EnviroVent
A breath of fresh air
With a long-standing mission to rid homes of the damaging effects of poor indoor air, condensation and mould, EnviroVent is today a leading – and rapidly growing – manufacturer and supplier of ventilation systems
Based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire and employing over 200 people, for over 30 years EnviroVent Ltd (EnviroVent) has been helping households across the country and beyond to solve damp, condensation and mould issues through the application of its award-winning ventilation products. Said products, which EnviroVent designs, manufactures, installs, commissions and maintains, create year-round healthy and fresh indoor environments, and with more than one million satisfied customers to date, it is easy to see why the company considers itself an expert when it comes to advising on indoor air quality and condensation within the home.
“What sets EnviroVent apart within our field is the fact that have a true understanding as to why ventilation is so important to people and for their homes,” explains the company’s Managing Director, Andy Makin. “We also understand the impact that condensation, damp and mould can have on indoor air quality, and the knock on effects these conditions can have on not only the inhabitants of a property, but also the property itself – with added consequences in how the fabric of a building will be impacted by not dealing with such issues.
“EnviroVent is one of the only companies of its kind to have a considerable, nationwide network of ventilation specialist engineers who can deliver its services directly to its customers’ homes. Our business made its name – and continues to thrive – within the social and public housing sectors, and we have forged strong, long-standing relationships with a large number of housing associations, local authorities and housing providers in what is typically a tough, demanding industry to succeed in. The reputation for quality and service that we have built here has in turn led the company into the private sector, where we now work alongside several major housing developers and private organizations. Over the past decade, we have also added a B2C business model that allows us to work directly with individual homeowners and private landlords.”
EnviroVent is known predominantly for two key product ranges. The first is its series of Positive Input Ventilation (PIV) products, which is a system that works on positive pressure circulating, diluting and displacing stale air and introducing fresh filtered air in order to eliminate condensation and/or mould issues.
The second is its Filterless fan range, which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to remove condensation and deliver high performance in controlling humidity levels in kitchens, bathrooms and utility rooms, using the lowest levels of energy consumption. Meanwhile, its other product offering includes mechanical ventilation with heat recovery MVHR) and mechanical extract ventilation (MEV) systems.
As of December 2020, EnviroVent operates out of two sites located on Hornbeam Business Park in Harrogate. “One of these sites acts as our distribution center, while our other – main – site is where we manufacture the products that fall into what we call our Lifetime Range, which encompasses our PIV and Filterless fan ranges, as well as our heat recovery systems,” Andy states.
While the aforementioned sites have certainly served the business well over the years, EnviroVent is excited to now be embarking on plans to relocate its operations to a larger single facility that will be found at the new Burley Business Park, also in Harrogate. The new building will initially comprise of almost 17,000-square feet of office space, 13,000-square feet for product assembly, and over 30,000-square feet of storage space. The company will also possess further expansion capability, which would ultimately take the building up to 70,000-square feet.
“Although we have succeeded in making our two existing sites work in harmony together, there are clearly a number of benefits to having our entire operation under one roof in the future, not least of all the improvement in efficiencies that we expect to see across the board. The new site will also help to facilitate our own expansion plans moving forward, which was a major driver behind our desire to relocate,” Andy adds. “Builders will begin work on site around March 2021, and if all goes to plan, we should be in a position to move into the facility during the first quarter of 2022!”
The expansion plans that Andy speaks of come as a result of the company’s continued growth in recent years, which he attributes to several factors. “One of the major reasons for our growth is the fact that, while as a country the UK has all manner of different building regulations in place, ventilation regulations were only really introduced on a mass scale in the 1990s. This means that today we still have somewhere in the region of 28 million homes in the UK – both in the public and private sector – a vast majority of which currently fall outside of the requirements of the building regulations. This has created a huge, built-in market for which we can serve our customers with our products and systems,” he details. “There is also the fact that in the last several years – and indeed this year in light of the Covid-19 pandemic – there has been a much stronger focus on and awareness of the need for better indoor air quality, which is helping to drive public awareness, and as a consequence sales.”
Speaking of the pandemic and the way the business has had to respond to the challenges it has posed in 2020, Andy tells us that EnviroVent made the decision very early on that changes would be necessary in order for it to maintain its manufacturing activities, even during the first few months of lockdowns and other restrictions. “While we did furlough a number of our employees during the first wave of the pandemic, we managed to maintain our manufacturing output, albeit initially at reduced levels,” he says. “The reason for doing so was that we knew that once restrictions started to be lifted and some sense of normality resumed there would we believed, be pent up demand for the supply of products such as ours, and this indeed turned out to be the case. Ultimately, our decisions at the onset of the pandemic meant that we were in a good position to respond to increased levels of interest, especially in the summer months.”
That leads us onto what 2021 and beyond has in store for EnviroVent, and Andy is certain that the next several years will mark a very interesting time for the sector as a whole. “By the latter stages of 2021, the UK’s building regulations will have been further updated and revised, which will hopefully have a positive impact on the ventilation industry,” he points out. “We anticipate that any changes will drive an even greater focus on indoor air quality, and that will help to influence areas of our own business such as product development. In addition to this, we will continue to have an eye on what the Government announces in the way of public spending for the public housing sector, as well as on developments within the new build market, which will no doubt be led by consumer confidence in 2021.
“For our part, we continue to hold a strong share of the market and as the requirement for our products shows no sign of diminishing our optimism for the future remain high. Indeed, moving forward with our decision to expand our footprint via a new manufacturing facility shows that we see EnviroVent as being here for the long-term, and we feel confident in our ability to grow the business over the next decade and beyond!”
EnviroVent Ltd
Products: Ventilation systems for the home
www.envirovent.com