A fledgling consulting building services engineering business has trebled its team and its space after winning work on some major contracts in the Hull area and further afield.
Ridings Consulting Engineers Ltd, which landed contracts worth £30,000 within 24 hours of launching last year, is now part of a team working on a £5 million project at Smith & Nephew in Hull.
The company also recently completed its part of a £4 million construction project at the former Seven Seas site where Eltherington, one of the UK’s largest independent aluminium suppliers, is moving into a new factory.
Liam Beardshaw, a founding director of Ridings Consulting Engineers, said: “We said before that the instant growth of the business had taken us by surprise and that has continued.
“That’s down to a combination of more work from existing contacts and appointments from new clients. Basically the projects have become bigger and more challenging.”
Turnover in the first year of around £300,000 is expected to almost double in year two. Liam and fellow director Ian Grimwood have been joined by four recent recruits and their office space at The Deep Business Centre in Hull has trebled to 750 square feet.
The pair launched the business in May 2015. Ian brought more than 30 years’ experience and Liam had been working in the sector for 11 years. The company offers design services for all building services installations where an energy efficient design is paramount. It operates in a wide range of buildings including commercial, industrial, healthcare, public and private sectors.
Projects include residential development at St Leonard’s on Sea, renovations and refurbishments of various psychiatric units for Hull Citycare and the design of new laboratory facilities to the Smith & Nephew site in Hull.
Liam said: “The pace of expansion has exceeded our expectations and we’re fortunate to be at The Deep Business Centre, where the team are well-versed in providing expanding companies with the extra space they need at short notice.
“Our new offices should be big enough but the way things have been going it’s hard to tell. We’re also picking up a lot of work in the modular buildings sector, particularly involving school sites around the country, and we’ve also got longer term projects in the pipeline. That will need more staff, and we’re committed to training and developing our team.
“Our most recent addition is a chartered electrical engineer and a full member of the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers, which shows how far we have come in a short space of time. This has added to our already impressive staff base and we hope to develop this to a larger workforce and potentially a second office. We haven’t been advertising or even picking up the phone to chase business; it just keeps coming in. I’m sure that will stop some time, and when it does we’ll have time to sit back and take stock!”
Freya Cross, Business and Corporate Manager at The Deep, said: “When Ridings Consulting Engineers moved in it was because they had outgrown a borrowed office elsewhere and it’s been one success after another for them since they arrived.
“The latest expansion came at just the right time – we were able to relocate them into a space recently vacated by another tenant which need to move up from 750 square feet to 1,000 square feet. As Ridings continue to grow we’ll be ready to support them.”
