Polarity Electrical seeks partners for positive future

Hampshire-based Polarity Electrical is an ECA member and NICEIC approved contractor looking for partners to develop the business.

The company was formed by boyhood friends and long-standing business partners David Smith and Mark Purnell. The pair have ambitious plans to grow a substantial, southern county based engineering contracting company founded on the firm principles of customer service, quality and value for money. “This is what clients want,” said Mark Purnell. “The contracting business is about consistently delivering on these three, fundamental standards. No bells. No whistles. Just good, reliable, skilled services at the right price with a smile.”

Smith and Purnell are basing their new business around the model of their earlier electrical venture, Derek Smith & Sons.

The eponymous firm was started by David’s father, Derek Smith, in the mid 1960s in Bournemouth and grew to become one of the leading contractors on the south coast, acquiring Aish Electrical along the way.

David Smith joined his father in the 1970s and Mark Purnell teamed up with the family in the early 1980s. Together, they expanded the company by opening an office in Farnborough, Hampshire, and diversified their services into, firstly, mechanical installations and latterly into more integrated, UK-wide engineering based facilities management operations.

Derek Smith Associates, or DSA as the business was then styled, won multiple industry awards, grew to a group turnover of around £10 million per annum and was acquired by private equity investors in early 2008.

As part of their plan for rapid growth, Smith and Purnell will be looking for a number of strategic contracting partners who are prepared to work alongside them and help to drive the growth to their mutual benefits. These could be:

• firms that are struggling somewhat in the current economic climate;
• mature companies with owner/managers who are looking to hand over the reins;
• young and ambitious businesses that would benefit from Polarity’s contacts, expertise and experience of the contracting industry and their proven record of growing, and selling, a successful venture;
• entrepreneurial individuals who feel that they have great things to offer but who might not be able to achieve their dreams alone.

If you fit any of these profiles and would like to make contact with Polarity, please call Mark Purnell on 07533 904225 and he’d be delighted to share his thoughts and explore opportunities.