There’s a highly specialised and very successful business located on Vision Park, next to Burnley College.
FloControl supplies hydronic valves and pipeline products, something that not many of us will know much, if anything, about. But it’s a Burnley business that’s making a huge impact. In a nutshell, its products are used in buildings’ heating and cooling systems, bringing down capital investment, running and installation costs, as well as the building’s carbon footprint.
Burnley’s FloControl’s valves can be found in some of Barnfield’s projects, and across the UK’s most prestigious new builds and refurbishments, Merseyside Police HQ, many of the new high rises on Bishopsgate in London, the Barclays Campus in Glasgow and Manchester City’s stadium, to name just a few.
The business started from the lounge table of Dennis Taylor, a Burnley-based mechanical engineer and former managing director of some of the largest UK valve companies, who realised that the UK was slow in the uptake of new, energy-saving valve technology. He started off selling Pressure Independent Control Valves (PICV) from the Danish manufacturer and inventor of the PICV, FlowCon and realised that there was an opportunity for prefabricated systems, reducing the installation time onsite. That was in 2009 and now the company is on track to overachieve its business plan once again.
Burnley.co.uk took a look around the premises at Vision Park, where FloControl have several units and are looking to expand even further.
Marketing manager Anke Taylor told us: “We’re the market leader for pre-assembled valve sets. It’s quite an achievement for a small Burnley business. Around 75 per cent of energy is used in buildings, so it’s important to make them as efficient as possible, especially now when climate change is hugely on the agenda. Many buildings still have old manual technology, replacing these with pressure independent control valve systems could deliver energy savings up to 35%.”
And it looks like the industry has noticed them. Mechanical engineering consultants often specify FloControl’s products in builds.
In 2020, FloControl enjoyed five per cent growth despite of Covid and this significantly rose to a projected 30 per cent growth for 2021. It’s certainly impressive growth from an idea that started from a lounge table.
“We’re proud of how we’ve grown in Burnley and place huge importance on using systems and technology to support further growth and apprentices too” Anke explained.
The importance of apprentices
FloControl are passionate about working with apprentices, who can enjoy bespoke training and are quickly given specific responsibilities whilst building up technical and general business knowledge.
Cleo and Aaron for example, have progressed from being business admin apprentices to quoting and winning six figure contracts at the age of 20, whilst Francesca, who just completed her AAT level 3 qualification has taken on procurement and orders all components for customer projects. As a member of a small team the apprentices not only learn the entire business process but also directly impact on the performance as a company.
“Having Burnley College on our doorstep is a huge advantage, enabling us to easily find talented young people. The fact the M65 is right next to us also is extremely convenient, for both people coming to and from work, but also the logistics of receiving and shipping out our products,” Anke added.
FloControl has embraced technology and is a great example of an innovative company, which we are fortunate to have many of in Burnley. It has automated the entire quotation to delivery process, enabling all staff to quote customers within minutes where competitors need days.
“Our software can read the technical drawings and create lists of valves required, automatically populate our selection tools and ERP system to cost of the parts”. This enables FloControl to do huge volumes of work with a relatively small team.
We love a local success story, and we look forward to seeing this Burnley Bondholder grow even further, as well as help lead the charge in a greener economy.