Move to The Deep helps consulting engineers build on overnight success

Ian Grimwood (left) and Liam Beardshaw in their new office.

A START-UP consulting building services engineering business which landed contracts worth £30,000 within 24 hours of launching is now expanding its premises and workforce six months ahead of schedule.

Ridings Consulting Engineers Ltd was founded in May by Ian Grimwood and Liam Beardshaw. After borrowing an office from a local contractor they moved into a 250 square feet office at The Deep Business Centre in early October and have now doubled their space after hiring their first recruit.

Ian said: “We expected things to be slow whilst we built up our client base but many of our clients, who we worked with in our previous roles, where only too happy to use us. We are now getting repeat business as well as new clients.

“Due to having an enviable start with substantial orders in our first 24 hours Liam and myself have built up the business from there. We’ve moved premises twice and we’ve recruited an electrical engineer and expect to recruit further engineering staff over the next few months.”

Ian brought more than 30 years’ experience to the business and Liam had been working in the sector for 11 years when they decided to set up Ridings. 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.

Work has come in locally from clients including Smith & Nephew, GGP, Sewell Group and Wykeland and from projects as far afield as Birmingham, Sussex and London, and the key for Ridings was moving to their own premises.

Ian said: “The move here sent a clear message to prospective clients that we were our own business, totally independent with our own identity.”

Liam added: “We decided to come to The Deep Business Centre because we liked the place and the management team straight away. They look after us really well and when the time came to expand they were able to find us the extra space quickly.

“So far our expansion has been based on reputation and word of mouth.”

Freya Cross, Business and Corporate Manager at The Deep, said: “Ridings Consulting Engineers were effectively a start-up business when they moved here only a few months after setting up and that is an area in which we have particular expertise.

“We have an excellent record of managing and growing businesses because we know the sort of challenges they face and we work hard to take some of the pressure off so they can concentrate on looking after their contracts and customers.”