Cornwall-based technology company Kensa Group has seen revenue jump 82% to £25.14m and created jobs despite suffering challenges caused by the Covid pandemic and Brexit.
The ground source heat pumps company’s newly published results for the year to April 30, 2021, reveal the increased sales gave it a profit of £620,000.
It supplies private householders, self-builders, social landlords and housebuilders, and has also launched a new division targeting installations in the commercial building sector. It is also a sponsor of the Exeter Chiefs rugby team.
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Headquartered in Truro, and with a commercial office in Exeter, the Kensa Group was established in 1999 and is part-owned by Legal and General Capital following an investment in April 2020.
The group employs 140 staff nationally having increased headcount by 40 over the past year, supported by investment into a new factory in Cornwall.
The Kensa Group is the long-established market leader with a recent Government study reporting that Kensa manufactured over 40% of all the ground source heat pumps installed in the 海角视频.
Simon Lomax, group chief executive, said: “The results represent a significant development in the group’s activities and are all the more remarkable given the challenges presented by Covid-19 and Brexit.
“Our employees, clients and supply chain partners also displayed remarkable resourcefulness to complete projects ahead of the closure of certain subsidy schemes, notably the Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).”
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He added: “The group has substantial cash reserves and is well-placed to continue its growth to complement the government’s emerging heat pump deployment strategies to achieve 600,000 installations a year by 2028.”
James Standley, managing director of Kensa Heat Pumps, the manufacturing business, said:
“Overall Kensa Heat Pumps has seen strong business performance amidst an unprecedented year, with revenues rising to £7m (£4.3m prior year) with a healthy order bank looking forwards.
“As was the situation for many manufacturers, the 2020-2021 financial year brought significant operational and supply challenges in addition to a spike in demand driven by the end of the Non-Domestic RHI.
“At Kensa we put a focus on our people as we helped existing staff handle rapid growth during a pandemic, as well as recruiting new staff to the team at an ever-increasing pace. Significant investment was made to bring talented individuals to our research and development team and we have some exciting projects in the pipeline.
“We are proud that we have created so many high-quality jobs here in Cornwall as Kensa’s manufacturing facility remains located in one of the poorest regions in Europe.”
He added: “Where possible we utilise a local supply chain, and we hope more of our competitors will choose to locate manufacturing facilities in the 海角视频 to further boost the economy and lower the embodied carbon of their products.
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“Importing heat pumps from around the globe is incompatible with any ambition to minimise our carbon footprint, and we urge the government to provide increasing support to bolster 海角视频 job creation.”
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Dr Matthew Trewhella, managing director of Kensa Contracting, the installation business, said: “Through 2020-2021 Kensa Contracting saw considerable growth in revenue against a demanding backdrop. Building on this momentum, we have made several key appointments in anticipation of the next phase of development.
“Our sales and delivery teams are located throughout the 海角视频 and we continue to attract excellent recruits as the appeal of our solution becomes understood across the sectors. The outlook for 2021-2022 looks healthy. Whilst it is understandable that some very short-term support programmes have been introduced to mitigate the economic impact of Covid-19, it is vital that the Government implements long-term policies which support low carbon heating solutions whilst minimising the system-wide cost of heat decarbonisation.”