THE ‘ABC’ OF SUCCESS
THE ‘ABC’ OF SUCCESS
ABCA
PROJECT DIRECTED BY:
GLEN NEWTON
ARTICLE
WRITTEN BY:
CATHERINE LAFFERTY
ISECURITY AND
n 1986 Philip Miller’s father had an idea about the business he had set up with Russ Colden. Anyone who opened the yellow pages would see his business first. Thus was ABCA born. Specialising in time and attendance and other low voltage systems, it was destined to make a big bang. This is the story of how it happened.
ABCA started off as a lifestyle business in the Northeast of England then in his mid-50s, the senior Mr Miller decided to get his son, Philip involved in the family business Philip Miller was then based in the US. He had recently graduated in economics from Ohio Wesleyan University on a football scholarship and was working as a graduate sales manager for Ferguson Enterprises.
It was 2005 when Philip Miller returned to the UK and joined forces with his father. The pair worked well together, sharing similar styles and motivations.
Miller observes, “Luckily me and my dad got on, you know, two very similar people, very sales orientated with mutual respect. That was always our drive.”
The time and place were auspicious for the business’s growth; ABCA was about to take off.
“I always say business is about the right people in the right place at the right time, which is something I got from my first boss, Chris Bodenstine at Ferguson Enterprises,” Miller smiles.
It was a philosophy he quickly put into practice, bringing two men on board who would be critical to ABCA’s progress. Chris Scott was an old school friend of Miller’s whom he enticed from an accountancy position in London, and Phil Batson, another accountant, joined as ABCA’s financial controller. Scott and Batson are still with ABCA and the three set about growing the business together.
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A Journey from Humble Beginnings
Lux Bright Solutions began as a small enterprise with big ambitions. From its inception, the company has sought to address the specific needs of social housing and local housing authorities, which account for approximately 85% of its turnover. The journey has not always been easy, but the commitment to becoming the best provider of lighting solutions in this sector has fueled its growth from nothing to projected sales of around £8 million by the end of November 2024. This remarkable trajectory underscores the company’s dedication to delivering exceptional value to its clients.
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Understanding Client Needs
What sets Lux Bright Solutions apart from its competitors? The answer lies in its approach to understanding and addressing client needs. The company adheres to three primary principles: superior product quality, comprehensive surveying
and design services, and rapid lead times. Lux Bright insists on using only the highest quality components in its lighting solutions, ensuring reliability and longevity. Clients can experience the products firsthand, fostering confidence in their durability and performance.
The surveying process is meticulous, encompassing everything from simple schemes with just a few lights to extensive projects with hundreds of units. By providing detailed lighting layouts in CAD format and comprehensive calculations, Lux Bright not only meets but exceeds client expectations. The end result is a solution that clients can confidently pass on to installers, streamlining the entire supply chain.
Additionally, Lux Bright Solutions boasts lead times of just 2 to 3 weeks—well below the industry norm of around 6 weeks. This efficiency, combined with a steadfast commitment to customer service, reinforces the company's goal of fostering longterm relationships. In a sector where many providers may prioritise short-term gains, Lux Bright’s focus on nurturing enduring partnerships sets it apart.
Collaborative Partnerships for Success
The collaborative relationship between Lux Bright Solutions and ABCA highlights the company’s ability to work alongside other industry leaders to achieve common goals. ABCA, a prominent fire alarm and emergency lighting contractor, has been a vital partner in projects for Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTVH), a housing association managing approximately 57,000 homes across the UK. Together, they have evaluated and implemented Lux Bright’s innovative SMARTLED technology, which allows for remote monitoring and compliance reporting of emergency lighting. This partnership exemplifies how Lux Bright can leverage its expertise to enhance safety and efficiency for large-scale housing providers.
Bespoke Lighting Design Process
Lux Bright’s bespoke lighting design process is particularly significant in light of recent events, such as the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017, which underscored the need for rigorous safety standards. The company adheres strictly to BS5266, the Code of Practice for Emergency Lighting, ensuring that lighting solutions meet essential safety criteria. By providing clear justifications for lighting placements, Lux Bright instills confidence in its clients, reinforcing its reputation as a specialist in the social housing sector.
Case Studies of Success
The company's track record includes notable collaborations with major clients such as the NHS and various local councils. For example, in partnership with Anchor Housing, one of the UK’s largest providers of dedicated care services for seniors, Lux Bright has delivered lighting solutions across 1,700 sites. In another impressive case, Lux Bright has provided and continues to monitor over 13,000 emergency lights across more than 500 sites for the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, showcasing its ability to handle large-scale, complex projects effectively.
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Looking Ahead: Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Solutions
As Lux Bright Solutions continues to grow, it remains committed to exploring the future of energy efficiency and sustainable lighting solutions. Each client presents unique needs and budgetary constraints, and Lux Bright aims to accommodate these variances. For clients with larger budgets, automated lighting testing integrated directly into asset tracking software is increasingly desirable. Conversely, those with tighter budgets prioritise quality solutions that minimise maintenance requirements over time.
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A Commitment to Quality and Integrity
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As Lux Bright Solutions forges ahead, it stands poised to illuminate the path for clients seeking sustainable and reliable lighting solutions for years to come. With a robust portfolio, strong partnerships, and a commitment to innovation, Lux Bright Solutions is not just lighting the way—it's setting a standard for the industry.
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As it grew it also began to take shape, adding fire and security to its services and developing a national presence with offices in the North West, Midlands and London. It is now structured on a threepillar basis with each pillar split into the two.
The first pillar is active fire and security, the second pillar is passive fire and the third pillar is electrical compliance. Inside each pillar, is a service department and an installation department.
ABCA’s structure is emphatically not a random one, rather it is formed in an interlocking logical structure as Miller explains: “For example, you’ve got a fire alarm system, then sitting in the service department is maintenance. So, you go out and you do your preventative fire alarm, emergency light, access control, maintenance. And you tell the customer whether it’s all working or not. If you need to upgrade it, that’s where the install sits. And that’s replicated across passive fire and now the electrical side as well. Customers realise the quality of our service and want us to do more than just one pillar for them.”
As the business grew it changed at the top: the Millers bought out Russ Colden and Chris Scott and Phil Batson became shareholders, then with Philip Miller they bought his father out.
Then in 2020 there was another significant milestone in ABCA’s story when it made its first acquisition, a Northeast based residential and B2B business called Tyneside. While Tyneside would continue providing services to businesses and residents, ABCA was evolving into a national company, specialising in the social housing market. Around 90 percent of its work currently is with social housing providers, such as Notting Hill Housing, Guinness Housing, Clarion Housing, Metropolitan Housing and Home Group.
The first part of ABCA’s story had concluded. Another chapter was about to begin.
When Miller met private equity investor Ali Khanbhai from Trimountain Partners he remembers that the pair just clicked. Their commercially fruitful relationship would illustrate yet again the pinpoint accuracy of Miller’s observation that business success is down to the right people and the right time.
Trimountain Partners invested in ABCA in 2021, enabling its expansion. It now has a turnover of £40 million and in the last quarter has acquired a further quartet of businesses. One of them, HBS, is a vertical integration into steel door manufacturing, while another is an electrical business, Citrus Group. Two of the businesses, AGS Tech and Maintec are very similar to ABCA and in the Active Fire & Security pillar, while HBS is a steel door manufacturing business.
ABCA’s acquisition of Citrus Group was not a mere impulse buy, however. There was a very definite rationale to it.
Miller notes: “The reason we want the electrical arm is because strategically it is the right thing to cross-sell to all our existing customers.”
Indeed, a lot of thought has gone into ensuring that ABCA’s growth trajectory has not been at the expense of existing relationships. It has ensured that its commitment to customer relationships remains strong amidst rapid growth and expansion by concentrating on one sector as opposed to going across various sectors.
As Miller likes to put it, ABCA hasn’t diversified across sectors, rather it has diversified its offering within sectors.
His astute stewardship of ABCA has been facilitated by his extensive knowledge of the business’s nuts and bolts, itself a product of the careful path his father steered for him.
“I went in straight as an engineer rather than anything business and sales wise,” he says.
It meant that he learned how the company worked beginning from the bottom upwards, from which everything else would follow.
“I was pulling cables on the outside of large high-rise blocks of flats for him when I first came back,” he says, adding: “In ABCA I’ve done every role there is engineering, sales, procurement, project management, finance, HR, IT, everything. “
The intimacy of his company knowledge would hold him in good stead for assuming ABCA’s reins. Miller started adopting the role of MD in 2007-8, officially taking the helm in 2009. The older Miller retired in 2011 but still kept his eye on the business.
As ABCA grew, acquired businesses and evolved, Phil Batson moved into its MD role while Miller stepped into the position of chief executive, looking at the more strategic side of the business, assessing its strengths and what sets it apart from the competition.
A clear point of differentiation is ABCA’s
concentration on writing quality tender documents, produced by its own dedicated in-house bid writing team.
“We are staying in front of that, tender writing has been vitally important for us; that’s one way that we’ve differentiated ourselves,” Miller says.
Another distinctive feature of ABCA is that it maintains a personable and familyoriented feel. The directors and owners of the business have always been very much hands-on, very involved in the day-to-day.
Miller likes to get to know the new recruits, to tell them where he’s from and what he’s like. He wants a feeling of openness to pervade the operation, where people can feel free to ask questions. He doesn’t want the atmosphere to be one that is stiff and corporate.
The roll up your sleeves and get stuck in ethos has always been central to ABCA. Miller vividly remembers his father working weekends, pulling in alarm cables when he first started.
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SECURITY AND
“He was not afraid of doing anything in the business, whatever it needed, it would be done,” Miller says, adding: “It was very much hands-on, work hard, play hard kind of environment with that work ethic from my dad and Russ.”
As the future unfolds Miller sees ABCA evolving into other sectors beyond the fire and security industry but doing so crucially without losing its culture and identity.
Yet Miller strongly believes in empowerment and letting people further down the chain of command take responsibility. Key to empowering his workforce is the human resources department.
He says: “As you grow, you’ve got to have a quality HR setup. To make people feel like they’re involved, like they’ve got a say, and to really feel empowered to do that.”
A good HR department will spot and encourage the talent on which ABCA thrives. It is a source of pride for Miller that the people that are working in the business at the senior level are people that have started at the bottom, coming in as administrators or engineers and working their way up the business.
Those who have risen to the top in ABCA are the ones who speak up and think outside the box, Miller notes. It’s what people are encouraged to do throughout their career at the business.
The first volume in the ABCA has been completed. It has proven it can grow organically. Now Miller wants to show it can expand through strategic acquisitions. There’s every reason to suppose that it can. The road ahead is well lit and ABCA’s future is bright with promise.
www.abcasystems.co.uk
