A building services group is powering up to achieve record turnover of more than £10m this year as it looks to expand into new areas of the UK.
B-engineering Group, based in Warrington, had revenues of £8.5m in the 12 months to September 30 following a re-merger with sister company RD Mechanical & Electrical, which was initially spun out of the business in 2020.
The group designs, installs and maintains heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, electrical and renewable energy systems in commercial premises.
The family business was founded in 1990 by Bernard Ditchfield, who handed over the reins to son Rob in 2011, when the company was turning over £180,000 and had just six staff.
B-engineering Group’s workforce has increased to 50 and is poised to grow over the next 12 months as the group looks to expand into Yorkshire, the North East and the East Midlands.
Rob said he expects the group to create around 10 new roles across its engineering, finance, administration and health and safety teams.
Last year, the group rebranded from Bmech Services to better reflect the breadth of services it offers and its adoption of new technologies.
The group has six divisions – projects, service and maintenance, electrical, air-conditioning, renewables and technical services – and employs engineers from Lancashire to Worcestershire, working across sectors ranging from education, healthcare, leisure and hospitality to manufacturing, retailing, construction and nuclear.
Clients include facilities management companies such as Mitie, Wates FM, Equans, EMCOR UK and Integral UK, as well as construction contractors such as Eric Wright Group, Amspec, Jennor UK and Contract Services.
The group’s end-user client base includes corporate giants ITV, Bentley Motors, THG, Pilkington and Spire Healthcare.
Highlights of the group’s most recent financial year included designing, installing and commissioning its largest-ever combined mechanical and electrical project – a £2.2m scheme at an electronics factory in Rochdale.
The group’s burgeoning renewables division completed a 300KW solar PV panels project at a food manufacturing site in Hull, while new contracts were won for gas heating and air-conditioning schemes in sectors including healthcare, retailing and manufacturing.
Rob, 42, joined the business straight from school in 1997 as an apprentice pipefitter welder and worked his way up to the MD’s role.
He said: “We’ve come a long way in the past couple of years, rebranding from Bmech Services to B-engineering Group, setting up B-eco Renewables, starting our B Corp journey and restructuring our senior management and processes, with a new board which includes two non-executive directors and two employees.
“We have also successfully re-integrated RD Mechanical and Electrical into the group. When we split the businesses in 2020, one was focused on the FM market and end users, while RD M&E focused on installation work for large contractors in the new-build and office fit-out sectors. Both have continued to grow since then.
“The separation of the businesses enabled us to focus on how we met the different needs of clients across multiple sectors. This gave us the opportunity to develop the processes in both businesses and their services.
“Now that we have established a strong operating model in both companies and have identified the synergies between them, we have brought them back together to provide all of the services in-house.”
During the pandemic, Rob’s wife Victoria joined the group as central services director, bringing extensive experience gained in senior roles in the nuclear industry to help B-engineering improve its processes.
Rob said: “The improvements we have made to the business have created a platform for strong, sustainable growth in line with our strategic goals.
“We look forward with confidence to the year ahead and to creating a significant number of new roles as we expand our geographical reach for our maintenance offering.”
Rob said the group has outgrown its current headquarters and will be relocating in the near future to larger premises.
