In 1860, when British industry was dominating the globe, the Watkins Group of companies was established, and still remains in the Watkins family today.
Watkins originated the concept of steam and heating boiler hire and was supplying mobile boiler hire units via rail as early as 1930. Watkins Hire is part of the WELCO Group of companies and over the last 10 years has developed into the leading independent temperature rental supplier of choice, whilst remaining the market leader in Europe for steam and heating boiler hire.
Watkins Hire’s traditional clients include those where continuous heating and hot water services are not just helpful, but essential, these include NHS Hospitals, airports, manufacturing sites, sheltered accommodation, nursing homes and so on.
However, the fastest growing client base at the moment comes from the construction industry. “We’re finding more and more demand for our units to heat a new construction while its being finished, by our unique heaters and boilers,” says Nick Campey, National Accounts Director.
The HVAC hire industry is an extremely competitive market, admits Nick, but few companies can manage the really big jobs that Watkins Hire are renowned for undertaking.
“We tend to be employed on the hardest cases where temporary heating and hot water are needed – airports, large hospitals, oil refineries for example,” says Nick. “In fact, for two years we supported the giant Grangemouth oil refinery with seven of our largest steam boilers. This required several of our staff constantly on site 24/7 to operate and maintain these units.
“We can service all sectors with every conceivable HVAC hire requirement from our 5,200 fleet of modern equipment, including heater and boiler outputs ranging from just 3kW, through to multi-megawatt units and systems. Plus we have dedicated site engineers available 24/7 providing delivery of service, in some cases within just a few hours. We aim to get it right first time and we’ve been here for over 150 years, so we must be doing something right.
“We gain great satisfaction in being able to provide an ‘aspirin’ to our clients who have an operational or logistical ‘headache’, and are in need of an emergency fix.”
Watkins Hire has grown its core business year after year this past 10 years and aims to continue this trend even in these challenging economic times. This company seem to be able to offer temporary heating services over and above others in this specialist sector, their growth and reputation certainly supports this.
For more information tel: 0500 526 696 or visit their website: www.watkinshire.co.uk.
