CONTRACTOR PROFILE
EMS
He who dares When Chris Allum started EMS in 1982 he knew he was taking a gamble. But since then he has built up a strong business that is finally getting the recognition it deserves
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ack in 1982, a then 35-year-old Chris Allum took the decision to quit his job and start up his own electrical business with his brother-in-law. With just one electrician working for them and no client list to speak of, Electrical Management Services (EMS) was born. “I had three young children and my brother-in-law had taken early retirement and suggested we had a go together,” says Chris, who had previously worked as a distribution engineer with the London Electricity Board and subsequently qualified as a lighting engineer. “We took a big chance and set ourselves very tight budgets for the first three years. We could just about afford to live at the time and took it on from there,” he says. The company’s first client was the high-street electrical chain Dixons, performing maintenance work and providing breakdown cover. Shortly afterwards the fledgling firm started working for various Texaco and Mobil garages and gradually developed a reputation for working in hazardous areas that continues to be one of its strengths today. It also worked for retail outlets such as Fosters Menswear and Adams Childrenswear. Based in Ashford, Middlesex, EMS is well placed to serve London and most of the south-east. Today, the business boasts an impressive client list across a wide variety of sectors, including BSkyB, Norland Managed Services and Visa. It undertakes regular periodic testing across 630 buildings at the University of Reading and hazardous area testing at the University of Cambridge. At BSkyB, EMS works on both a training centre at Hatfield and the company’s main operations centre at Isleworth, where recent projects have included installing the floodlighting used on Soccer AM and refitting the lighting in the new Sky Sports high-definition studio. Other recent projects include lighting a 35m tower run by Norland Managed Services at Fenchurch Street in London, which has been installed to commemorate the Great Fire of
42 Autumn 2010 NICEIC Connections
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PHOTOGRAPHY: SAM KESTEVEN
By Nick Martindale
‘We don’t tend to go in for the big building contracts. If someone offered us a £250,000 job I’d say we can’t do it’ London, entirely using LEDs; and replacing major distribution board installations at The Dorchester Hotel. “We don’t tend to go in for the big building contracts,” says Chris. “If someone offered us a £250,000 job I’d do what I’ve done before and say we can’t do it. We’re a cash-pregnant business; the money’s safe, we pay people on time so why not keep it like that? When you’re running those big projects it’s all about cash flow so we deal with blue-chip companies where you know you’re going to get your money.”
Extended family EMS currently employs 16 people, including nine engineers, as well as operations manager Tammie; one of Chris’s three children. And the family connection doesn’t end there – in September the company’s marketing manager Crispian Lorford became Chris’s son-in-law when he married his other daughter.
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