More jobs on horizon as Gough & Kelly secures new contracts

The £4.5m turnover firm, based in Bramley, Leeds, currently employs 112 staff and is looking to increase this figure “significantly” this year, said James Stork, the company’s group accountant.

Gough & Kelly has recently won contracts with Leeds City College, York City Council, York and Sheffield Universities and construction company The GB Group, which is based in Wakefield. Mr Stork said these deals are worth more than £500,000 per year to the firm.

Established in 1988 by Stephen Kelly, who is managing director, and Richard Gough, who left the company several years ago, Gough & Kelly specialises in security systems, such as CCTV and intruder alarms, physical security measures, such as fencing and gates, and manned guarding.

The company also has an electrical division and a renewable energy department, as well as its own 24/7 monitoring and control centre which monitors CCTV systems across Yorkshire from its Bramley headquarters. Gough & Kelly serves around 2,000 customers in total, including both domestic and commercial clients.

Mr Kelly said: “Despite the demands of the economy, 2012 has been a great year for Gough & Kelly. We’ve managed to secure increased sales from both existing and new customers and have taken on additional staff to cope with demands.

“We are very optimistic about 2013 and are looking forward to strengthening our relationships with existing customers and securing new business across our region.”

Gough & Kelly’s client base includes Leeds United, Ringways Motor Group, hotel group Jurys Inn, commercial and industrial property specialist Towngate, BOC, which is the largest supplier of industrial gases and related equipment in the UK, Harron Homes, construction and property group Jack Lunn and many schools.

Last year, Gough & Kelly installed a new CCTV System at the historic Newby Hall in Ripon.

Mr Stork said: “Turnover has increased steadily. In the last 12 months it was 10 per cent higher [to £4.5m] than the year before and obviously that leads down to profits which are on the up as well.

“We expect at least a 10 per cent increase, possibly 15 per cent and we’re aiming for a 20 per cent increase in the next 12 months.”

Mr Stork said that headcount was at about 90 three years ago. “With the recession, we dropped off a little bit, to about 75 at the start of 2012. But over the last 12 months, and more so in the last six months, we’ve got the headcount up as we’ve had quite a lot of work on.”

About 18 months ago, Gough & Kelly underwent a rebranding exercise, changing its logo and redeveloping its website.

Mr Stork said these efforts have paid off, adding: “We’ve just tried to push ourselves and make ourselves look more professional and I think that’s worked well. A lot of it is word of mouth and the fact that we’ve got a lot of customers does help.

“We might have some customers that don’t really spend much with us but they only need to talk to the person next door and all of a sudden the word spreads and we get more work out of it.”

Key sectors for the business include councils, education and construction. Gough & Kelly has won deals in these areas despite public sector spending cuts and the impact of the financial crisis on the construction sector.

Mr Stork said: “We’ve got good relationships with those type of people and security is a thing you can’t always cut because you have got to keep secure. I think although it has been hard we’ve done quite well.”

He added: “We try and push the retail area as well as best we can. We got the Greenwoods contract, probably about 18 months ago now. We look after all the intruder alarms across all Greenwoods sites throughout the country.”

The company is predominantly Yorkshire based but covers the whole of the country.

Gough & Kelly is owned by Mr Kelly and Richard Whiteley, another director. Gough & Kelly declined to disclose profit figures.

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