Hills Electrical Timeline

Note
This summary has been taken from the Hills website in 2008. It is a timeline of continued and sustained success and perhaps one of overarching ambition. To me the company really was far more than a profit source, it was a force for good improving people’s lives and delivering what we always said, financial stability. My father firmly believed that he had founded a dynasty and I bought into that dream. I lived for the firm and put all my efforts into making it a success. It has taken more than a decade for the scars to heal sufficiently to be able to share this information.

There is no intent to malign anyone here or to break anyone’s copywrite – but if anyone feels offended I will be happy to change the copy. The company went through many changes and the ownership with it. The company as founded no longer exists, and I was not the final owner. I make these comments, in a sad reflection of the litigious nature of the world.

David Hill 2021

1967 Hills Electrical Formed
Hills Electrical commenced trading as a partnership and took on its first electrician. Trading from the managing director Ben Hill’s house the first contract was the loan of 2 men to Ratcliffe’s and because the company only had one electrician Mr Hill “borrowed” one from another company.

1968 Hills Electrical becomes Limited
On the first of April 1968 Hills Electrical became Hills Electrical (Midlands) Ltd.
In its first year of trading as a limited company it was destined to turnover £67,000.
The company concentrated its activities on providing electrical services for industrial clients.
Major customers included Ratcliffe’s at Great Bridge and A R Hancox.

1969 Hills Electrical Continues to Gain Ground
Hills Electrical acquired the shares of H F Marshall (Electric) Ltd on the January 31st 1969.
The company moved its headquarters to the premises previously occupied by Marshalls in Harden Road, Leamore in Walsall. The premises in Harden Road had a retail shop and this continued to trade.

1970 Hills Electrical Stabilises Position
With the intake of work exceeding the financial resources of the company Hills Electrical decided to stabilise its position and concentrate on serving its excellent customer base.

1971 Hills Electrical Back into Expansion
With new clients and a new thrust to expand Hills Electrical is back on the expansion trail.
“Never will I pull back from the challenge again” said Managing Director Ben Hill.
In July 1971 with average retail sales averaging £100 per month the shop was closed as being uneconomic.

1972 Hills Electrical Expands
With new staff being hired the turnover of the company leapt from the 1971 low of £48,000 to £103,000 in the year June 30th 1972. Profitability was up too to £2,600. In a year of note Hills won contracts from Walsall Corporation and W Cannings for the first time.

1973 Major Contract For Hills Electrical
Hills Electrical against fierce competition won the contract for the electrical installation at the proposed Walsall Civic Centre. The contract was destined to be worth in excess of £750,000.
The company now employed two Contracts Engineers in addition to Mr Hill. In a move to enable expansion, the company purchased a piece of land from Walsall Corporation in Leamore Lane, Walsall for £9,543.

1974 New Premises For Hills Electrical
With the Civic Centre Contract underway Hills Electrical also built their own new premises and moved in August. The whole project was accomplished without the appointment of a builder at minimum cost and successfully. Turnover was up to £211,000.
The move from Harden Road was accomplished and the old premises let to Lemenko.
New customers included Maycrete, Bliss Sand and Gravel, and BIP at Streetly.

1975 Another Major Contract for Hills
Turnover for the year to June 1975 leapt to £443,000. A major contract was won for the new Staffordshire Building Society Building in Wolverhampton.
Among other new contracts was the new Ambulance Station in Bloxwich Lane. New customers included Machinery Installations and Croft Contracts.

1976 Hills Electrical Gets New Employee
On the 1st of July 1976 the current group chief executive, David Hill joined Hills Electrical. He was 21 and had just graduated from Imperial College London and was about to change the world in under 3 weeks (but the world had other ideas).
On December 24th at 8.00pm a new Olivetti P6060 computer, the most advanced desk-top machine in the UK, was delivered. (Please note some poor person had to deliver this late on Christmas Eve!) Computerisation was about to hit Hills.

1977 Yet Another New Employee For Hills
John Bird, destined to become managing director, joined Hills from another contractor.
Computerisation brought fully accurate job costing for the first time.
New customers included the Richardsons and Gupwells. A major new contract was City of Hereford Abattoir.
John Bird, destined to become managing director, joined Hills from another contractor.

1978 Hills Win More Contracts
With the appointment of a new sales representative, Hills won new customers, including Dunlop, W T Avery, GKN and Technopack. They took on their first housing contract, some flats at Wombourne. A major new contract was the new School at Sneyd for Walsall MBC.

1979 Hills Sets Up Panel Company
Hills buy Couzens and Akers. In a move aimed at broadening the range of activities, a new company was formed called Hills Electrical (Mercian) Ltd to concentrate on making high-tech control panels incorporating microprocessors. It traded very successfully the first year.
With turnover up and new contracts won the Directors of Hills were anxious for further expansion and on May 18th purchased the entire share capital of a Birmingham based company Couzens and Akers. The company was in far deeper trouble than was realised. There was massive resentment on the part of employees at being deprived of redundancy pay.
Within 24 hours Hills had to pump £100,000 into the company to stave off writs and more followed.
The purchase agreement had included payment in three stages to the shareholders. When the true situation was realised the company wrote to all shareholders stating that the third instalment would not be paid. Not one shareholder made any comment! The situation got worse and on December 18th 1979 the decision was announced to close the operation. The overall result was that taking into account tax losses that had been claimed by Hills the adventure did not cost the company anything but it was a near thing.

1980 Hills’ Expansion Continues
With Couzens and Akers closed and the panel side of the company trading well many new contracts were won.
Notable were a new Data Room for W T Avery, Sneyd Comprehensive Phase 3, Aldridge OAP, Croft Street School and the first of many contracts at Birmingham Hippodrome. Harmo and BL were added to list of customers. Turnover for the year to June 1980 topped the £1million mark for the first time at £1,085,000.

1981 Hills’ Expansion Continues
With new contracts at Darlaston Comprehensive and Barr Beacon Comprehensive together with work for industry, i.e. for Cannings and Stordy, expansion continued.
Meanwhile, problems were being encountered in the panel division with the founding manager leaving for personal reasons and difficulties in getting paid. At one point the panel division was owed the equivalent of 9 months turnover.
Turnover to June 1981 was up again to £1.2 million.

1982 Expansion Pauses at Hills
With new contracts at Rushall Mews, and in a first ever move for the PSA at Drakelow Crown Buildings, the new AA Headquarters (which was never paid for fully due to the bankruptcy of Espley Tyas) and work for Staffs County Council, turnover was maintained.
The problems in getting paid and getting work lead to the panel side of the company being closed down.

1983 Hills Back to Expansion
With new customers such as Crabtree, Wolverhampton MBC, Severn Trent, Lewis Brothers and others expansion was set to continue.
Notable contracts included a new titanium furnace for IMI, Birmingham Hippodrome phase 2, City of Birmingham Rag Market and the Firs Health Centre not to mention the TAVR at Carters Green.
Turnover reached £1.33 million.
A new computer system giving multi-access capabilities was purchased. It had twin 20Mb disc drives and 16Mb of RAM.

1984 H C Wall Purchased
Progress continued to be made on all fronts by Hills Electrical with new customers and contracts. Notable were TAVR Cobridge, Wyndley Baths and Aldershawe Hall.
One interesting contract was the Crafty Cockney Pub. The contract was carried out by a company called Wilbuild who it appeared only employed people who were on government training schemes, thus cutting down on wages and completely minimising any expertise. No-one knew this of course until they went bust.
A very old established company in Worcester called H C Wall was purchased by Hills Electrical after negotiations, which lasted less than one minute. In February we moved into the antiquated premises that they occupied to run the organisation. It was clear that the retail shop was not a viable proposition and this was closed to concentrate on contracting activities.

1985 New Contracts – Steady Expansion For Hills
A series of new contracts for Hills such as the new training centre for ACT computers, HP Foods new lines, Hillards in Brownhills (later to become Tesco) and Aston University work continued to lead to steady growth. Turnover topped £1.59 million for the year to June 1985.
Meanwhile at Worcester, having explored the rental market, the decision was made to buy land and develop a new building for the Worcester operation. The land was bought and Architects commissioned.

1986 Hills Go Go and Go
With a whole series of contracts for new retail developments, Hills moved into top gear. Woolworth’s at Leamington Spa, Chelsea Girl developments, Hillards at Mickleover, Do it All at Kettering, and McDonalds at Loughborough were all contracts won.
Meanwhile, new offices for City of Birmingham at Edmund St were won together with Coxmore Wood Leisure Centre. In separate moves at Worcester, Rusts completed the new office block for Hills and promptly went bust.
In tense negotiations, the Managing Director, in Dusseldorf, secured the contract for the new Yamazaki factory in Worcester from Japanese construction giant Takenaka. Wimpey was the main UK contractor.
Turnover was up from £1.59 million in 1985 to £2.94 million on 30 June 1986 and there was more to come.

1987 Hills Still on Go
With a whole series of new retail developments including McDonalds, B&Q, Top Man and Do It All, together with work for the PSA and housing work, Hills was rapidly outgrowing its Walsall premises. In a well-timed move it bought dilapidated premises in Green Lane Walsall and signed contracts for the refurbishment. Meanwhile at Worcester contracts came in and expansion continued.

1988 Hills Electrical Overheats
As orders poured in as never before, Hills had difficulty in meeting the level of demand. All contracts were fulfilled to time and successfully but not without huge efforts on the parts of all concerned. New contracts included projects for Nurdin and Peacock, Takenaka, GEC at London Arena, Sainsbury, and Do it All. Turnover to June 1988 was up to £5.9 million from only £2.94 in 1986.

1989 Hills Stabilise
The results of the high degree of expansion showed through in low profitability for the year to June 1989. Hills could not continue to expand at the rate of previous years and a conscious effort was made to restrain order intake to that which could be efficiently run.
New contracts were won for City of Coventry, Bloxwich Hospital, Do it All and for McDonalds. Marusawa was started as was the Crystal Leisure Centre.
A new reinforced emphasis was placed on safety. The year saw the name of the company changed to Hills Electrical plc to emphasise more effectively the size and stability of the company. There was no change in the ownership of the company which remains a family owned company. A three year registration process was completed with the registration of the HE logo as a registered service mark.

1990 Hills Steady
Hills new stabilisation policy achieved results and the management training programme began to bear fruit, with new Engineers being trained to take up the struggle. New contracts were won for new and existing clients.
In a new move Hills bought the assets of Weaver and Brettle from the receiver and commenced trading from Quarry Bank. The move did not generate any significant business and the location was phased out.

1991 Hills in the Recession
With large ongoing contracts Hills Electrical was able to withstand the first blasts of the recession better than most. New contracts were gained and business continued to expand.
In the outturn to June 1991 turnover improved marginally to £9.06 million. However, with the recession continuing to decimate industry the company was hit not only by a continued deterioration in profit margins achievable but also by a series of bankruptcies.
Despite this, the company was in a far better position to face the future than most and entered 1992 with a determination to win. 1991 saw recognition of the management training undertaken by the company by a National Training Award and the gaining of BS5750, the quality assurance standard.

1992 The Company Mourns Mrs Hill
In January 1992 one of the founding directors, Mrs Phyllis Hill died.
A new computer system based on networked PC’s was installed.
Turnover was raised to just in excess of £11m and profitability improved.
Quite a remarkable result against a recession that decimated the industry.

1993 £6 Million Contract Won
A new Regional Centre was formed in Manchester, the first of many, working towards a nationwide network. Turnover was up again now to £13m. The largest ever contract was won for carrying out improvements to blocks of flats in Birmingham valued at £6m.

1994 Turnover Leaps
A new Regional Centre was formed in Dartford. Turnover leapt to an astonishing £21 million, a 63% growth in a year, and profitability hit all time highs.

1995 Founder Dies
Mr Ben Hill, the company founder, died suddenly in October 1995.
Turnover stabilised with a modest growth to £23m.
New contracts included projects for Nurdin and Peacock, Takenaka, GEC at London Arena, Sainsbury, and Do it All.

1996 Changes in Structure and More Growth
A holding company was formed to give a platform for future growth. Richard Mead was appointed non-Executive Director. A new Regional Centre was formed in Nottingham. Turnover and profitability were up again. Hills Environmental, the building services division of Hills Electrical, was formed.

1997 Facing The Future – 30 Years in Business
A new regional centre was formed in Edinburgh. A major partnership at Gatwick Airport resulted in the formation of extended offices at Gatwick. Hills sponsored CIBSE lectures to commemorate their 30th anniversary. Turnover and profitability rise again and Hills won M&E Contractor of the Year Award.
Continual investment in plant, equipment and the latest technologies, together with the training of our staff kept us at the forefront of our industry.

1998 Yet More Sustained Growth
1998 saw growth really start to move again. A new Regional centre was started in Cardiff giving us 10 centres. Turnover made £37m.

1999 Yet More Sustained Growth
1999 saw more new centres opening in London City, Glasgow and East Anglia. Turnover hit £46m. The company committed to major future growth. The name of the company changed to Hills Electrical and Mechanical to reflect the ever growing breadth of the business.

2000 Hills Embrace M&E
Although mechanical services had been offered since 1996 under the name of Hills Environmental based in Manchester, it was decided that all regional centres should now be able to offer both disciplines. There are now engineers who can offer both services throughout the country. The change of name has greatly helped to convince our clients of this.
Hills celebrated the new millennium, not only with a new name but also with major expansions to the business. Turnover rose to £56M, new regional centres opened in Leeds and Newcastle and work started on ‘The Pyramid’ in Edinburgh. A major refurbishment and facelift was completed at Head Office, which increased office space by 25% and featured landscaped water gardens.
The new logo and corporate design were rolled out to all regional centres, on vans, clothing, and letterheads.
Major projects completed were: Marks & Spencer, Manchester; Chester LMD; Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes; Global Switch, London.

2001
Turnover rose to £66M, thanks to projects including: London School of Economics Library, St Mungo’s Academy, Glasgow, and various schemes in Cardiff Bay. ‘The Pyramid’ in Edinburgh, a stunning and ambitious project to re-house our Edinburgh Regional Centre in style, was completed. Reading Regional Centre re-located to Oxford, to better serve the needs of the thriving M40 and M4 corridors. Nottingham Regional Centre unveiled a major office refurbishment and extension scheme, to house its successful growing team.
Hills maintained its Award Winning status by winning Construction News’ ‘Image of Construction’ Award for its vibrant go-getting image, coupled with sound business practice and quality installations. The ‘Commitment to Service’ Award at the Electrical Industry Awards, further swelled the trophy cabinet.

2002
With turnover topping £93M and profits exceeding all previous records, 2002 must go down as Hills’ most successful trading year ever.
Major completed projects included: Sainsbury’s Business Centre, London; Centrica Offices, Windsor, Century House, London, Scarborough Building Society and a major security installation for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
2002 saw the introduction of One in a Million – a health & safety awareness campaign, aimed at reducing Hills’ level of accidents and further improving the excellent safety track record. Supply chain development over the past three years resulted in the introduction of the ‘Hills Preferred Product Awards’, designed to reward and encourage suppliers who offered innovative, well-designed products.
We won several awards and we even put on a Christmas Carol with professional actors no less who performed their version of a Christmas Carol. Perhaps it was hubris but we even bought our battle bus.

2003
The year was one where maintaining the turnover became the focus of activity and the focus on profitability became secondary.The final regional centre was opened in Liverpool.
Hills were working on the biggest project in the Midlands the Bullring Shopping Centre

2004
The infrastructure of the company came under severe strain and with some loss making contracts the company began to come under pressure. The wisdom of the many years of reinvestment was felt as the company weathered the storm. A new finance director was appointed.
A major contract for us was the fit out of Swiss Re – The so called Gherkin – 30 St Mary Axe in London

2005
A complete rearrangement of the Board of Directors took place with the structure of the company being radically changed to form a regional structure. A new Systems Director, Phil Wainwright was appointed.
A new major contract for Hills was the Civil Justice Centre in Manchester.

2006
The company moved back into profit. A new non-executive director, Robin Williams was appointed. Major new orders were won including a series of Schools in Scotland

Note
This summary has been taken from the Hills website in 2008. By then we could no longer reasonably claim success. The company had succumbed to the many problems that had been brought about by the lack of controls that the management had been seeking to impose. The end when it came was the takeover by the utility company SSE. They promptly dismantled all of the hard work that had gone into building Hills. We had succeeded for 40 years, but the downfall when it came was bitter.

David Hill 2021