History

An organic approach..

With 27 years experience under its belt electrical and heating company Purdy Contracts is a major player in the social housing sector.

Formed in 1984 with a handful of staff and a turnover in the first year of £75,000 the company has grown steadily, now employing 145 people with a turnover of £15million.

Purdy Contracts comprises three departments - Commercial Heating, Domestic Heating and Electrical services and whilst they operate independently the work of each department complements the others. Our company carries out a range of works associated with the mechanical and electrical trade in both the commercial and domestic market, working closely with many local authorities and housing associations.

Purdy is currently carrying out Decent Homes work, planned maintenance and essential services on in excess of 30,000 properties throughout London and the South East. Major clients include London & Quadrant Group, Enfield Homes, St Albans District Council, Broxbourne Housing Association, Homes for Haringey, Epping Forest District Council, Ascham Homes, Hertsmere Borough Council and McMullens Breweries. The company also has 200 schools from across the district on its books. With such a high proportion of housing organisations and local authority clients the vast majority of Purdy Contracts' work is carried out in occupied homes, which requires a sensitive approach and an understanding of tenants' needs.

Alot of our success over the years is accredited to the workforce and the fact we have so many long-serving staff who are all directly employed - more contributing factors to the high levels of service on offer to customers. The advantages of directly employed staff is that they can work to our requirements as they fully understand them and they have been trained by us. Purdy staff are easily identifiable as they have Purdy vans, clothing and I.D. Cards. Staff turnover is exceptionally low and in a recent anonymous Investors in People (IIP) survey 100 per cent of staff said that the company is a good place to work.

Many of the company's staff, including senior management started with Purdy as apprentices and have risen through the ranks. This sort of organic growth remains important to the business today and despite the tough economic conditions we still have an active apprenticeship programme with over 20 apprentices on our books. Continuing to take on apprentices through the recession is an example of the commitment to the future of our company and to maintaining the very high standards we have established.

The company's quality of service has also helped us survive the tough economic climate, allowing us to not only maintain our client base but to win back contracts that have come up for renewal. We have also continued to attract attention, being ranked as the 35th largest M&E company in the country in the Plimsoll Electrical Contractors Industry Report, which analyses the UK Mechanical & Electrical Contractors market and the 1,000 largest companies in the industry. Purdy have won London and Quadrant's "Best Performing Contractor" Award on a number of occasions.

Purdy Contracts has gone from strength to strength over the last 27 years but we are keen to make sure that it doesn't burn out by becoming too large to sustain itself. Purdy prefers a more steady organic approach to growth focused on the quality of service delivered.