Contractor profile

COMPANY: JD Mounsey BASED: Settle FOUNDED: 1994 MAJOR PROJECTS: Giggleswick School, Lancaster University STAFF NUMBERS: 11

Home comforts

Based in the North Yorkshire town of Settle, JD Mounsey has developed into a thriving business based around off ering a wide range of services to customers in its local area

Jonathan Mounsey

By Nick Martindale

Nestled in between the Yorkshire Dales and the Forest of Bowland in North Yorkshire lies the market town of Settle. It’s where Jonathan Mounsey, founder of JD Mounsey, grew up, and from where his thriving business now operates.

It’s also where the firm derives the majority of its work. “When I started in 1994 I would work within a 10-mile radius and now it’s within an hour’s drive,” says Jonathan. “We stay this side of Leeds and we have touched on bits of Manchester, but that’s not our core area. Within an hour we can hit Lancaster, Clitheroe and the Bowland area and right out into the Yorkshire Dales.”

Jonathan first started working for himself at the age of just 20, having completed a City & Guilds electrical apprenticeship. “At that point I was a qualified electrician, but I also did TV aerial fitting and intruder alarms,” he says. “So I had a really broad scope when I set up. It grew from there; I advertised, picked up more customers and started to employ staff .”

The initial focus for the business was domestic installations, but before long it started expanding into local off ices, schools and commercial jobs. “We have a strong customer base in educational establishments, so we do schools, colleges and universities,” he says. Recent projects include working on the sports hall and rewiring the chapel at Giggleswick School, as well as Skipton Girls’ High School and local businesses, including pubs, off ices and shops. Around half the company’s work is through main contractors, he says, with a similar percentage direct with end-clients.

But the business still retains its original focus too, taking on work in local households, all of which can help to grow the firm’s reputation as the main player in the area. “Sometimes we do a small domestic job and then we end up rewiring their house and then working at their business,” he says. “We can also be working at a college and end up doing domestic jobs for the staff through that. So there’s a really wide scope of work.”

‘Sometimes we do a small domestic job and then we end up rewiring their house and then working at their business’

11:

The number of people employed by JD Mounsey

It’s a focus he’s keen to maintain, even as the company grows. “I want to do it all,” he says. “I want as wide a range of customers as possible so if there ever is another downturn we are still the company that can do every size of every job. You only need one big contract to go wrong or not to come off and you’re high and dry. I may develop the contracts teams, but I will keep the small works team. There’s definite value in using us; for a decent-sized firm we’re very reasonably priced.”

One thing that has changed is the size of contract the business takes on. “What I used to think was a big job I now think is a little one,” he says. “So my perception has changed, and we have something planned for this year that could be our all-time biggest job. If we’re off ered jobs like that then I would like the chance to do it.”

Expanding the vision

Recently, the firm has started moving into other areas beyond its core base of electrical installations, fire alarms and security systems. On the electrical side, this has involved a focus on energy-saving, providing customers with advice and recommendations around the total lifetime cost of installations, as well as renewable technologies.

“We’re MCS-registered through NICEIC so if someone comes along with a project that has solar PV on it we could do everything,” says Jonathan. “We’ve done some nice solar PV installs up here on the Yorkshire Dales and some in the National Parks. The feed-in tariff versus the cost of equipment is quite good again now after a bit of a lull, so it’s worth doing.” Most of its PV installs are for domestic properties, he says, although the business has also been approached recently about some large commercial projects. Air-source heat pumps are also becoming popular, he says, on the back of the renewable heat incentive.

Most notable, however, has been the move into plumbing, heating and bathroom installations, which now accounts for around 35 per cent of the company’s work. “I found I was being off ered the whole job and I was giving away the plumbing and heating side of it, and the people I was passing that work to weren’t always delivering,” he says. “So I took the decision to take on our own guys and register the company with Gas Safe and subsequently OFTEC.”

The company now has two dedicated gas engineers – one of whom is also qualified as an oil technician – and recently took on a dedicated bathroom installer. It also invested in a fleet of eight vans designed to bring together the diff erent strands of the business into one off ering. “We wanted a rebrand with one logo for one company that does all of it,” he explains.

> The business has to hold a lot of stock as there are no local wholesalers

Data networks is another focus; the business recently became a HellermannTyton-approved data installer, enabling it to install Cat 6 structured cabling, which has already seen it take on a project at Lancaster University. “That may grow, but due to our rural location how far it does is probably down to how far we want to travel,” he says. “We’re not chasing jobs in universities all over the north-west and making people stay in hotels.”

Recruitment drive

The business, which became a limited company in 2006, now employs 11 people, with 10 engineers and a full-time administrator, and is currently looking to add both another operative and administrator to the team. “We’ve got to the point now where we’re fire-fighting in the off ice so we need some extra help,” says Jonathan. “That’s going to put some more management in which will allow us to employ more people.”

Much of its staff join the business as apprentices, although there’s a high barrier to entry. “We work with JTL on the apprentice scheme,” he says. “My experience is that if they pass the JTL exam hands-down – so 97 or 98 per cent – they’ll be a good apprentice, so I look for a high pass. We’re a full-scope firm and we operate at quite a pace, so they need to be switched on to do that. Over 20 years we’ve put more than a dozen people through that.”

Inevitably, Jonathan’s own role is changing as the business grows, although he’s still heavily involved in scoping each project and helps out on the tools during particularly busy periods. “I like to keep my hand in, but now we have so many engineers out there I need to be doing some organising,” he says. “The good thing for me is, because I can do it, it’s quite easy to see what is needed next. The times when I would go to site are when we’re running out of time and the lads are under too much pressure, or when they are tied up on the contract jobs and I do a bit of fire-fighting on smaller jobs or works that are very technical.”

Settling up

The business moved into its current premises on an industrial estate just behind the town centre in 2008, and is already looking to add to this as the organisation grows. “We moved here because there is a piece of land on the end that we’re going to expand into, and we have planning permission for that,” says Jonathan. “We’ll be putting up a two-storey building, with the off ices upstairs to give us more downstairs service space.” The business has to hold a lot of stock as there are no local wholesalers, he adds, and in the longer-term plans to open a trade counter to supply other businesses in the area.

Jonathan admits he is keen to continue growing the turnover, but is determined this will not be at the expense of the quality of work. “I want to do a good job,” he says. “I’m interested in the quality of the work we do and the people we’re associated with, hence we do pursue the premier accolades. I view the NICEIC Approved Contractor scheme as the pinnacle on the electrical side, and that’s where we sit.”

The immediate focus is to continue growing in the various channels it has developed, and to stay on top of any new developments that come along. But there’s no desire to look outside the local area that has served both Jonathan and the business so well for the past 20 years. “We’re not going to up sticks and move near a motorway so we can get the transport links, because I’m trying to achieve a quality of life for the team,” he says. “We live in an incredibly scenic part of England, and that’s where we want to be. We’re building the best company we can based on a high quality of service and installation, and we want to do that within this rural area.”

Still only 40, Jonathan himself has plenty of time in which to grow the business and maintain the quality of life for his team. Already, however, he’s under pressure from what could prove to be the next generation.

“I’ve got a young family that one day will grow up and they might want to come into the business,” he says. “I’ve got a little lad who can’t wait and wants to know when he can start. He’s only seven, but he’s worked it out; there are nine years and six months until he’s on the tools.” The future of JD Mounsey, it appears, is in safe hands.

‘I want as wide a range of customers as possible so if there ever is another downturn we are still the company that can do every size of every job’

» Nick Martindale is editor of Connections • Could your business feature in Connections? Email nick.martindale@redactive.co.uk