The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 58: December/January 2021 | Page 40

IN PROFILE
Adam Woodley
Founder and CEO, Sinewave
How did Sinewave start out? We were founded in 2015 from an emerging market within the renewables sector. We were offering high and low voltage [ HV and LV ] services within the solar market and the company has naturally grown into the four main channels within which we operate; renewables, the vehicle market, the industrial commercial space and the residential space.
Swindon-based Sinewave is an independent electrical engineering company that offers solutions for any electrical projects up to 132kV.
With an in-house team of highly skilled and qualified engineers, the firm provides an‘ end to end’ service, from connection to the DNOs( distribution network operator) network to the electric vehicle charger, distribution centre or solar farm depending on the application.
While acknowledging the company’ s rapid growth since being founded six years ago, Adam Woodley, Sinewave’ s Founder and CEO, explains that its future goals will be focused on social impact and sustainability. He tells us more …
What’ s your background? I started out as an electrical engineer at Scottish and Southern Energy( SSE) which is one of the distribution network operators in the UK( a‘ big six’ energy company).
How has the business grown and developed in the last six years?
We’ ve grown from very much a start-up operating from a garage and front room to what is now a multi-million-pound organisation with almost 70 people in # TeamSinewave in quite a short period of time. We have grown our offering from just working as an operations and maintenance provider to now installing infrastructure for some of the biggest names in the country. This includes some of the best known housing developers, commercial building constructors, and of course the growing electric vehicle charging market.
For this, we ' re working with petrol forecourt operators, large retail groups and bus depots for the electrification of vehicles nationally. Some of the biggest and best known names in the country. With the petrol and diesel bans, COP26 and net zero targets in place by 2050, a huge amount of our work now comes from that sector.
But we also work within the renewable space which includes large-scale solar, wind battery storage and also the residential space, essentially connecting electricity suppliers with the cables or the sub-stations that get the homes connected with the grid. Additionally, we work on large scale projects within the industrial, commercial space, so large sheds, stores, data centres – anything that requires power directly from the grid.
What have been your successes of 2021?
Without doubt achieving the growth we’ ve seen which has been almost 300 per cent both in terms of revenue and staff. Bouncing back in the manner we have from Covid has been a simply awesome experience and it’ s our intention to continue that growth, and where possible accelerate it.
" We ' ve seen significant growth this year, almost 300 per cent "
How has Covid impacted your business?
We were originally hit quite hard by Covid, but we planned well in advance so we weren’ t caught too much by surprise, but it was an emotional time for all of us as in the early stages our revenue dipped almost 70 per cent for a short time. We had to really look at how the business operated and adapt to the short term impact.
But from a business perspective, it’ s actually been quite positive as a whole. We were already doing remote and flexible working so this was a positive and were operating a paperless system for a lot of our engineering workforce who were able to work on tablets anyway which minimised much of the impact operationally of reducing office time. It’ s funny looking now at organisations that are shouting about remote working, we were doing it way before it was cool.
What are your plans for 2022? We’ ve recently been certified by Planet Mark which is all about our social impact and reducing our carbon footprint and emissions. One of our main goals is to make sure that we are reducing our carbon footprint by at least 10 per cent a year. Further down the line, we are also looking at B-corp [ Certified B Corporation ], which would mean becoming a certified‘ business as a power for good.’ For us, a business isn’ t just about making money, it’ s also about looking after the people we work with and having a good social impact.
With regards to growth, we’ re looking at continuing to expand at the same rate we have been. We’ ve got some really good clients and some really good projects that we ' re working on within the renewable and the electric vehicle spaces. Driving that sustainable energy transition is really at the core of what we are trying to do at the moment.
We are also looking to grow our team. We are currently recruiting for a number of roles across our commercial, design and operations teams. We have created a strong employee benefits package which we believe recognises the hard work of
our staff. It includes enhanced pension contributions, private healthcare and a new bespoke perks platform for internal comms which includes hundreds of retailer discounts and cashback schemes. We are proud of the culture we’ ve created and have a real team spirit. Fridays we’ re often having a few beers and a get together, sometimes getting competitive over a game of table football. Our other social events are something that are building a reputation in the industry! If you like the sound of what we do and have skills that complement our offering, please get in touch.
And beyond next year? Growth for the business, keeping and adding to an awesome team, keep moving towards carbon reduction then eventually to become carbon negative with a goal of net zero by 2030. Increasing how we‘ give back’ as a power for good is front and centre of our plans longer term overall as well.
What’ s on your business Christmas list?
Some time off would be nice! But seriously keeping a great team and clients that enjoy working with us would be on my list each year.
" For us, a business isn ' t just about making money, it ' s also about looking after the people we work with and having a good social impact."
hello @ sinewave. co. uk
For more info: www. sinewave. co. uk
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