A leading utilities connections company has unveiled ambitious plans to grow by 25 per cent over the next year – and recruit another 10 staff.
The news was revealed during a visit by Ken Skates, the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure, to Utilities Connections Management Ltd (UCML).
UCML is a one-stop shop for businesses, developers, contractors, housing associations, care home providers, architects and many more across the UK that require electricity, gas, water and telecom connections and disconnections.
Its expertise has saved its clients more than £50 million in connection costs and charges.
The company currently employs 25 staff and is based on Wrexham Industrial Estate.
Mr Skates, who was there in his capacity as the local AM for Clwyd South, said: “UCML is a fantastic, dynamic and creative company with a great future.
“The company has captured some immensely important contracts and it has a very good plan for growing sustainably and for reaching out to other parts of the UK for more work.
“It’s a niche area in one sense but everybody heeds utilities connections and they have great expertise in this area.
“They have huge reach and great growth potential because utilities are required by all customers, be it in domestic dwellings or in business premises, and that means that there is a huge market out there that this company can tap into.
“There’s been some remarkable success stories for the company where they’ve been able to save customers up to £15 million by finding quite incredible, ingenious solutions to problems that other companies perhaps wouldn’t be able to identify.
“It’s incredibly heartening to see a ‘can do’ company that’s investing in its people, that’s determined to upskill its employees, driven by new technologies of tomorrow and determined to grow in this part of Wales and that’s fantastic for the Wrexham economy.
UCML managing director Arwel Lloyd was delighted Mr Skates had taken time out of his busy schedule to come and see them.
Mr Lloyd said: “We have a target of a 25 per cent increase in business this year and key to that is actually getting the skills and the people to do that kind of business.
“We work in a specialist area so we don’t have very many competitors. It’s a highly technical and regulated area of work so you need to know what regulators like Ofgem are doing and what the next moves in the market are going to be.
“Everybody still needs the basic utility connections of gas, electricity, water, and telecoms, and long may that continue, but if you don’t know what you’re doing it can be incredibly expensive.
“Gas and electricity are open to competition now and UCML has a history of saving people money and we’ve been very successful in that. We always aim to ensure that our customers get the best value for the money that they pay.
“We reckon we’ve saved our customers in excess of £50 million over the 13 years that we’ve been in existence, and that’s increasing year on year.
“As a result, 95 per cent of our business is through referrals and repeat business.
“Thankfully our existing customers come back to us and they also refer us to others, and we’re working throughout the whole of the UK.
“In the mid-term, we are looking to recruit 10 more staff which will then allow us to expand further and look at other opportunities that are coming our way. It’s exciting times for UCML.”
