CONTRACTOR PROFILE
Having spotted the potential of the electric vehicle charging market back in 2013, Airdrie firm
BMM Energy Solutions is now entering a period of rapid growth as the sector takes off
ELECTRIC DREAMS T he announcement that the Scottish government will ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2032 – a full eight years ahead of the rest of the UK – is a further boost for the electric vehicle (EV) sector, and those contractors specialising in the installation of charge points in particular. For Airdrie-based BMM Energy Solutions, it is just the latest in a series of events that has helped the industry to take off over the past two years and catapulted the business into a period of rapid growth. “In 2016, after the Volkswagen scandal, there was lots of talk about car manufacturers making pure electric or hybrid models, and we could see that the market really was going to take off,” says Terry Mohammed, operations director. Business started to pick up in the final quarter of 2016 with installations of ABB rapid chargers for Edinburgh Council, and the firm is currently working to assess 500 homes for EV charging points on behalf of Inchcape, a large fleet provider to the public sector. It has also recently won contracts for Transport Scotland, the NHS and ScotRail, where it will fit points at 52 stations across the country for Chargemaster. It hasn’t always been this way. The company grew out of a family civil engineering firm run by Terry and his brother Mark, and stumbled across EV installations almost by accident. “By chance, in 2013 we were contracted to do the civil and electrical works for EV charging points for a main contractor who had quite a lot of work with one of the big six energy suppliers,” recalls Terry. “We started off doing maybe one job a month, and it
gathered momentum and we ended up focusing quite heavily on it.” When the brothers looked into the market they realised there were only two other companies in Scotland that specialised in this area, and decided to shift the focus of this business. “In 2015 we changed the company name from BMM Contracts to BMM Energy Solutions,” he says. “Initially we thought we would do everything:
‘In the last two months our phones have not stopped ringing. It’s a fantastic opportunity’ solar, battery, EV charging points, brokerage for electric, but the reality was that we focused 100 per cent of our efforts on electric vehicle charging equipment.” GOING FOR GROWTH Initially it was a battle to win work, the majority of which was domestic rather than commercial installations. But the recent explosion in the market made the business realise it needed to act to help take advantage of bigger opportunities. A first step was to recruit Dave Mulford, previously technical operations manager at EDF Energy, to help win work in England (an office in the Gatwick area is imminent). Alongside this, BMM sought to put in place the management structure that is required to win
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