughting methods, utilising stencils, plotted onto paper or film plans.  On site information was recorded using tape measures.  With the introduction of CAD in the surveying environment and to take our surveys to the next level, RGI developed it’s own in house topographic survey service in the early 1990's, resulting in more accurate and versatile survey information.  Our surveys became far more comprehensive and usable, we have continued to improve and invest in latest technology, including both GPS and Ground Probing Radar to provide the best available product.

RGI Surveys CAD structure has been developed over the years with services in mind. From overlay surveys compatible with Client’s CAD systems, transfer to Client’s system formats to DXF, and now the latest industry standard Autocad DWG formats, as well as digital terrain files in LSS, and MOSS GENIO etc.  The latest CAD systems loaded with new features enable increased productivity and versatility of final presentation.

RGI Surveys now offer multi-task survey teams who are experienced in topographic and underground services surveys, including ground probing radar. Therefore a cost effective solution is achieved in providing a comprehensive service and knowledgeable team in one package. This benefits the Client's buyers, accountants and engineers. It presents no problem to extend the scope of the works, if findings arise on site during our survey to warrant an additional type of survey, be it inaccessible building heights and frontages, location of unearthed services or drain runs etc. Such examples are not always envisaged by the Client, but our experienced and fully equipped teams can deal with these eventualities as the need arises.

The Company is deliberately kept to a small number of teams enabling the working Directors to have personal control and knowledge of all contracts. This policy is a result of the nature of Underground Services surveys, where training courses are not available or no official certification exists.  Services surveys are taught through in house day to day training and constant assessment of all disciplines.

We have an impeccable health and safety record with zero incidents which we are motivated to maintain, and in light of our steady expansion plans and current trends we are incorporating a more thorough documented system and tighter Health and Safety measures.

With an established Client base who inevitably abbreviated our name to RGI, and our ever increasing involvement with topographic surveys we became known as RGI Surveys from the mid 1990's. For this reason this is the name we trade under.