BUSINESS IS BOOMING FOR SOLAS by June Hyslop ALMOST 25 years after it was set up in Dumbarton you could say that SOLAS is a business whose time has come. Managing director Graham McLennan reports that the company is more profitable and busier than ever despite the recession. Productivity is up significantly over a six month period and turnover is on target to increase to £2m from £1.7m in 2009. Last November SOLAS tendered and won a six figure contract to provide Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for Glasgow Housing Association – the largest social landlord in Western Europe. “We were delighted,” said McLennan. “You have got to have everything in place if you are tendering for a job, including capability and high quality, but you also have to get the price right.” MANAGING DIRECTOR: Graham McLennan of SOLAS. Photo by Emma Latham, TCB Photography.
Factfile SOLAS Scotland is the parent company which operates as a charity. There are two wholly owned trading subsidiaries – SOLAS Insulation and SOLAS Assist. SOLAS insulation does what it says in the title and also deals with EPCs which landlords must now have for each property they let. SOLAS Assist primarily delivers home energy advice and advocacy services. The business has 44 permanent staff – half of whom are either surveyors or insulation installers.
“We know that when it’s public money the client has to ensure ‘best value’. It comes down to your structure, capacity and cost base as an organisation – and to pitching it right. We would not enter into any contract unless we were confident there is sufficient margin in it.” That’s not to say it’s been easy street as SOLAS has just emerged from a restructuring process designed to ensure the business continues to be viable and sustainable during tough trading conditions. This saw the creation of the new role of managing director with McLennan at the helm, the appointment of a senior management team, some changes in board membership, a pay rise for all staff and the introduction of a new employee profit share scheme.
No one could have imagined the key role that fuel conservation and protecting the environment would play when Heatwise came into being in the mid 80s. With the Scottish Government now setting tough targets to reduce carbon emissions and with the ever increasing price of energy, its successor SOLAS is working to capacity. It is actively looking to diversify what it calls its ‘energy efficiency solutions’ to grow the business and is already a market leader in the provision of EPCs for the social rented sector in Scotland. One of its major strengths is that the SOLAS group of companies operate as a social enterprise. While the bottom line is still important, SOLAS was set up to fight fuel poverty and to create sustainable jobs and training opportunities. “We don’t always make black and white business decisions. We’re more inclined to make long term strategic decisions to achieve our objectives and help our partners so long as it works for us in the long term,” added McLennan. “The irony is that because of our approach we are more profitable and busier than ever. People want to work with us because of our ethos. Our current success is not despite our social enterprise status – it’s because of it. “Much of our private sector work is built around our public sector relationships. We currently have very valuable strategic partnerships with five local authorities in West Central Scotland and this helps us promote ourselves to prospective customers.” www.solas.biz
“Our current success is not despite our social enterprise status – it’s because of it.” 27