News analysis with BESA
many clients want their specialist technical support back – and £12m turnover national firm Linaker is well placed to benefit, Claire says. “A lot of technical expertise disappeared with the huge multi-service FM contracts. People got very good at managing the contracts, but lost some of that hands-on engineering skill needed to make sure a building meets its users’ expectations.” Linaker is well placed to take advantage as FM goes back to its roots. “We would not take on a £24m full service FM contract, but we would very much like the £2m engineering slice of that business because we have the specialist building engineering expertise – and that is the way the market is moving,” says Claire. She believes the conditions are favourable for
Linaker to achieve its planned growth from its current £12m turnover to £30m in three years – it has already seen a 10% surge in business in the early part of 2019.
Revenue
The firm, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, is based in Oxted, Surrey and has offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Livingston and London with one scheduled to open in Manchester later this year. It employs 105 engineers and around 30 management staff. It has more than 400 clients representing around £10m annual maintenance driven revenue – and carries out about £2m worth of installation projects every year. “The only thing we don’t do is build from the
ground up,” says Claire. “We will do refurbs and retrofits – but the bulk of our business is in running the buildings.” The company still has its very first client – a
regional hairdressing business, which received free maintenance for the next 25 years as a quarter century anniversary present. “We are a medium sized business that operates
like a large one,” explains Claire. “These days clients want to buy a local maintenance service, which is why we have regional offices and locally-based engineers, but they also want all the compliance and health and safety support that comes with a properly structured national business. “Currently, Linaker services up to £2m PPM, but if a client just wants a boiler service contract, we’re happy to do that too. All clients get an annual
Linaker MD Claire Curran with chairman Bill Harrison
compliance report – whatever the contract size. It is challenging to work in this way, but it means we are properly set up on every contract and, as the business grows, we can cope because we have the systems in place.” Linaker also employs customer managers, who
are able to explain things to clients without sounding abrasive or talking down to them. “Most of the time, the client doesn’t want to know what widget has gone wrong or why. They want to know how quickly we can fix it and how much it is going to cost. We have the technical skills, but these days competence is also about attitude and how you behave with clients.”
Being a member of the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) is also a key part of the
Shaking up the FM market F
There is a big shake up going on across the facilities management (FM) market as clients recognise they need more engineering support to help them keep their buildings operating properly, according to Claire Curran – managing director of M&E contractor Linaker Ltd
M is returning to its silos. After years of aggregating ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ services into multi-million pound multi-service contracts,
business strategy, according to Claire. It uses the Association’s SFG20 planned maintenance tool on every job and enjoys the support of being part of the organisation. “We couldn’t survive without SFG20,” says Claire.
“As soon as we price a tender we look at SFG20 to start planning the labour. It is also very important to feel part of something bigger and we like the fact that BESA is out there lobbying for our industry and making sure our voice is heard.” Claire has spent 20 years in the sector working for major firms in business development, sales and customer relations roles – but also points out that she has picked up her fair share of technical expertise from “20 years of hanging around plant rooms”. However, she very nearly did not get the Linaker job as her CV looked too “corporate”. Never one to duck a challenge, she managed to persuade the head-hunter to slot her in at the end of the approved list of interviewees – and then demonstrated to chairman Bill Harrison that she was the right candidate for the job.
She started in a customer relations role at George
S. Hall in Stoke. She had no engineering background, but was told the fact she could “talk to anyone”, was the most important qualification. “They were quite cutting edge in those days as
there weren’t many engineering firms with customer relationship managers,” says Claire. “It is something that has stuck with me and I was please to find was a fundamental approach of Linaker.”
Prestigious
From setting up FM departments, bringing in a number of prestigious clients, including Daimler Chrysler, to picking up the BIFM Award for Excellence in a major project for her work on the Johnson & Johnson Medical contract, integrated
14 May 2019
www.heatingandventilating.net
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