Interview with Adam Williams, Director - Northern Division

Group Metropolitan's expansion in the north of the UK has been one of our proudest achievements in recent years. We spoke to Adam Williams, our Associate Director of the Northern office to gain some insight.

Hi Adam, can you tell us a bit about your career and how long you have been in the industry??

I started out as a Mechanical apprentice in the glass industry in the 90’s, before moving into the automotive industry. I was also continuing academically, gaining a systems engineering degree. Ive always been employed in engineering related disciplines and have been involved in project delivery across various sectors for almost 25 years.

How long have you been working for Group Metropolitan??

I joined Group Metropolitan in late August 2019, so I’m now in my 4th year with the business. It’s a great company to work for, possessing a truly different approach to that of businesses I’ve worked for previously.??

How have you found working for the company with its main HQ in London??

Despite Group Metropolitans’ HQ and central services function being based a considerable distance from our Northern office in Warrington, the geographics don’t pose a problem. I think the use of video conferencing solutions during the COVID pandemic has really expanded the use of such platforms, and is something that has now been adopted as the new norm.????

The Northern department is relatively new compared to the rest of the company and its expansion has been relatively fast. How have you found dealing with the pace??

The Northern Departments growth has been in excess of 30% year on year since I joined in 2019, with a considerable spike at almost 85% growth for 2022 when compared to the previous year. Our focus for 2023 is that of client retention and delivering the same exceptional service to our customers, with a plan to achieve a similar revenue to that of 2022. We need to strike a balance between further growth and delivery, and this approach realigns our trended 30% yearly growth since 2019. The pace has certainly been challenging but I’m pleased with the results.???????

The company’s original drive for opening a dedicated office in the north was to assist in servicing some of their clients’ national sites, but it seems you have been picking up more and more local work? Would you attribute this to increased local awareness of the company??

I feel that local awareness is certainly a contributing factor, however a considerable amount of our works is for National customers whereby we are supporting them locally and afar, especially for the larger FM delivery businesses across multiple accounts. We have also gained a number of new Northern based customers whereby we tendered for works and have now become a supplier of choice based on the client’s positive experience and exceptional feedback. I believe there are numerous factors that are the key to our success.

Do you offer the same scope of services in the North as the South??

Our scope of services in the North is quite similar to our southern offering. The key difference is that our southern business has numerous individual departments discipline specific. The Northern Department offering is multifaceted, so we offer the same mechanical, electrical, BMS and fit-out delivery but as a single department. We do utilise specialist elements of the wider business to support the Northern Team. Such works would include TEGG testing, Firestopping or our in-house Mechanical and Electrical Design capabilities, Central Estimating team, QS Support and HR and IT Functions for example. We can also call on the support of our southern departments for critical works or in times of need, who are very supportive of their smaller Northern counterparts.???

Can you give us an idea of the types of projects you have been working on, and some detail on what the project entailed??

In 2022 we completed over 70 projects, seeing our largest single project secured for the 3rd consecutive year. The majority of larger projects have been completed with our appointment in the CDM roles as Principal Designer and Principal Contractor, some examples being:

• DVLA Data Centre Resilience Project in Swansea - comprising Electrical Infrastructure upgrade, 5 new DX CRAC systems, external civil works, EC Fan upgrades to existing CRAH Units, Cold Aisle Containment Systems, Gas suppression system, fire alarm and associated BMS installation.
• A considerable building wide BMS refurbishment for a global financial sector client in Liverpool – The existing obsolete Trend system was upgraded to a Tridium Niagara 4 system incorporating controls to the site Chillers, AHU’s, FCU’s, Chilled Beams, Heating Plant, Leak detection systems, CER room DX systems, Electrical Metering, Fire Alarm system and full BMS head end upgrade.??
• Three consecutive infrastructure projects for Her Majesty’s Land Registry in Hull, Telford and Fylde, reflecting new LV Switchboard replacements, general and emergency LED lighting systems providing daylight dimming, presence detection and self-test functionality, fire alarm replacement, suspended ceiling replacements, intruder alarm and approximately 80 electrical distribution board replacements.
• A Data Centre Resilience Project in Manchester for a global customer – New LV Switchboards, new 600 kVA UPS system, DC battery isolators, new CRAH and FCU’s, ATS devices, new gas suppression systems, migration of existing and provision of new IPDU’s and new distribution boards to provide a secondary power stream to the critical loads.
• A Heating plant system replacement for a global financial customer in Knutsford - New plant layout designs were completed to incorporate the new boilers, pipework, pumps, dosing pot, A&D Separator, Pressurisation Unit, Low Loss Header and associated Civil works. A temporary heating solution was implemented prior to de-commissioning the existing system. The existing flue dilution system was also removed and replaced with a compliant system.

Since 2019 we have completed over 300 projects ranging in size and complexity. We really do possess the ability to support an array of differing customers, delivering a broad range of client requirements specific to their needs.?