Expansion drive fuels growth at Energetics

A PUSH further into new markets in England helped Glasgow-headquartered instrastructure group Energetics, which builds networks to connect homes and businesses to gas and electricity grids, see turnover rise by more than a third last year.

Bill McClymont said backing from Macquarie was vital

The company won contracts to carry out 16,000 utility connections, mainly for housing developments but also for industrial and commercial premises, which represented a rise of over 5,000 on the previous year.

Energetics, which now employs 400 staff, has also announced ambitions to increase its workforce to 700 over the next three years.

Contract size and value also grew during the year due partly thanks to the company winning a number of major projects.

They included a £14 million contract to design, build and adopt the gas and electricity networks for the Silverstone Park Estate development in Nottinghamshire, next to the Formula 1 track.

The company, which is backed by the lending arm of Australian bank Macquarie Group, saw turnover rise by 35 per cent to £48.5m and profits after tax increase by 40 per cent to £2.6m.

Chief executive Bill McClymont, who used to head up ScottishPower’s Core Utility Solutions division before being recruited to lead the business, said the figures highlighted the success of the company’s aggressive expansion strategy.

The company now operates from ten locations across the UK, with a depot in Barnsley, South Yorkshire the latest to open, in July.

Energetics installs the utility networks for builders to service new homes, offices and factories.

It continues to own and maintain the network which suppliers then use to get gas and electricity to their end-customers.

McClymont said access to financial firepower had been key to its ability to rapidly expand.

“This fantastic performance demonstrates that we are continuing to connect more UK homes and businesses to the utilities across the UK, every year,” said McClymont.

“A significant factor in our success is the continued backing of Macquarie Lending. Our access to capital from Macquarie Lending has allowed us to expand into new regions and invest in our workforce, as well as to be more flexible in creating commercial and pricing propositions that are attractive to our customers.”

McClymont said that the company was also heavily committed to training and development as its staff numbers continued to rise.

“Last year, staff numbers rose from 220 to 320 and, with more locations opening all the time, we expect to employ 500 people by the end of 2015,” he said.

“Our strategy is to have regional operations throughout the UK, allowing us to offer tailored services to our customers, backed by local knowledge and experience. We expect this growth to continue in the next two years, with more locations opening and our workforce increasing to around 700 by 2017.”

But McClymont said that future plans were not just about expansion.

“We need to ensure that we consolidate business in the regions in which we already operate. This means recruiting and retaining talented staff and continuing to deliver engineering excellence, value for money, savings to our clients and high levels of customer service.”

The year also saw the firm expand with additional bases in Slough and Bristol.

It also moved into larger offices near Birmingham to accommodate its growing design and operational teams in the Midlands earlier this year.

The business was established in 2006 after the deregulation of the utilities sector, and since then has built over 2,000 networks and has over 90,000 live connections across its networks.