FEATURE
Design – Eurovent HVAC Solutions staff at work.
I don’ t want the company to just grow and grow and our quality be affected; it’ s always managed growth.
“ They were a challenging few months, but we got through them. We were quite lucky, actually, because with Covid, ventilation was a big issue, so they always needed support on that side. We did a lot of work with clients such as Teesside University and in the food sector.
“ Shortly after that, I brought in another engineer, who’ s now our engineering manager, Lee Chapman, and gradually over the years, we’ ve turned the business from zero turnover to about £ 7m this year.”
In a nutshell, Eurovent HVAC Solutions has developed into a bespoke company that can do everything HVAC- from design through to installation, commissioning and handing over to the client. Local Exhaust Ventilation( LEV) is also a huge strength, offering support for clients on dust and fume extraction processes.
Big projects and clients along the way have included a hand sanitiser plant for Ineos, offshore modular buildings for Severfield, various hangar projects at Teesside International Airport and supply and installation on data centres for Winthrop Technologies.
International projects have included work in Nigeria for Chevron in in the oil and gas sector along with data centre
projects in Europe. But Richard admits the recent £ 5m data centre contract is a game-changer.
He said:“ I’ m really proud. When you look at the business we formed seven years ago to where we are now, we’ ve gone from a small company in Teesside to working internationally on the European stage. And we get a lot of repeat work, which shows the high levels of quality we achieve.
“ I can’ t say much about the £ 5m contract for business confidentiality reasons, but it comes after a £ 2.2m contract with the same client, so it’ s a great vote of confidence in us.”
Eurovent HVAC Solutions is an ISO14001 and 9001-approved company and a gold status member of Construction Line, meaning its quality systems, documentation and attention to detail and design set it apart.
With 10 staff in the Middlesbrough office, site work numbers can fluctuate from two to 30-plus, depending on the scale of the project.
The firm concentrates on data centres and the nuclear, industrial, offshore and pharmaceutical sectors-“ we tend to steer away from the commercial side of things because it’ s a very diluted market,” Richard explained.
And the key sectors it works in tend to require a lot of detailed design and full packages of work- all particular strengths of Eurovent.
As Boro fan Richard reflects on his firm’ s first seven years, he’ s happy so far- and enthused by what’ s to come.
He told Tees Business:“ I have ambitions to keep growing, absolutely- not on an exponential level, but more of a gradual growth.
“ I don’ t want the company to just grow and grow and our quality be affected, it’ s always managed growth.
“ The team is going to be growing too- we’ re on the lookout for more engineers. But certainly, the recent job and the values that we’ re looking at can elevate us onto the next level.
“ When we started in 2019, we were doing small jobs- anything from a small air conditioning design to a filter change in a university.
“ They were small values, but it was all to get our reputation and name out there- and to put money in the bank. My network of contacts was good through having 20 years in the industry and it was all about getting ourselves established, slowly but surely.
“ Over the last two to three years particularly, we’ ve really established ourselves in the world of HVAC. We get a lot of repeat work and a lot of blue chip clients like Chevron, Caterpillar and Nissan.
“ But it’ s not until you sit back and reflect that you realise you’ ve done pretty well so far – and I’ m confident there’ s more to come.”
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