An end of year update from Stewart Kay, our Group CEO
We’re delighted to be bringing 2020 to an end with so much exciting activity and so many fantastic announcements. It’s been a busy year for the British Engineering Services Group and, as an Exec Team, we are extremely proud of our people and the way they have responded to the ongoing challenges of the year. I’ve said it repeatedly over the last few months, our people are everything to us. Our continued success as a business, particularly during such a difficult year, is very much down to our complete team.
In the last few weeks alone, we’ve welcomed two brilliant businesses to the British Engineering Services Group family, completed construction at the fantastic Paul Forrester Training Centre and continued to help make sure our customers leave nothing to chance. All that on top of our brilliant business results. In 2020 we delivered our strongest year yet and, what’s more, we’ve done it while helping keep carers across the UK and Ireland, caring, exactly when it was needed most. Our people have remained professional right to the very end, completing testing, inspection and certification work on machinery and equipment in hospitals, care homes, medical centres, research facilities and so much more.
Most recently, we welcomed PCMS Eng and Lantei to the Group. Adding new businesses to our company brings with it huge opportunities for us all. These acquisitions will help us further develop our customer offerings as we continue to differentiate ourselves in our market. PCMS Eng is a leading condition-based maintenance business based in Rotherham. Their people are the best in their field and they’re a perfect fit for the British Engineering Services Group.
Lantei is an electrical testing business based in Preston with a team of almost 150 people. They provide a range of specialist services that we already know will be of interest to some of our customers. Like us, their people are at the centre of their success and their culture is already closely aligned to that of the British Engineering Services Group. We’re absolutely delighted to have welcomed both teams to the Group. We know they’ll have a real impact on our company and we’re looking forward to working alongside them.
It’s almost a year since we announced our plans to open our very own training centre and I’m delighted to share that we have done just that. It’s been a very busy few weeks on this front as we’ve added the final touches to our industry leading facility. Construction is now complete, new kit and equipment is in place and, most recently, the branding has been installed. Everyone who has visited the site so far has been blown away by what we’ve done to create our own training centre. It’s a fantastic achievement all round and we couldn’t have been prouder when we completed the build stage just a few weeks ago. I look forward to formally celebrating the opening of our facility next year when it’s safe to do so.
We recruited more than 85 fantastic new starters in 2020. Our recruitment plans are busy again for next year as we continue to focus on capacity and ensuring we can always meet the needs of our customers as we continue to grow. Our new starters will all spend much of their training period at our new facility, learning from some of the very best people there are in our industry.
Finally, I’d like to thank all of our customers and broker partners, your continued support has been more appreciated than ever as we’ve navigated the challenges of the year together. As we get ready for what is set to be a very different Christmas for us all, I’d like to wish you all the very best for the festive season. We look forward to working with you all again next year.