Heating firm doubles turnover through biomass
A DONCASTER heating firm has doubled its turnover within a year thanks to a hike in orders for its biomass boiler systems.
RN Mechanical designs and builds made-to-measure renewable energy systems which generate heat and hot water for schools, stately homes including Chatsworth House, business premises, farms and industrial-sized greenhouses used by commercial flower growers.
The family firm has seen demand for its self-contained biomass plant rooms, called Biopods, shoot up, with orders representing 80% of its business today compared to 20% a year ago.
This steep growth in the renewables, means RN Mechanical (RNM) achieved a record turnover of £3m last year – twice the size of the previous year’s figure – and anticipates handling £4m worth of orders before the end of this financial year (April 2015).
The company’s expansion has been supported by Business Doncaster, a partner in the South Yorkshire Sector Growth Enhancement Programme (SYSGEP), which is part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Yorkshire and The Humber ERDF Programme (2007-13).
RNM has just shipped its largest order yet for biomass boilers to a Sussex school. In the deal worth over £1m, the company has supplied Bede’s independent school with three Biopods to produce heating and hot water for over 2,000 staff and students.
Managing director, Richard Nicklin, said: “This is our biggest biomass order yet and builds on growing interest in our green technology systems, both large and small.”
RNM’s Biopods, which are fuelled by wood chip pellets from renewable forests, are housed within stand-alone units.
Nicklin said: “Our Biopods arrive at customers’ premises as finished products and we get them connected to customers’ existing systems and up-and-running within days, with minimal disturbance. We then monitor the boilers virtually and see to any required maintenance.
“Our biomass innovation has had a massive impact on this business and it’s currently saving our customers about 3,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.”
Business Doncaster helped RNM find a new 10,000 sq ft factory to allow space for construction of Biopods, at Adwick-le-Street in Doncaster a year ago.
RNM installed one of its first biomass boilers at Chatsworth House in 2012 and this heats the Duke of Devonshire’s estate office and other estate properties. Other country homes such as Stowell Park in the Cotswolds and Alton Manor in Derbyshire are RNM customers. Flower growers including Redford Flowers, of Spalding, Lincolnshire, have turned to the company to maintain temperatures at their large nurseries, where they grow flowers for supermarkets and garage forecourts.
Richard’s grandfather, Arthur Nicklin set up a Doncaster heating engineering business in the 1930s. His father Peter continued in the trade and Richard set up RNM in 1999 with his son David, who has led on much of the design work for the Biopod. RNMl employs a workforce of 16.
RNM said it is now looking at further innovation and R&D developments which will help it continue its growth.
