Meet Andel's managing director, who started his career over 20 years on work experience

22 years later, he works as the company’s managing director, where turnover is expected to reach £7m this year, up from £4.5 when Peter began.

Barnsley-based Andel is a multi-disciplined environmental company, which provides products and services for water, oil and gas leak detection.

During Mr Double’s time there, the company has installed leak detection systems in buildings such as the Pentagon, The Houses of Parliament, and Buckingham Palace.

“In the leak detection systems side of the company, we get into some very interesting buildings,” said Mr Double.

“I remember installing in the Houses of Parliament myself, I was in the plant rooms just above the houses of commons.

“The thing is, as a contractor on site, we don't necessarily get to see the best bits, we see the plant rooms and things like that.

“But even so we're still in those buildings and we’re still putting our kit in to protect them against leaks and the possibility of damage.”

Mr Double noted that despite the pressure of installing in such places, the team are rarely made more nervous while installing.

“We know our systems are reliable and know what we’re doing, so it's pretty straight forward when we get on site,” he said.

Earlier this year, Andel won the Made in Sheffield Manufacturing Innovation award for its market-first system called the Hybrid Leak Detection System which can simultaneously monitor for water, oil and gas leaks.

When Mr Double began at Andel, its managing director was Ian Pogson, founder of the company.

Mr Double became the company’s first directly employed installer after doing work experience with the company.

“Ian said to me ‘How would you like to work for us installing the kit?’, because they had only used flood contractors at that point,” said Mr Double.

“So I went and did it and that was it, the rest was history.

“I always, right from the start, really enjoyed working for Andel.

“If anybody asks me what I do and I say I install leak protection systems they always ask what it is - no one has heard of it, so that makes it really interesting.

After building a team of installers who worked under him, Mr Double went into project managing, and then contract managing, before being made the company’s operations director in 2017.

In 2019, he became managing director.

“When I got it it was fantastic because I had worked for the company for so long and was really passionate about the company, so I just felt really privileged.

It wasn't like I was up against loads of people, because they wanted to promote someone from within - but i wasn't really expecting it.

Mr Double noted how he hopes his journey through the company could inspire other potential employees.

“I think it's quite unique,” he said, “and and it's something I telly people who join the company.

“I tell them ‘we do want to promote from within, and if you work hard you an get to the top, which is exactly what I did.’”

The company recently formulated a five year forecast, which predicts that it will make £20m over the next half decade.

“What i've been able to do is put in a good management team - they're all good people who work hard and that is how were driving the company forward now.”

“We’ve got products and services for pretty much every building world wide, so there's no reason why we cant be going forward.”