Fan coils/Industry insight
www.heatingandventilating.net
From the shopfloor to the boardroom
The HVAC sector has many individuals whose work and career history speak for themselves. None more so than Ability Projects’ Peter Lowther who retires this year. Here Peter recaps the highs and lows of a career that spans 40 years
I
started my journey in 1976 at Atholl Engineering, working in the drawing office as the technical apprentice. At that time Atholl had just started in fan coils, previously manufacturing induction units for Carrier. My first three months were spent sorting over 500 types of fasteners, after which there was nothing I didn’t know about screws.
The shop floor was a sea of manual
presses – with everything drawn, processed and then effectively made by hand. Calculators were rare and everything was handwritten or typed with faxes and computers still some years away. Fan coils then were really just induction units with the primary air plenum replaced with a tangential fan – simple and cleaner with very basic ‘hotter/colder’ control. I spent a couple of years helping design
and contract Atholl’s bespoke perimeter casings – something rarely seen now. You can laugh (or cry) but these were simpler times – I could walk onto any site unannounced, no induction or training and just get on with the job – PPE and RAMS were unheard of! One day like any other the managing
director called us together and announced he had put Atholl into receivership. I really don’t know the circumstances but it was a very sad time for all involved. Surviving the receiver’s weekly ‘firing squad’, I continued until the company was sold. One of the potential suitors for Atholl was NuAire and although they chose not to buy the business (or were beaten to it), I
was subsequently invited to start a new fan coil division in South Wales. The lure of a decent company car and double the salary was just too strong to resist. NuAire was a revelation where my own efforts would dictate success or failure. The pressure increased, but the rewards were certainly greater even if it was just the satisfaction of actually ‘getting things done’. Fan coils remained pretty basic at this point. Ultimately, my time at NuAire came to an
end. The senior management changed and the autonomy I had, this free spirited way of doing things changed overnight. We’d had success and I’d learnt a lot. I resigned and I returned to Atholl! Now, working for the first time in the big
‘corporate environment’ I really struggled. I soon concluded that if I wanted to stay in fan coils, and continue to live on the south coast (which I love) I had to do it for myself. Technically I was good but commercially I was naïve and I knew I was going to need help. So, I assembled a group of people that could complete the package and in 1991 Quartz opened the doors of its little 1250ft2
factory and started selling
Sapphire, its first fan coil. Having been awarded a Virgin Fastrack position, Quartz enjoyed great success until 1997 when as number one, the business was sold to Smiths Industries. It didn’t take long, I still wasn’t cut out for the ‘corporate thing’ so my time at Smiths was relatively short. Once again, I considered other careers, but as before concluded I was only really good at one thing. So this time, with a better
Ability Projects bids farewell to MD Peter Lowther this year 26 February 2018
You can laugh (or cry) but these were simpler times – I could walk onto any site unannounced, no induction or training and just get on with the job – PPE and RAMS were unheard of!
www.heatingandventilating.net
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
