Forget the recession, Gary Webster of Smith’s Environmental Products aims to treble his business’s turn over within five years. And Paul Braithwaite, for one, has faith.
Gary Webster, managing director of Essex-based Smith's Environmental Products, is proud of what he has achieved.
He started his working life as a sheet metal worker at Myson, which made fan convectors. Today he has a company which is turning over £7M a year and has a target of £20M in five years' time.
'I want to be bigger because it gives you more chances, but not so big that you lose control of the personal touch.'
He adds that he has a fairly open relationship with the people who work in the business. They know what profit is being made or not and what the goals are. He has known many of the staff for 30 or 40 years. Some worked with him at Myson. Everyone plays his or her part in the firm and it is important.
The reason he is so open he says is that he wants everyone to feel part of the business.
'We have products in research and development which could change this company beyond recognition within a couple of years, but only if the staff are part of the equation. 'There are products and opportunities for us which are out of this world.'
Webster says he is not a religious man, and then explains his business and personal philosophy in a quote from the Bible: do unto others as you would be done by.
And, if the number of staff who have worked for him for many years is anything to go by, he abides by this creed.
He tells the story of one call-out from an elderly lady who said she had had a Space Saver unit installed. (A Space Saver is a plinth heater which fits under the units in the kitchen.) It was not giving out any heat, she said. When the engineer visited the home, he looked at the unit and realised the installation company had put in a fan convector unit, which should have been attached to the central-heating but hadn't. Behind the unit there were just two pipe ends; they weren't connected to anything.
The engineer called in, picked up an electric unit, installed it, connected it to the electricity supply, and took the unused one away.
'I phoned the installer and told the boss what had happened - and that I would not supply him with any more products - and we haven't. I asked him why he would allow his employees to do that to an elderly lady.'
Selling to America
Webster began the business from his garage after being made redundant from Myson when the company moved north.
He says that he kicked his heels for a couple of weeks, feeling sorry for himself, and then decided to start his own fan convector business.
He made a prototype in his garage and went to America to sell it. His first order was for 3,000 units, which, even he admits, would have taken him too long to manufacture by himself.
He was already part owner of a business called Smith's Environmental Logistics and he and his partner agreed to put the businesses together.
Partner Mike Saunders has only just retired from the business.
From that far-off first order, Smith's Environmental Products now has a full range of fan convectors. And the firm has not only continued to develop new products but also to re-engineer the existing ranges as the technology moves on. It is a bit like the car. The technology has moved on and become more sophisticated.
'We give a five-year guarantee and very rarely do we have to make a visit.'
Webster adds that fans now go on virtually forever and the quality of component is much better: 'Generally it is quieter, too, as we are able to engineer out all the mechanical sounds.'
Which brings him neatly to the latest Ecovector range. This is the latest fan convector from the company. It operates with lower water temperature and, as BSRIA tests have shown, it is far more efficient than a radiator.
Webster was sure the BSRIA tests would prove the efficiency. 'I have worked with fan convectors all my life and I know how efficient they are. Take panel radiators - about 50% of the heat they give out goes into the wall they sit on.'
He adds: 'Put a shelf above it, and you play about with its ability to convect. Put a sofa in front of it and you do not get any radiated heat from it. Put a pretty cabinet around it and you could cut performance by 60%.'
But he adds that, with a fan convector, there is not the water mass; it used just 5% of that needed to heat a panel radiator. All the heat goes into the room, and any temperature in the water that is above ambient is blown out too.
'Way back in the 1980s fan convectors were the only units which would work with solar heating. They tried radiators and they did not work well.' He adds that the same applies to chilling.
He says he was a little disappointed when the BSRIA results proved that the fan convector was merely 24% more efficient. 'BSRIA took into account the energy consumption of the fan and the pump which pushes the water through the heat exchanger and which requires a little more force.
'This takes the fan convector from a proportion of about 35% down to 24%.'
But he says: 'That's a fair way of comparing it and I can prove this figure with the BSRIA research.'
Wasting heat
It is still saving a quarter of the heating bill. And it did not, he says, take into account the latent heat that is lost from radiators when the central heating is switched off - they continue to omit heat. A fan convector doesn't.
Most people with radiators time the boiler to come on about an hour before they wake up so it is warm for when they leave the bed. And if they turn the radiator off when they leave in the morning, the house remains warm for an hour or so.
Not so with fan convectors. The unit can be switched on about a quarter of an hour before people get up, and can be switched off when they leave the house, he insists. BSRIA did not test this,
he says.
Readers of a nervous disposition should look away now. Webster says he has a fan convector in his bedroom. He gets up every morning, opens the French windows and does an exercise routine.
He also gives his wife, Lynn, a commentary on the weather - wind from the east, 30% chance of rain, etc. 'The serious point is that the fan convector senses the cold temperature when the doors are open and comes on within two or three seconds and stays on while I do my exercises. When I come back into the room and close the door, it stays on for three or four minutes until it brings the room back up to temperature again.
'Neither underfloor heating nor any other kind of heating would be this responsive.'
Each fan convector has a room thermostat which reads the temperature, and an aquastat which reads the temperature in the coil so that it knows when to come on - or not.
The Ecovector also blows downwards, pushing the heat down across the floor, and the Coanda effect helps to push it further across the floor before natural convection takes over and the heat begins to rise.
Underfloor alternative
The Ecovector offers a real alternative to underfloor heating, which Webster believes is not particularly suitable for the UK.
'The temperature is too changeable. One day it is high and the next it has plummeted and the heating is working hard to keep up,' he insists.
The Ecovector took around three years in research and development and was launched recently.
And, as for the re-engineering, the company has now virtually finished bringing all its other units into line so that they can be used with low flow and return temperatures.
The products cover the domestic, light commercial and commercial sectors. For instance, the Skyline is a ceiling-mounted unit which could be used in large halls in a domestic setting or in the reception of an office or in a small office.
Another unit which treads the line between domestic and commercial is the Sureline, a perimeter heater, which is used in conservatories or libraries, offices or showrooms.
Webster estimates that the business manufactures 60:40 domestic to commercial products.
And there are different routes to market for domestic (through builders merchants) and commercial (direct to contractors) via another division of the company.
Webster says that his company has devoted the last ten years to making the fan convector more energy efficient. He insists the fan convector is now the most energy efficient way of delivering heat to the home or indeed in offices and commercial premises.
And, if a fire is needed as a focal point in the living room, Smith's offers the Hydroflame - a flame-effect fan convector fire, which gives 2kW of heat connected to the central-heating system, and which costs about £15 a year to run.
It is cool to the touch, safe and does not produce any noxious fumes - and it needs no chimney, so it can stand against an internal wall.
In his own house, he has gone further, putting in a chimney breast and fireplace, so that it looks more effective.
Smith Environmental seems an exciting place to work. And it is doing what many firms don't do in this age: manufacturing.
Webster is passionate about manufacturing. He says that, when he left school years ago, about 70% of all GDP was manufacturing. Now it is 15%. And, if nothing else comes of this credit crunch, he hopes it will force people to look at where the real money is being earned.
'The only way to add real value is by making something. Manufacturing generates the real wealth. If we let China have everything, we are going to have nothing.'
He adds: 'My mantra is: If we can produce it, we will.'
Webster is working hard to make his business better and, while £20M in five years' time is almost three times, there is no doubt that he will make it - in more ways than one.