Engineering firm set to boost turnover and create jobs with investment

A Warrington engineering firm is targeting turnover of £3m this year and is set to create around 10 jobs after securing funding for its expansion.

BMECH has received a £100,000 investment from NPIF – FW Capital Debt Finance, part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF).

BMECH provides energy efficient heating, air conditioning, ventilation and electrical systems primarily to the facilities management industry and end users.

The company was set up 27 years ago and taken over by current MD Rob Ditchfield, the founder’s son, in 2011.

He has grown the company from a £180,000 turnover business and six employees to a £2.2m turnover company with 29 staff.

Ditchfield said: “We realised that we needed external funding to maximise our growth potential.

“FW Capital understood our vision exactly and put together a funding package that perfectly suited the needs of our business. The investment has enabled us to bring the electrical and air conditioning divisions in-house so that all works in this area are now undertaken by our own engineers rather than sub-contracted. We have a business plan to reach a £5m turnover within three years.

“We want to create engineers for the future too and are passionate about providing training opportunities to help address the skills gap.  We’ve committed to an apprenticeship scheme which will see at least one apprentice being employed every year although we’ve actually taken on three during the last 12 months.”

FW Capital investment executive Carol Bolland added: “The contractual nature of businesses in this sector mean that it can be hard to obtain finance from traditional sources but it is an industry we are actively investing in.

“We’re delighted that our funding has already made a significant impact at BMECH and would like to encourage other similar businesses to come and speak to us if they are looking for capital to grow.”