So, just to keep you up to date on all that is happening right now in 2025.
What a challenging year we had throughout 2024, adapting to a marketplace responding to the difficulties of endless price hikes! As some of you may or may not know, this company has now completed 25 years of trading and is head for 26 years. I think that is some achievement. I was also 63 years old last May and have been in the service industry for most of my working life. On reflection, the clue is in the title 'SERVICE'!
I have been serving peoples needs / wants /demands for a very long time now and as an engineer, much of that time is spent crawling around on hard floors and squeezing into seemingly impossible spaces. Contortionist seems a more appropriate title! That said, I am fit and healthy and still crawling around on floors!
In 2023, I decided to 'future proof' my working life by taking an NVQ and became a qualified assessor. In short, when I finally get too creaky to crawl around fixing things, I will be able to demonstrate my constant evolution and ability to stay up-to-date with accredited certifications. As and when I can no longer do the contortion thing, I have the qualifications to change course, (into a more upright position). I might even get to take a lunch break!
In January 2024, prices inevitably had to go up, just to keep pace with inflation. We held off for 2-years before doing this, because we do appreciate the 'knock-on' effect to our end-users. But we still had our own costs to cover and with more gas-exam renewals in the January, combined with a slow-down in work, price-increases were a necessity, not a luxury. Similarly, all spare-parts suppliers increased their prices, many, many times over. Some increases were inevitable and some were accredited to more difficult trading arrangements with Europe, but WE tried to hold off for longer than was commercially sensible! Again in 2025 we have made a small 2% increase on our labour rates, which is far smaller than we would have liked, but without the client, we have nothing to do. It's our way of trying to ensure that the work is still there to do!
Last year we saw a marked downturn in the repair & maintenance side of the business. If that trend continues (and all signs suggest that it will), caterers will have no option but to reduce their expenditure still further. The end result will be that, competition for available work becomes totally focused on cost. In such an environment, quality always suffers - it's a fact of life!
As a company that follows the 'quality' route rather than cutting corners to save money, we will continue to be there for you, doing what we do.
Thank you for custom and for reading this. Please remember to support your local small businesses too.
Regards
Anthony
