New staff sought as ISD Solutions predicts major growth in 2022

Published by

Peter Davison

P&M Group CEO Andy Moon, centre, with Colin Leighton, the company’s longest serving employee, alongside new starters Matthew Davies, Ellie Card and Natallia Brazier

Gloucester-based Coldstore and composite panel specialists ISD Solutions are continuing a recruitment drive, started in 2020, in anticipation of major growth over the coming 18 months.

The business, a division of The P&M Group, saw turnover steadily rise from under £34m in 2018 to £46m for the current financial year, which closes at the end of January.

The company is forecasting more growth in 2022 and beyond, with booked orders and pipeline sales surpassing any previous annual performance.

As a result, the group will see its current workforce grow to over 220 from its current numbers of 180, with vacancies primarily for site installers, project and site managers.

Many of the site staff will be supplied by coldstore installation specialists Tysoe Holdings, recently acquired by The P&M Group. The Company’s growth is also expected to result in additional opportunities for its many subcontractor staff.

High demand from the food sector during the pandemic has seen ISD securing and completing – and maintaining, in future – several large construction contracts for distribution centres following the nationwide rise in online shopping.

As the company has grown, a painstaking selection of candidates sharing company values and culture has seen staff added – 25 in the past 12 months – throughout the engineering, management, projects, design and health and safety departments of the business.

Andy Moon, Chairman of The P&M Group Ltd, of which ISD Solutions is the major trading division, said that the next phase of company growth needed careful management. “We are working with recruitment and HR support to ensure that we maintain the quality of our specialist services, as well as maximising retention and staff motivation,” he said.

“Recruitment has been a key area of focus for the business over the past three years, as group sales have increased by some 40 per cent. The company is in a very active part of the economy – food production, distribution, retail and construction – boosted by both Brexit and the more recent growth in online shopping.

“Our forecasts and pipeline expect our relationships with existing and new clients to generate significantly more business for us over the next calendar year.

“It’s an increase across all divisions of our group, albeit with an emphasis on coldstores, as our reputation for excellence and diligence continues to grow and become more relevant in the current business environment.

“As a result, recruitment has needed to be applied in all areas of our business, from finance to sales and project management.”

The new recruitment drive follows a restructuring of company in October last year, which saw a broadening of the management team, embracing working from home as part of a blended approach to work and a reduction of office space.

Andy said that a key ingredient of the culture was trust between management and staff, following years of careful recruitment and a clear dialogue to ensure that expected company standards were effectively communicated.

“Despite the turmoil caused by the pandemic the labour market for good candidates is still very competitive,” Andy said. “So part of our advantage as a recruiter is to communicate the importance of our values and culture as well as meeting training and development needs.

“Our preferred recruitment partner focuses not only on a candidate’s CV but of equal, if not more importance, is the person, their ambitions and values. It’s vital that we check they’re the right fit for the company and are able to contribute fully as the Company grows. Combined with the technical expertise and specialist capabilities which we demand of our staff, that’s been a major part of our recent success.

“Of course, with a changing economy and society it is important that we adapt to new requirements. Firms placing orders with us need contractors which can meet challenges such as scale, financial strength and supply chain links to deliver projects.

“And a recent review of our business identified areas in which we can become leaner and more quickly able to respond to current and, hopefully, future challenges.

“However, despite all the changes which are going on it is critical we remain focused on good relationships with customers and suppliers, financial strength, and the attraction and reward of skilled and dedicated staff.”

ISD Solutions is the major trading division of The P&M Group Ltd, which was founded in 1947.

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.