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It was exactly 40 years ago when two experienced engineers decided the time had come to set up their own company specialising in mechanical and electrical contracting. With just £2 in the bank, Ian Lyall and Ken LeMarechal named this fledgling company EIC (Electrical Industrial Contractors) and officially started trading in February 1971. Fast forward to the present day and EIC has evolved beyond all recognition, from a local Midlands-based electrical contractor to a nationwide business delivering total facilities management across 13 regional offices and a turnover in excess of £92m.

This fundamental repositioning in the marketplace has been the result of 40 years’ of significant and sustained growth. Never having lost its original values and ethos, EIC is still being led by the same founding families and retains that same ambition to be a successful service provider and supportive employer. Over the years, five of the second generation have come in and worked their way up through the company, and now Ken and Ian’s sons, Nigel LeMarechal and Ian Lyall, are currently at the helm, backed by a strong senior management team. But how does a small family firm become one of the leading forces in the UK’s building services sector employing more than 600 people with a client base that boasts some of the country’s biggest organisations? To truly understand EIC’s evolution from contractor to national building services provider, we have to go back to the beginning.

The early days

Back in 1968, Ian Lyall was site manager and Ken LeMarechal charge-hand on a contract to build the Eagle Star Insurance office complex in Cheltenham. By chance, these two men met again a year later on a contract for the Amoco North Sea Gas Terminal at Bacton in Norfolk. It was here that their budding friendship and professional respect was firmly cemented. Towards the end of 1969, their paths crossed a third time when Ken moved to G&D Atack Ltd, where Ian was an employee. Having discussed the idea of forming their own business on several occasions, the pair finally decided to take the plunge over the dining table in 1970. The company’s meagre bank account was opened a year later and the company officially started trading in February 1971.

Despite both men having had held senior positions with their previous employers, finding people prepared to work for or appoint this brand new company with no history proved difficult at first. So much so in fact, that Ian and Ken had to sub-contract as ‘labour only’ on existing contracts in order to survive.

Nigel LeMarechal, current joint managing director, said: “The company’s big break came in 1973. IDC, now part of AMEC awarded us a contract for wiring a new housing development in Hillside Road, Stratford. Later that same year, we gained our first major contract, the total re-wiring of a 40-bedroom extension of the Chateau Impney Hotel near Droitwich. This contract gave the company the credibility it needed to attract both new clients and potential employees. Successful delivery – on time, on budget and by contributing positively to our client’s own objectives – has become one of the hallmarks of EIC and enabled us to establish a strong reputation that endures today.”

EIC began to attract more high profile household names, including a contract from Tesco Estates Ltd for wiring on its new store in Weston-Super-Mare, the electrical installation of the first two English banks in Scotland and a contract with WH Smith & Son to carry out the electrical installation of their new store in Maidenhead.

In 1976, a third partner joined EIC. John Howles first met Ian and Ken in 1969 when, like them, he was employed by G&D Atack Ltd. Seeing the company’s growth curve and potential for increasing commercial success, he decided to join forces with his former colleagues.

20 years of growth
The next 20 years saw sustained growth and while EIC retained excellent links with early customers such as Tesco and WH Smith, it also started to secure business from other national names such as Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Primark.
With a secure blue-chip client base in the retail sector, the company also diversified into other areas requiring similar technical skills and experience – including health, education, transport, public sector and leisure.

Longer term solutions
By 1996, following continued growth both geographically and in terms of its service offering, EIC began to develop its facilities management service with a dedicated test and maintenance divison. These services had become ingrained in the company’s DNA so it was the natural next step to look at a customer offering which encompassed longer term solutions.

Following a management buy-out in 2008, EIC identified this broader offering as the core of its strategic growth plan for the future. Ian Lyall, Nigel’s counterpart as joint managing director, said: “This shift in focus towards providing a one-stop-shop building services solution for clients was about offering ‘a total package’, from design and installation, to planned and reactive maintenance. It was based on growing customer demand for a partnership model with trusted technical experts who understood their business values and philosophy. It’s a model which is paying dividends across our 13 regional offices and is at the heart of the company’s evolution from contractor to service provider.”

Today, the company’s comprehensive range of integrated building services is focused on two distinct business streams: engineered facilities management; and engineered building services, allowing clients to access specialist expertise and services on a modular or an integrated basis tailored to match their specific requirements. Many contracting customers have expanded their remit to include some FM services – including Tesco – while new business has been secured on the planned and reactive maintenance side with a number of new clients such as property management agent Lambert Smith Hampton, North Somerset County Council and a number of universities.

Bright future ahead
So what is next for the family firm that was founded forty years ago? Growth, of course, and consolidation of the firm’s place as a leading player in the facilities maintenance marketplace alongside its established position in the electrical and mechanical contracting arena.
Ian Lyall added: “EIC’s strategic objective is to become the UK’s foremost building services provider, offering additional services, best value and excellence in delivery for our customers. “Our other major aim is to become the industry’s employer of choice, providing our hundreds of employees with a supportive and instructive environment. We believe that with continued investment in our people, market-leading customer service offerings and cutting-edge technological and communications systems, we are on course to achieve just that with the added advantage of having a name we can be proud of and a little more than £2 in the bank.”