The Wright way

Bill Wright is in for a busy year. As well as clocking up the miles touring the regions in his role as the new ECA president, Wright continues to chair the Association’s pivotal commercial, contracts and legal committee. He clearly relishes the challenge: “I believe it helps with the presidency. A lot of the membership’s issues are commercial, so it dovetails well in my case.”

Top of Wright’s hit list in the year ahead is undoubtedly the Construction Act. It is vital for electrical contractors that the Association’s voice is heard as the review of the Act goes through consultation: “Payment is certainly the biggest issue with the Construction Act review – security of payment and establishing the debt,” explains Wright. “We’ve had a very positive response to our views at the first consultation meeting with the DTI.” Fingers crossed as the review moves to a probable second round of consultation.

When the Act was first introduced it aimed to tackle dispute resolution, offering up adjudication as cheap, rough justice. Wright is a vociferous opponent of the way it has been hijacked by the legal profession: “What was intended to be an inexpensive, common sense approach to disputes has become an expensive, technical, legal process.”

While there is every need for legal representation in a claim worth £500 000, “to involve the legal profession on a £10 000 claim is a waste of time,” thinks Wright. He and his colleagues on the commercial, contracts and legal committee are looking at ways in which disputes between ECA members can be more easily resolved: “We are discussing the possibility of some sort of adjudication system when two ECA companies come together, so that they can sort out any commercial problems.”

The ECA’s mechanical cousins at the HVCA have such a service in place and this is just the latest example of the two Associations learning from each other. “The departments of the ECA have always worked very closely with the HVCA but they are working even closer today on areas that are common to both sets of members – things like commercial issues,” explains Wright.

Would the ECA president welcome that co-operation moving a step closer? “There is a possibility of the ECA and the HVCA being fully converged in the future. However, the HVCA has many different sectors within it – ductwork, home heating, for example – as does the ECA. Convergence must be to the benefit of all of its members.”

Currently under discussion between the two Associations is a combined approach to industrial relations. Could we even see the same terms and conditions for both disciplines? “It’s a distinct possibility provided it doesn’t disadvantage the non m&e contractor within the ECA and HVCA,” says Wright. “One of the biggest problems, from an administration point of view, is running two different systems for travelling time and expenses.”

Wright is one of those members who does both electrical and mechanical contracting work, albeit via two separate firms, W Wright Electrical and BSJ Mechanical and Plumbing. Following an electrical apprenticeship with Hall and Kay in Sheffield and a few years after that with other local firms, Wright and his wife Sandra struck out on their own back in 1978: “A month or so after that, Sandra announced she was pregnant, so perhaps it wasn’t the best timing!” Soon brother-in-law John Wilmott was taken on as an apprentice and the three are now the directors and shareholders of the electrical business.

BSJ was established in 2001. “For two or three years before that we had seriously considered setting up a mechanical company, but you can’t do that unless you’ve got the right man to head it up.” The opportunity to recruit presented itself when the firm that Wright used for mechanical work got into financial difficulty. That company’s md John Hadfield, along with other technical staff and operatives, was brought in and BSJ was born – Hadfield joins the other three on its board.

There is a possibility of the ECA and the HVCA being fully converged in the future

Today the two firms turn over £9 million – £5.5 million electrical and £3.5 million mechanical and plumbing – and have over 120 employees. Wright says he is “quite happy” with the profits on offer from m&e contracting. “Last year we made about £550 000 profit before dividends and bonuses.”

Wright’s companies have been very successful in local government work such as schools, hospitals and prisons, but the last two to three years has seen diversification into city centre executive flats and student accommodation. The reason is simple: local government framework agreements have changed the face of this former staple diet of the medium-sized contractor, forcing them to look elsewhere.

“Changing methods of procurement have far-reaching implications. If you don’t win local authority work and you have to take that out of your business, you’ll either have to downsize or win new business, and that’s not as easy as it sounds. Medium-sized companies are set for change and turmoil over the next ten years.” The ECA’s recent survey (EMC, Jul/Aug, p13) shows that many feel that now may be the time to sell up.

As well as reduced tendering opportunities for contractors, Wright sees another problem with framework agreements: “Many members are reporting that work is going to firms that do not necessarily follow the rules of the JIB, do not operate under the same terms and conditions and so are not paying the same money to their people. It’s not a level playing field.”

Such firms are unlikely to train apprentices either. And with the larger firms packaging out work and taking on fewer and fewer electricians and apprentices, Wright sees a crisis looming. “Take the Olympics, for example. Where is the labour going to come from? We should be training apprentices now. It will be foreign labour that will make up the numbers.”

He would like to see the government take action. “JTL runs an excellent scheme. Given that it doesn’t cost the member anything in college fees or exam fees, there should be a lot more firms employing apprentices. Perhaps the government could encourage companies to take on apprentices by subsidising the initial cost of their salaries. I cannot see a training levy working.” Wright sees his own apprentices as the future of the company and the firm is an Investor in People. This September will see three of Wright’s engineers start their HNC in Contracting Management.

You cover a lot of ground in an interview with Bill Wright, as he himself will in his travels around the country during his year as president. You get the feeling he wouldn’t want it any other way.