It has to be said that having the right kind of attitude stands for a lot. A reputation for style, confidence and a “must-do” approach are what the business world has always run on. Donnie Rust explores EE Smith.
The company, EE Smith was founded in 1897 by Edward Elijah Smith who ran his business from a small shop on Canning Street, Leicester. The self-proclaimed, ‘Master Craftsman’ was skilled as a plumber, gas and bar fitter and supplied and repaired gas stoves and gas chandeliers, proclaiming with understated professional pride, that all kinds of repairs would be ‘neatly executed’.
During these early years, EESmith took on a number of young apprentices to aid his flourishing business and as the business prospered, it moved to new premises in 1937. In the same year, 14-year-old Basil Richardson was taken on as an apprentice, making pewter basins.
Although many of EE Smith’s apprentices who fought in the Second World War did not come home, following his wartime service in the Royal Navy, Basil Richardson returned to Leicester to find Edward Elijah Smith in poor health and the business in decline. At the age of 24, Basil became EE Smith Contracts’ Managing Director, foreman and entire workforce. However, in an age of heroes he did not wilt under the challenge but grabbed and ran with it.
Building A Great Business
Since then, the company has had the opportunity to shift and change with markets and ride on the momentum of just getting things done. After turning down interest from market leaders, 2016 began an exciting new era when a management buy-out saw four of the long serving team take over the ownership of the business, with Neil Bottrill at the helm as the new Managing Director.
The £11.1 million buyout was made possible thanks to funding from Maven Capital Partners, an investment that reflected the confidence in Bottrill’s leadership qualities.
Bottrill, who has been with the firm since 1990 in a variety of estimating and commercial management roles, joined the board of directors in 2008 as commercial director. Even after becoming MD in 2016 following the buyout, he has continued the company’s spirit of driving hard into the future and always leading by example.
Leaders Lead From The Front
Having climbed up through the ranks and firmly established himself as the leader of the company, Bottrill reveals that EE Smith, still one of the UK’s leading privately owned specialist interior fit-out contractors, have been setting the industry standard for over 100 years.
“We are experts in fitting out some of the world’s most prestigious hotels, commercial interiors and private residences,” he says, “Our interior solutions are engineered to the finest tolerances, ensuring the finished product perfectly matches the designer’s vision.”
Investing In The Future Through People
Further to this, EE Smith Contracts is also one of the UK’s leaders in training apprentice joiners and cabinet makers, taking on new applicants every year, and have seen over 200 apprentices successfully pass through their programme. Bottrill explains that it is this marriage of technology and tradition that allows his company to deliver high-quality solutions to design briefs without compromising on aesthetic requirements.
“Our outstanding level of project management is one of the key elements which sets us apart within the saturated industry,” he says, “ With an in-house team of directly employed design managers, technical services managers and pre-construction coordinators, we are able to seamlessly take a project from tender stage to completion, whilst providing a consistent project management team to the client.”
And according to him, it is this ethos that is the core to their success and one of the many reasons they have such a longstanding rapport with their repeat clients. This close control over every detail makes them proud to be one of the UK’s very few contractors with a turnkey offering.
Outstanding Performance
Regardless of circumstances, EE Smith has a reputation for being outstanding, for example in 2022 when many companies were still struggling to recover from the ripples of Covid, they posted the highest annual revenues in the company’s history, with an additional £60 million of secured work for the new financial year.
It was fitting as they also celebrated their 125th birthday in 2022. Bottrill explains that the record-breaking activity was secured partly by working on multiple prestigious developments including the luxurious Peninsula London hotel overlooking Hyde Park Corner and the completion of 15 super-prime apartments in Knightsbridge in London. Profits have bounced back strongly following Covid-19 and are forecast to exceed pre-pandemic levels for the year ahead.
Generally working with around £60 million worth of secured work, EE Smith Contracts enters 2025 with their usage aplomb and confidence. But have gone a step further as pioneers in their business with a focus on sustainability.
Keeping It Up With Green
The business, which employs 285 staff, has reduced carbon emissions by over 20 per cent in the last year despite the growth in activity at its sites in Leicester and London by investing in a new £125,000 extraction system. There is also continued growth in long-established apprenticeship programmes, with 35 new apprenticeships having been recruited since the outbreak of Covid-19.
Neil Simpson, Finance Director, says, “EE Smith Contracts has a long history of training youngsters, and a significant number of our current employees are former apprenticeships who have stayed with us because it is a family environment. We have established great links with London colleges and have thirty apprentices on our sites in London learning from among the finest craftspeople in the country. The London labour market is very dynamic and we’re building the EE Smith Contracts family environment on those sites as well to retain our apprentices and provide a pathway for their career. Further reductions are forecast in our carbon emissions following significant investment in carbon saving technology in the last six months because this is an area which is really important to us.”
