Back in August, we announced that Keltbray Distribution & Transmission (KDT) now worked with every DNO in the UK, thanks to a handover of staff and contracts from Voltcom Construction which had gone into administration.
Now that four months have passed, we thought we’d take a look at how the Voltcom team have settled in at Keltbray and how the new projects are coming along.
Looking back at why the acquisition was made, Voltcom operated in the same market as KDT and had contracts with a number of clients that we were keen to take on. One of those was Northern Powergrid which operates the electricity network in the North East & Yorkshire. It had been a key target of ours for a number of years and this acquisition has opened the door for us. We’re now building strong relationships with the client team.
And what of the people? According to Liam McMyler, Operations Director of KDT, “the acquisition brought on board a team of forty seven highly skilled, committed individuals that are integrating fantastically into the KDT team.”
One of the team who transferred from Voltcom to Keltbray was Project Manager Mark Kenny who spoke of the significant change in ways of working. He said “The biggest difference noted by me and the other ex-Voltcom employees is the support provided to us on each contract. KDT engenders an “All of one Team” ethos. With Voltcom, each contract felt like a stand-alone entity and support from head office was limited. Daily interaction between the contract management teams and head office occurs on a daily basis.”
As many of you will know, Keltbray likes to make an acquisition or two so it’s become well versed in the art of successful integration. To ensure that the new team got off to the best start, a ‘welcome to Keltbray’ session was held on day one in a number of locations – Shrewsbury, Barnsley & Inverness. Individual Keltbray kit bags containing PPE, t-shirts, mugs and more were handed out and a member of the Keltbray senior management team gave an overview of the business and our plans for the new staff. A ‘Keltbray’ manager was then assigned to each contract to assist with the integration process. These contracts include a Distribution Framework contract with SPEN, operating in the Dee Valley and Oswestry District of England and Wales. This involves both HV refurbishment and rebuild works and LV modernisation and ESQCR defect clearance works.
In addition to this welcome process, the business unit is rolling out a number of Keltbray initiatives such as Thinking Clearly Under Pressure (TCUP) and Thrive Health & Wellbeing checks.
Commenting on the progress made so far, Liam said, “It’s still early days but already the new people have shown incredible commitment and enthusiasm. This combined with their industry experience will add real value over time.”
As for what’s next for the business, Liam continued, “Due to the difficulties the Voltcom business had faced in the 12-18 months prior to acquisition, the contracts weren’t operating at anything like their full potential. We intend to drive improvements across all of the contracts to ensure client confidence is restored. This will provide a platform for further growth with each of these clients, in particular in the transmission market.”
