Take one small firm, add venture capitalists, and watch it grow. Chris Cheshire charts the rise of Kinetics – and it doesn’t stop there!
If Chris Cheshire wasn't chief executive officer of Kinetics, what would he want to be, I asked?

A short hesitation and then he answered: 'I would like to be a director of West Ham United.'
But then he added the football club board would not take him as his present directorships would preclude him.

Why was that, I asked?
'Because I already have a successful company', was the answer and his face split into a wide grin.
He smiles a lot too as I found out during the interview. And he cares about people. It comes through as he talks.

Chris and his partner Neil Williams were running a small construction and FM company called Hudson Engineering which had a turnover of around £10million. But, however capable the company proved itself, the big contracts it tendered for usually went to the major firms.
Cheshire and Williams realised the company would have to grow rapidly or it could just be swallowed up by another larger construction/FM provider. So they approached a capital venture company called Sovereign Capital.

I expressed surprise that anyone would voluntarily put themselves into the hands of a venture capitalist but Cheshire said Sovereign, which had been involved with care homes and schools, had already identified two similar companies which were up for sale and needed only to find a couple of directors to run them.

Cheshire and Williams were the directors Sovereign had been waiting for and the three companies became Kinetics.
'They had an idea and it was only when we came along that they saw how to put it into action.'
The rest is an exciting story of takeover and integration that Cheshire enjoys telling. In fact, it is clear he loves everything about the past few years and the helter-skelter ride to how Kinetics works now - and for the future.

Today he runs an initial design, build, maintain and, if necessary, a disposal company.
Apart from these three initial companies, there have been another four acquisitions and a couple he has walked away from. During this time, Sovereign has been nothing but supportive.
The initial three, Seaflame (gas installer and FM), Cameron Group, (major refurbishment firm) and his own Hudson Engineering, have been joined by four others from March 2007 to September 2008, with the final acquisition being Thorpeheat Associates which it took over last month when it became insolvent.

Fitted in well

As well as saving the jobs of the 22 workers in the Coalville-based firm, it fitted into Kinetics strategic plan. Cheshire says all the acquisitions were a strategic fit, either geographically or so that the services offered - design build, maintain and disposal - were covered satisfactorily in all areas.

Now Kinetics has a presence from Manchester across to Leeds, down to Birmingham, London and to the bottom of the M4.
'From the top of the M62 to the bottom of the M4,' is how Cheshire puts it.
From September 2008 until this latest acquisition the business was about consolidation. And, be warned, Wales is the next target market.

Each, he says, was a profitable company in its own right but each had an offering which put the company on the map in that particular region.
There are, for instance, now 200 staff in the north west delivering maintenance across all trades. The company there was built mainly on a construction business and has now added maintenance to give a more rounded offering.

In the Midlands it was mainly a gas company which has been expanded into a facilities management and maintenance firm.
In the south it was mainly a gas and building maintenance company but it has been extended with a construction arm.

And the latest acquisition fitted in too. Thorpeheat came at a time when Kinetics had just won a contract to maintain 7,500 housing association properties on gas and it meant that not only were 22 jobs saved but the company had engineers ready and willing to get stuck in to the new contract in Leicester.

The Coalville office was ideally suited for the projects, 13 engineers to start with, an existing turnover of £1.3million 'and all at a good price'.
'It was like all the jackpot icons had come up on the fruit machine at the same time which doesn't happen very often.'

But, and for Cheshire it is a very big but, as the firm grows it will always be client-led.
'So many firms fall down on client satisfaction. For Kinetics, it will not be a case of 'this is how we do it' and the client is expected to take it or leave it,' he maintains. 'I want the impression of a big brand with big backing but with a locally-based solution.'
Putting the companies together has meant a lot of work and money. For instance, this year all the companies switched on to a common IT platform.

Virtually everyone is able to get access to the system - even the mobile operators.
To some extent, Cheshire misses being the boss of a small firm.
'You knew all the operatives. If someone wanted to borrow a tenner or use a van over the weekend because his girlfriend had thrown him out, you were there helping. Now I try to memorise as many names and faces as I can but I cannot know them all.'

Conversely, he believes, had the firm survived as a small player - and that was by no means certain - it would have been at the beck and call of the large players as a subbie or as a sub-sub subbie.

Principal contractor

Mostly now, Kinetics works as a principal contractor although there are some jobs where the company is part of the supply chain with profit pots, etc.
'The difference is the client exercises control over the payments to us rather than the main contractor. The payments are ring-fenced and we are treated with a level of dignity.'

Today, Kinetics has a turnover of £120million and expects to reach its target turnover of £150million (from the original business plan) by 2011 or even sooner.
Cheshire would not be surprised if he hit this by mid 2010.
'We have managed 20% organic growth each year on top of the acquisitions.'
Internally, Kinetics has three divisions:

· Partnerships - md Des Smith - (the construction arm) currently £40million; target £50million
· Facilities services - md David Blount - currently £43million; target £50million
· Property solutions - md Bob Boal - (one-off jobs) currently £30million; target £50million.
Cheshire is already thinking of a fourth division - Renewables - and it is currently scanning the market for a company involved in this sector.

'We have identified a couple of companies which we would like to acquire, firms with the experience of retrofitting renewables and the grants system. The criterion is a decent regional player - between £5million to £10million - which we can take national.'
And he expects to have purchased one of the new companies by the new year.
Cheshire says he has been succession planning from day one and any of the three managing directors could take over.

Two of the three managing directors have been brought in from outside. Cheshire adds none of the managing directors of the companies which were acquired wanted to stay.

The breakdown of staff is 800 engineers and construction staff on the road, 300 site-based staff and the rest are managers/ administrators (including call centre staff) and directors.
The call centres are regional so that they can, hopefully, work out how long it takes an engineer to drive from one job to another.

'We looked at having one call centre for all our work but how could an administrator who worked in Manchester understand the logistics of working in Devon, for instance.'
Training is paramount. All the engineers undergo the necessary training and any who want more can ask of it, and will usually get it too. And office staff can also work towards promotion.
'We offer A levels, NVQs, and all the way through to business degrees.'

One of the women apprentices who was with one of the companies which Kinetics bought became a plumber, trained as a gas engineer, passed the courses and is now working as a supervisor in the office.

Just one success story among many as is Kinetics and Chris Cheshire.