Contractor profile

COMPANY: RMW Electrical BASED: Shrewsbury FOUNDED: 1981 MAJOR PROJECTS: Shrewsbury Music Hall, Telford Shopping Centre STAFF NUMBERS: 25

Niche thinking

Shrewsbury contractor RMW Electrical has picked itself up again aft er almost going out of business a decade ago. Now, with a diverse customer base and a couple of specialist areas, it’s facing the future with confi dence

By Nick Martindale

Back in 2006, Shrewsbury Town Football Club was in the process of building its new stadium, now called the New Meadow. It was a good time for local tradespeople, and would have been for RMW Electrical had it not coincided with one of the darkest periods in its 34-year history.

“We had secured the electrical contract for the new stadium but realised that financially it was not going to be possible to honour it, so we had to pull out,” says managing director Christine Whitrick. “At that point we realised we were weeks away from declaring bankruptcy. We’d hit an all-time low and had to break the news to our staff that the business was in dire straits. Accountants were appointed to assist us and we asked them for a chance to pull it back, and slowly but surely that’s what we’ve done.”

At the time, the business was coming out of a prolonged period of uncertainty brought about when one of the founders – Ron Whitrick, Christine’s stepdad – retired. Ron’s son Malcolm took over, but ownership eventually passed to Christine, who by then had worked with the family firm for over a decade. “I joined in 1993 from an insurance background with no knowledge of the industry, but the business needed help so I took redundancy,” she recalls. “I came into an administrative role and it grew from there.”

Fire starter

Ron originally set the business up with Malcolm in 1981, largely on the back of fire alarm installations. “Ron had worked for a company that did a lot of work with fire alarms, and he and his son thought they could do it better themselves,” recalls Pat Harte, project manager and estimator, who has been with the firm for 31 years. “We were pretty much the only company in this area that would undertake fire alarm work, other than the nationals, but over the years others caught up. When I joined, the spread of the business was about 80 per cent fire alarms and 20 per cent electrical, but now that has changed around.”

Fire alarms remain a significant part of the company’s focus, he adds, largely in commercial premises such as

‘We’d hit an all-time low and had to break the news to our staff that the business was in dire straits’

£1m:

The value of the largest contract RMW Electrical has taken on to date

Mark Tudor

Christine Whitrick

Pat Harte

nursing homes. “It dwindled a bit in the late 1990s, but now people are looking at fire alarms more sensibly, rather than as something they’ve just got to have,” he says. The business has developed a good relationship with local fire authorities too, which often recommend it to potential clients.

Over time, RMW developed a number of other significant relationships, particularly with Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council, taking on work with local schools. But by the time Christine took over, it had become very reliant on these, and suff ered when it was unsuccessful in achieving a place on Shropshire’s framework in 2007. “You can get complacent and perhaps we did,” admits Christine. “We’ve learned now that it is not wise to concentrate heavily on one source of work, and we started to look at new projects.”

The determination to diversify was strengthened further when the business was caught out by a local construction firm going out of business. “One of our busiest periods of contracting work is the six-week school holiday period and we had completed a sizeable school project, only to discover at the end of it that the main contractor had declared themselves bankrupt,” says Christine. “We received no payment from them for the work and that really hurt us. It left us feeling apprehensive about future contracting work so we started to look at adding other work to our portfolio.”

Chicken feed

This drive for new business has seen RMW develop something of a niche area working on newbuild poultry houses, taking advantage of its rural location. “A lot of farmers are moving away from dairy and sugar beet and towards poultry farming, and there seemed to be a gap in the market,” says Mark Tudor, business coordination manager, who has been with the business since 1999, and whose father and son also work for RMW. “We were in the right place at the right time.”

This work originally came when the business was introduced to a local farmer back in 2010, he says, but has since led to further work in farmhouses and grain stores, as well as other farms. “We work closely with the construction team, to the point where they now send the plans to us and we then send it back to the client,” says Mark. “It’s totally changed the way it’s done, from being the last trade in to getting our cables in as it’s being built.”

Shopping centres have also been added to the list of new clients; one of them on the recommendation of a local building contractor. “We work at Telford Shopping Centre, where we’ve been working night shifts and we also carry out the emergency light testing every month,” says Mark. “We work within the off ices and buildings attached to them, undertaking general electrical maintenance work.” This, in turn, has also led to other

> Administrator Lisa Grindley (top) and project coordinator Alan Evans

opportunities; the firm is also working at the Mander Shopping Centre in Wolverhampton.

Other prominent clients include Severn Hospice, Morris Lubricants, Telford College, Shrewsbury School, nursing home provider Coverage Care and Shrewsbury Sixth Form College. The biggest project the business has worked on, however, remains the £10 million renovation of Shrewsbury’s Music Hall as part of its conversion to include the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.

“Electrically, that was a £1 million project and it was a learning curve as well because it was a listed building,” says Christine. “We delivered the entire electrical package including fire alarm, CCTV, door access, feature lighting, stage lighting and the PA system.” That was the last large project Shrewsbury Council commissioned before public sector spending cuts hit, she adds, and is about as large a job as RMW would take on.

Terra firma

Today the business is back on solid ground, employing over 25 people, including 20 engineers, which it supplements with a team of trusted sub-contractors when required. It has traditionally employed around two apprentices a year; something it had to stop during the depths of the downturn when it had to resort to charging out qualified electricians at apprentice rates simply to keep people employed. “We took the decision back in 2006 that anyone who was with us as we were going through that diff icult period would stay with us and that’s been the case,” says Christine. “That’s made us closer and probably stronger.”

Now, however, the apprentices are back, drawn mainly from Telford College and Shrewsbury College, with three currently on the books and another two starting later this year. “Almost every apprentice we’ve taken on has remained with us,” adds Christine. “That’s our main recruitment source, and it bucks the trend because we don’t want them to leave us. We don’t want to employ an apprentice for a year, obtain whatever grant we’re given and let them go again. If we have periods where work goes quiet we’ll do something at our own premises.”

Inevitably, the business was hit by the downturn, both through larger contractors moving into its territory and downward pressure on electricians’ rates. “One of the hardest things has been to compete in a market that is so cut-throat,” says Christine. “A contractor may obtain several prices for the mechanical and electrical package and then negotiate with them to get it done at the cheapest possible price. We find ourselves having to balance quality, which we will consistently keep giving, against competing in a marketplace governed by the cheapest price, and so far we’ve managed to do it.”

This has meant that for certain jobs the firm has had to become more competitive. “If we want the job, such as the one at Shrewsbury School, then we will use our best endeavours to submit the most competitive price,” she says. “But we try do it in a way that is controlled, considering things such as the location, the type of work and which contractor has secured the project.”

Steady growth

Today, however, things are looking up, with the estimating department in particular busier than ever. Last year RMW turned over £2.4 million and expects to do the same in 2015 – approximately twice the level it was doing back in 2006. As well as new sectors and the fire alarm side of the business, part of this is due to a booming maintenance division – the firm off ers 24-hour, 365-day cover to clients – while it is also looking at moving more into CCTV, data and security as possible future areas.

For Christine, however, growing the business is less important than knowing it is back on a firm footing after the tribulations of the past few years.

“If we can contain what we’re doing now and give people a good standard of living then I would keep it as it is,” she says. “We’ve got the capacity to grow and we’re almost at the point where we’re ready to do this, but I won’t jeopardise people’s livelihoods for the sake of the company’s growth.

“One thing I’ve learned is just how valuable this business is to me,” she adds. “I’m lucky because I enjoy coming to work every day and I work with a fantastic team who are striving to achieve the same things as me. You’ve got to value what you’ve got.”

‘You can get complacent and perhaps we did. We’ve learned now that it is not wise to concentrate heavily on one source of work’

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

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