A1 Flue Systems is enjoying what it’s calling a “Brexit boost” after seeing a £1m rise in turnover and creating five new jobs in the second half of 2016.
The award-winning Ollerton-based company – which is the UK market leader in the design, manufacture and installation of commercial and industrial chimneys – is putting the increase down to a raft of “bread and butter” contract wins and the drop in the value of the pound since the UK voted to leave the European Union last summer.
Contract wins include projects for an airport, a football stadium and a couple of university campus buildings, as well as a host of offices, hotels and supermarkets across the UK. The figure doesn’t include an export deal that A1 has just secured for a skyscraper project in downtown Dubai close to the site of the Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world at 830m high.
Because the company manufactures everything at its factory in Nottinghamshire, it has not been hit by the same 20% overnight price hikes that all of its UK competitors have faced because they import the lion’s share of their flues from Europe.
Over the last three months the company has also employed five new staff to boost its manufacturing, engineering and sales capabilities.
The company is predicting the trend to continue in 2017, boosted by its export drive and an increase in offering added-value services, such as the maintenance of commercial flue and chimney systems.
Director John Hamnett added: “We see real scope to significantly increase the revenue we can generate through subsidiary companies such as Commercial Flue Cleaning & Maintenance (CFCM) Ltd and also through the flue systems we are exporting to regions such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because the relationships we have been building since we set up a dedicated exporting capability a couple of years ago are really starting to coming to fruition.
“Whilst some businesses see the storm clouds gathering, we only see the clear skies of opportunity ahead because we’re the leading UK company in our sector, which puts us in a position of strength moving forward.”