A friendship and business partnership continues to go from strength to strength six years on from forming Climatec Engineering.
Neil Gilsenan and Paul Greensmith started the commercial gas heating and air conditioning installation, servicing and repair business in August 2017. Despite all the hurdles a pandemic and cost-of-living crisis have brought, Climatec has flourished because of its personal and effective approach.
And the Redcar-based business, situated on Kirkleatham Business Park, is looking to grow its team further after securing and completing projects for a national logistics company in its warehouse and another toilet refurb and office air conditioning installation for a national retailer. There is strong potential for work in the Caribbean, too. Those follow on from an exciting hot water installation project at a top four Premier League club that was completed.
Neil said: “Those are all on a national, even international, scale and are great, but let’s not forget we are a proud local Teesside company, too. We appreciate local customers because we are big in our local community – that’s why we regularly do things for charity and groups, as well as supporting Middlesbrough FC as a community business partner.”
The Climatec story is one of continued growth because such projects and partnerships are not just one-offs. There are also plans in place to expand further afield, highlighted by the strong possibility of a contract in the Caribbean. That is why Climatec is looking for more staff to send out into the field as well as boosting numbers in the office because they require greater support behind the scenes in roles such as mechanical estimators.
Since it was established six years ago, Climatec now has an expanding team of 15 that began with just Neil and Paul operating on their own. As well as hiring valuable experience, they recently appointed a trainee engineer as a nod to the future.
Paul said: “We have achieved what we have during difficult times too. It has been hard throughout Covid, and yet every year we have had growth. Our hope when we set up was for two men and two vans. Now we have a stable office, we have grown consistently and it has been incredibly rewarding.”
“It is hard to predict what is around the corner. After all, as well as the supply issues we encountered through Covid, we have also had the inflation problems and concerns to think about. It has been a massive learning curve, but due to the hard-working nature of us all we have continued that growth and the support from the staff we have had over the six years has been fantastic.”
Neil said: “The outsourced ancillary support we have had from our accountants, HR, insurance brokers, vehicle suppliers and local merchants have all come to the fore too and they are all from the Teesside area.”
“We have never been looking to take over the world. What we don’t want to lose is that personal touch that we wanted to deliver six years ago. That has been our main selling point. People can ring our mobile phones, for example. We are still heavily involved in the day-to-day meetings and that is what we are keen to maintain.”
All this while maintaining a friendship that has blossomed too, so much so that Neil was Paul’s best man when he married office manager Laura in August.
Middlesbrough-born Paul said: “We started to work together 11 years ago and had never known each other before that – I wouldn’t normally associate myself with a Geordie! Joking aside, we are different people, but when it comes down to work, we are very similar. Our work ethic is probably why it works. It is not very often you work with someone who is so like-minded. And we are both focused on maintaining the standards and service quality we have delivered for the long term.”
Story by Tees Business: Climatec Engineering continues to shine – Tees Business
