FOCUS INTERVIEW
WORKING
STRATEGY
34 AUGUST 2019
The FM services market has seen a number
of key players have their challenges over
the past couple of years, resulting in a fall in
confidence and trust in the very concept of
outsourcing. EMCOR UK, however, has reported
an impressive 21 per cent revenue growth yearon
year and a 16 per cent increase in operating
profit with a healthy order book.
CEO Keith Chanter believes the company’s
position of value over price has been the key to
this success, enabling it to outperform many of its
peers in the sector. It has not happened overnight
– it’s been a gradual process since Chanter took up
the CEO role from an accountancy background 12
years ago. It was, he recalls, an opportune moment
to apply those skills.
“When I joined EMCOR UK it was a company that
was spread across many divisions, including M&E.
Underneath the bedrock of EMCOR UK is Drake &
Scull, and most of their history was installing and
maintaining M&E into buildings around the world –
which a orded some very poor margins and some
big losses.
“In 2007, when I joined, part of my agenda was
to assess where that company was going from
a financial point of view, and it was in pretty
desperate straits. In 2008 the programme of
Keith Chanter, CEO of EMCOR UK, explains to Sara Bean why a slow
and steady strategy of organic growth has reaped healthy results for the
facilities services company