This month, we’re celebrating our 18th birthday. We’ve come a long way since our company was created in March 2005. Our founder, Mike, started out by servicing and repairing equipment. He was working as a sole trader and sub-contracting to other companies in the industry. His increasing knowledge led him to begin creating training plans for other companies, and he began undertaking onsite training for customers. During these early years, Mike built solid and lasting relationships with customers, suppliers, and manufacturers.
In 2015, Evacu8 took a significant step forward by bringing on Daisy, a 50% business partner with a marketing background. Daisy spent her first few months streamlining office operations and creating systems and policies to support growth. She also joined Mike in the field, providing training and servicing to customers.
Evacu8 continued to expand in the years that followed. In March 2017 we took on our first employee as a service and training engineer, starting the ball rolling for all future recruitment. We continued to grow from strength to strength in 2017, attending our first ever exhibition in June. Instead of starting small, we hit the ground running and attended FIREX, a major exhibition at the ExCel in London. Jumping in at the deep end meant we had a lot to learn – especially when it came to setting up our exhibition stand! After 3 live days fuelled by excitement and coffee, we packed down and made the tiring journey home. Since then, we’ve attended a wide range of exhibitions and it’s now second nature to us.
January 2018 marked another big milestone for us as we moved into our first premises. We spent about a week moving everything from our home office and storage lock up into our new unit. It was a hectic time, which saw us spending late nights in the office building furniture and testing out the local takeaways. For the first few months we had no telephone line, and we were running the business from a Wi-Fi dongle. But we settled into our new office nicely, and by April 2018 we were officially a limited company.
As our list of clients grew, it became clear that we needed someone to look after customer relations. In October 2019 we employed Charlotte, our Account Manager. She ensures that our customers receive quick and efficient information after our service visits and training sessions. This was also the year that we achieved our Safe Contractor accreditation, a significant achievement that demonstrates our commitment to health and safety.
Like many businesses, we faced challenges in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we remained resilient and adapted to the changing circumstances. The pandemic ultimately pushed our company in the right direction, strengthening both our team and our business.
In March 2021 we continued to build on our success, welcoming new team members to the Evacu8 family. Things were starting to get a little crowded, so we renovated our office and warehouse to provide additional working space. In May, we certified all our training with CPD Certification Service. A very special member of our team joined in July 2021 – Rolo, our Sprocker Spaniel and designated Head of Happiness!
As of October 2021, we are officially accredited to ISO 9001 and 45001 standards. We’ve come a long way since our early days, building a strong reputation for excellence and positioning ourselves as a leading provider of evacuation equipment and training.
We work with businesses and organisations across the entirety of the UK, and we’d love to work with you too. Contact us today.