Sustainable focus pays off
Ian Nicol first announced his plans to launch his own business at just 12-years-old - 26 years later his company Active employs 94 staff and has just launched a new £3million corporate headquarters in Aberdeen.
Mr Nicol, whose family hails from Kinlochleven near Fort William, established Active as an air conditioning company in 1999 and holds a 75% stake in the company with the additional investment coming from a business angel.
Before launching Active Air Conditioning Ltd, Mr Nicol worked as an apprentice air-conditioning and refrigeration engineer in Aberdeen and Glasgow. Spotting a gap in the market for a company which would invest heavily in building relationships with the best manufacturers in order to deliver specialist technology to local companies, Active was born.
In 2004, the firm expanded its services with the acquisition of a local ventilation company. This new venture, funded solely from the company's existing cash reserves, proved hugely successful and the turnover of the ventilation division increased from £250,000 at the time of the acquisition, to £2million in 2007.
As energy costs were starting to rise and global warming was becoming a hot topic, Mr Nicol seized his opportunity and in 2005 the company began to change its focus towards sustainable energy solutions. By 2007 Active Air Conditioning completed its re-brand to become known as Active.
As well as delivering energy efficient air conditioning and ventilation systems, Active now offers sustainable energy solutions; including ground and air source heat pumps, solar panels, wind turbines and rainwater harvesters. Customers range from oil companies to schools and hospitals and even luxury hotels. Largely off the back of leads generated at the All-Energy 08 renewable energy show staged in Aberdeen earlier this month, the social housing sector appears to be a promising emerging market.
Ian said: "Changing the direction of the business and re-branding was a big risk for me to take, but I'm confident that it was the right thing to do. As fuel prices continue to rise and regulations on energy consumption become tighter I think that our services will be very much in demand."
Active generated a turnover of £5.7million in 2007 and currently employs 94 staff across offices in Aberdeen and Inverness. Mr Nicol says that his firm's success is very much down to his team, some of whom have been with him since he started the business nine years ago.
Details of the company's new HQ, which has been named the Active Renewable Energy Centre, were launched at All-Energy 08. The building will showcase the very latest building techniques and technology, demonstrating how green energy can be used to save money as well as the planet.
Ian's passion for promoting energy efficient principles is clear as he explains that his building has been designed to make the most of natural ventilation and light so requires less energy than conventional buildings for heating and cooling. Where additional electricity is needed it will be supplied by a combination of renewable technologies.
He said: "The intention is that the building will generate all of its own energy and will be completely self-sufficient. Instead of taking energy from the National Grid we should be able to sell back additional energy which has been generated on site from renewable sources.
"We have invested heavily in a system which will monitor all of the energy used and generated by the building. The data which we collect will be available for research purposes and should help the construction industry clearly explain the long-term financial benefits which come from investing in sustainable technology."
Both legislation and public opinion are driving the construction industry towards adopting sustainable energy solutions; however a lack of data to prove that renewable technologies deliver a return on investment seems to be holding many businesses back.
Mr Nicol says though the initial construction of his HQ will be more expensive than a typical industrial building, it will be much cheaper to run so will cost much less in the long-term. He is also convinced that the industry will have to adapt the way it allocates rental values to commercial properties before it will ever make economic sense for developers to invest in eco-builds.
"Sat side-by-side, a conventional commercial building and a sustainable building should have a drastically different value in terms of rental fees. Just how this difference is calculated has yet to be established but I'm hoping that our building will help the industry set some clear guidelines," he explained.
The underlying theme to Mr Nicol's success is his perseverance and self-belief that his business will deliver the best possible solutions to its customers. Constantly on the lookout for new ideas, he is preparing to embark on a research trip to Japan to meet suppliers of innovative new energy technologies which he can bring back to the north-east.
Mr Nicol explains that when he was 10-years-old, he spent a year-and-a-half looking for a four-leaf clover. He didn't give up and eventually found one. "If you persevere long enough, you will eventually succeed," he said.
Laughing, he recounts a story his mother often tells about how he had announced that he was going to start his own business called Nicol Enterprises when he was just 12. "I'm glad I thought of a better company name since then but I guess I always knew I wanted to be my own boss, even at 12."
"Having the support of my family has been really important to me throughout my career. It can be very difficult to balance the needs of a young family when things are really taking off with the business - this is one of the reasons we recently moved to Elgin as a half way point between the two offices. It's hard to be away from my partner Fiona and our two girls Lucy and Poppy when they are so young, but now is the time when I need to put the hours in with the business if we are to continue on this upward slope."
Having begun his career with a Youth Training Scheme apprenticeship in refrigeration and air-conditioning at the age of 16, Ian's perseverance has taken him a long way. He says that YTS kids were never expected to go far and his experiences are one of the reasons why Active participates in the Get Ready For Work (GRFW) training programme, delivered by Aberdeen Foyer and funded by Scottish Enterprise, which helps to engage young people in the construction industry.
He said: "We are planning to visit local schools to talk to the children about the how they themselves can make changes in their schools and homes. And once the building is completed we will be able to organise school trips to let them see the technology in action - it is always important for businesses to give something back to the community but when it comes to the environment it's our kids that are going to have to deal with the biggest challenges."
So what does the future hold for Active?
Mr Nicol said: "We will be focusing on building the profile of the company in Inverness and securing land to develop a second Active Renewable Energy Centre in the area. I am also planning to open an office in Perth, creating a triangle of local energy centers which will be able to service Grampian, the Highlands and Islands and Tayside."
"Ultimately, I hope that Active will be leading the way in providing specialist low energy building developments - we will be able to deliver a full service to our clients from sourcing the land and managing the construction to handing over the building and keeping it healthy and working efficiently for many years to come."
