The 15th Electrical Industry Awards, supported by the Electrical Contractors Association (ECA) was presented at a gala dinner with WF Electrical among the night's winners.
Hosted by Paul Ross, dinner and 15 awards were served up to honour the great and the good in the electrical industry on October 4 at the London Marriott in Mayfair.

HVAC ancillary wholesaler WF Electrical was awarded the Best Customer Service in Wholesaling gong at the black tie event. It is the firm's fourth consecutive award at the annual event.

The Dagenham-based firm offers contractors and installers a large range of products including air conditioning ancilliaries, fan coil unit controls, thermostats, gas safety shut-off valves and building management systems.

Orders placed at a branch before 5.30pm are available early the next day because it is delivered overnight from the firm's Dagenham warehouse of 25,000 product lines. The firm's quick delivery helped them secure the EIA's 'Best Customer Service in Wholesaling' award.

Brian Smithers of WF Electrical joined the firm as managing director two years ago and heads up a team of 850 employees operating from 79 UK branches.

He spoke of his keeness to expand the firm's UK coverage with more branches in locations such as Hull.

While serving the fm sector and electrical, building and heating engineers, another key goal for the firm is 'sector selling'.
'We hope to tap into potential opportunities in areas such as rail, data, fire and security. For example electrical smoke detectors is a £100 million pound business'.

'My number one priority is to sustain our growth. We also need to be able to excel and work within the confines of regulations such as the WEEE directive'.

'We're about more than just lamps, tubes, switches and sockets. 'We are thinking strategically. That means coming up with ideas on how to be different'.

The 'Electrical contractor of the year' gong was awarded to NG Bailey, one of the many awards bestowed on Thursday, October 4. The award categories included health and safety initiative of the year, energy efficiency initiative of the year, outstanding contribution to sustainability in the electrical industry, mechanical and electrical contractor of the year and outstanding contribution to electrical excellence.

As the industry danced Thursday night away at the London Marriott, all knew going back to their desks was the only way to stand a chance of getting the glory at next year's awards.