The 41 year-old boss of ECA London Region member firm W G Wigginton is not content with the Brazil trip alone. "I'm also looking at an unsupported ride from Lands End to John O'Groats, covering 150 miles a day," he enthuses.
Keyland's Vietnam ride was his fifth fund-raiser for Mencap, netting a further £5000 for the charity. As well as raising money for a great cause, Keyland sees a couple of knock-on benefits: "You get fit and you get to see some parts of the world that you wouldn't otherwise see."
Training for Vietnam involved a tough, four-month programme. "I'd do a 20 mile ride before work, one hour in the gym at lunchtime and another 20 miles in the evening. At the weekends, I'd do another 40 miles." Getting fit is fair enough but there was a drawback: "I lost a couple of stone and now none of my clothes fit," laughs Keyland.
This dedication to training has been matched by his determination to take himself and his company as far as he possibly can, although he admits that he didn't try as hard as he might when at school.
Things changed when he started his apprenticeship with Wigginton, so much so that he was an ECA Edmundson Regional Apprentice of the Year back in 1982. Like many before him, after completing his C Course and gaining an HNC, Keyland faced a choice of whether to continue on to university or concentrate on progressing his career. "To be honest, I didn't feel that a degree would enhance my position, so I decided to concentrate on the company," he explains.
Keyland has not looked back and he eventually acquired the company in 1997 when in his mid-30s. W G Wigginton was formed as far back as 1926 and set up offices in Neasden, west London in 1954. Keyland took over from the second generation of the Wigginton clan and has taken the company onwards and upwards.
"When I got involved with the company at a managerial level, we were probably turning over around £250 000 a year. This was a small company, with around six or seven guys, all PAYE, doing local authority work predominantly for three or four London boroughs," explains Keyland.
He expects the firm to top the £4 million mark this year, achieving profits he describes as "above the industry norm". Keyland stresses that while business has doubled in the past two years, the company is not turnover-driven and concentrates instead on the bottom line.
Clearly, Wigginton is doing something right out in the marketplace. Keyland puts this down to working closely with repeat clients and providing them with a first class, quality service. "Around 60% of our work is repeat business," says Keyland. "All of it is direct employment with the client – we don't do any domestic subcontract work at all and we don't enter into anything with onerous conditions."
Clients that want a professional quality service is the area where we want to be. These areas are more profitable than the lowest price lottery
Keyland is busy looking at new areas of profitable growth and the company is examining diversification into different fields, specifically data and telecomms and high voltage.
One key client for Wigginton is London Underground, for whom the company is a framework contractor working on station refurbishments, lighting upgrades, new escalators and so on.
"Clients that want a professional quality service is the area where we want to be. One where there is an extensive health and safety documentation requirement which needs our management and expertise," points out Keyland. "These areas are more profitable than the lowest price lottery, but you still have to be competitive."
Wigginton has remained true to its roots and still carries out a lot of work with local authorities. The London Borough of Hackney is a big customer, with Wigginton active in domestic housing services.
"We identified this market three or four years ago and put a structure in place to manage it," says Keyland. "This is an area that needs to be carefully handled. These are occupied premises and tenant liaison is important. You have to have a strategy and invest in it."
Another area where Keyland has invested is getting hold of the right people. The latest person to join the company is Malcolm Conby, formerly of the Eastern Contracting business recently acquired by McAlpine. Conby is the new general manager of Wigginton; the appointment allows Keyland to concentrate more on strategy and business development.
The two are very active within the ECA. Keyland is just coming to the end of a two-year spell as London branch chair, while Conby recently took over the role of chair of the wider Greater London region. Both would encourage more ECA members to come forward and have their say: "The opportunities to influence are the same whether you come from a large, small or medium-sized company," says Keyland.
Industry issues aside, the future looks rosy for Keyland and Wigginton. The company moved from Neasden to new freehold premises in Greenford, Middlesex in October 2002, creating a more professional environment with plenty of room available for expansion. Keyland does not rule out growth by acquisition, having come close to buying into a different sector a couple of years back, although "I'm not actively looking at the moment."
Source
Electrical and Mechanical Contractor
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