Record £66m year for fit-out firm

A Leicester-based interior fit-out specialist says it has recorded a record level of contract wins in the last financial year.

EE Smith Contracts Ltd has worked on a string of the top international hotels in London – including the Grosvenor House, The Langham and The Savoy – along with commercial buildings and private homes.

The firm, which was founded in 1897 and was subject of a management buyout in 2016, secured more than £66mn of new contracts in the year to April, and has already won orders of £20m in the first three months of the new financial year.

The largest order secured is for work on the new Radisson Edwardian in Leicester Square which will feature 350 guest rooms, 15 suites, five restaurants and lounges, a rooftop bar, a subterranean spa as well as a 1000-capacity ballroom.

The new orders helped boost the company’s profits to £2.5m which has allowed the firm to make further investment in its manufacturing capabilities as well as skills.

Neil Bottrill, managing director of the company, which is based on the Clarendon Industrial Estate and has nine sites in Leicester, said: “These are very strong results and the level of new orders secured is unprecedented.

“When the management team bought the company, we set out a clear vision of investment in our plant, people and processes, to help grow the company and these orders are the result of that work.

“The new wins have come in the leisure, commercial and private property sector, but in each case, it is our track record of combining traditional skills with cutting-edge processes, and the pedigree of delivering projects on time and on budget, which has helped us secure the work.

“The whole team at EE Smith is dedicated to producing the highest quality work, and the new contracts are down to the efforts of every member of our staff. We have enjoyed a very strong start to the new financial year and are confident we will be able to continue to feed our order pipeline going forward.”

The company, which have over 350 workers, was founded in Leicester by Edward Elijah Smith, and grew extensively after the Second World War before moving into the super prime residential and five-star hotel market in the 1990s.

In 2016 Bottrill and long-serving colleagues John Richardson, Richard Hollingsworth and Dan Cashmore bought control of the company.