Extracted from an article in The Electrical Contractor Magazine - September 2005

Wrights is one of those companies who does both electrical and mechanical contracting work, albeit via two separate firms, W Wright Electrical and BSJ Mechnical and Plumbing. Following an electrical apprenticeship with Hall and Kay in Sheffield and a few years after that with other local firms, Wright and his wife Sandra struck out on their own back in 1978. Soon brother-in-law John Willmott was taken on as an apprentice and the three are now the directors and shareholders of the electrical business.

BSJ was established in 2001. "For two or three years before that we had seriously considered setting up a mechnical company, but you can't do that unless you've got the right man to head it up". The opportunity to recruit presented itself when the firm that Wright used for mechanical work got in financial difficulty. That company's MD John Hadfield, along with other technical staff and operatives, was brough in and NSJ was born - Hadfield joins the other three on its board.

Today the two firms turn over 9 million - 5.5 million electrical and 3.5 million mechnical and plumbing - and have over 120 employees. Wright says he is "quite happy" with the profits on offer from M&E contracting.

Wright's companies have been very successful in local government work such as schools, hospitals and prisons, but the last two to three years has seen diversification into city centre executive flats and student accommodation. The reason is simple: local government framework agreements have changed the face of this former staple diet of the medium-sized contractor, forcing them to look elsewhere. "Changing methods of procurement have far-reaching implications. if you don't win local authority work and you have to take that out of your business, you'll either have to downsize or win new business, and that's not as easy as it sounds. Medium-sized companies are set for change and turmoil over the next ten years." The ECA's recent survey (EMC, Jul/Aug, p13) shows that many feel that now may be the time to sell up.

As well as reduced tendering opportunities for contractors, Wright sees another problem with framework agreements: "Many members are reporting that work is going to firms that do not necessary follow the rules of the JIB, do not operate under the same terms and conditions and so are not paying the same money to their people. it's not a level playing field."

Such firms are unlikely to train apprentices either. And with the larger firms packaging out work and taking on fewer and fewer electricians and apprentices, Wright sees a crisis looming. "Take the Olympics, for example. Where is the labour going to come from? We should be training apprentices now. It will be foreign labour that will make up the numbers.