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Having set up in the tough times after the 2008 crisis Jerseyman Danny Bulch and his wife Paula Foley knew they would do well when the economy turned. Emily Moore reports
A “KNACKERED” laptop, a tiny bedroom and a pay-as-you-go mobile phone might not sound like the ideal ingredients with which to launch a business.
However, when Jerseyman Danny Bulch and his wife, Paula Foley, decided to set up their commercial heating firm, Cedar Green, in 2010, those were the only resources which the couple – who had recently become parents for the first time – had available.
“The world was still feeling the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, so there was very little money around, and we didn’t have any financial backing,” recalled Danny. “But with a young child and a mortgage to pay, we were hungry for success and we felt that if we could set up a business during a recession and make it work, we would be in a really strong position when the good times came again.
“A lot of people set up businesses in the boom times, when there is plenty of cash flying around, and they don’t know how to deal with the harder times. Because we launched in tough times, we were hellbent on running a lean business and working hard to make it successful.”
Perhaps it is because of that mindset, willingness to take a risk and work ethic that, in the intervening 13 years, Danny and Paula have developed Cedar Green into an enterprise with a multi-million-pound turnover, which employs more than 20 people and covers the “breadth of Britain from Jersey to Peterhead in the highlands of Scotland”, counting the NHS, national hotel chains, universities and care homes among its clients.
Having started his professional life as an engineering apprentice in Jersey, Danny said that it was “inevitable” that he would run his own business one day.
“Coming from a family of petrolheads, and having grown up on and around motorbikes, mechanics and engineering were always passions of mine,” he said. “I was never particularly academic and I was always fascinated in anything mechanical, so it was almost inevitable that my career would be based around nuts and bolts”.
“In addition to that, my parents, Mark and Ruth, ran their own businesses, most notably The Albert Café at the pier, for as long as I can remember, so there was never any doubt in my mind that, one day, I would have my own business. My only regret is that I didn’t start it sooner.”
After graduating with a degree from the University of Brighton, Danny started work in a large multidisciplinary consultancy firm, based in Sussex.
“I was on the other side of the fence then, carrying out design work, contract administration and managing projects,” he said.
As well as giving him an insight into the planning and administrative side of project work, the job introduced him to his now wife, a chartered building surveyor who was working for the same firm.
“We went on to work together at a couple of practices, usually with Paula as my boss. I was then approached by a contractor I was working with about setting up a mechanical division of their company, which I did, and it was after getting that enterprise off the ground that Paula and I decided to set up our own business.”
Named after their childhood homes – Green Island for Danny and Cedar Court in Kensington for Paula – Cedar Green accordingly came to fruition nearly 14 years ago.
“We started with one engineer, Bryan Edwards, who is now our technical services manager, and began by fitting out plantrooms, which are effectively commercial-scale boiler rooms,” Danny explained. “By combining our engineering skills with our professional backgrounds, we were able to provide a high-quality service, which saw demand for our fit-outs steadily increase.”
And, as the business grew, it wasn’t just installations which the team were asked to carry out.
“We started with a very simple business model, moving from one plantroom to the next, with each job booked in for the relevant number of weeks,” he said. “But it wasn’t long before clients started asking us to carry out their annual servicing, maintenance and repair work, which required a different approach.
“At first, we shied away from those contracts, as they required much more flexibility, with the workforce pulled in different directions, often at the drop of a hat, which was a real challenge with a small team. But then we realised how much work we were turning away and so we started growing the team and expanding our services.”
The first maintenance contract was with a national hotel chain.
“We started servicing their hotels in Bournemouth but, gradually, the remit widened and they asked us to travel further up the country,” smiled Danny. “Little by little, we went from working purely on the south coast to covering Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Aberdeen until we were up in Peterhead.”
As the work grew, it soon became clear to Danny and Paula that they needed to employ engineers in different locations.
“Originally, the whole team was based in Sussex and London but, as callouts and repair work became an integral part of the business, we had to have engineers in strategic locations including Wales, Manchester, Lancashire, Dorset and Birmingham,” he explained.
And it will not be long, he adds, before Cedar Green adds a further location to its list. Having recently registered Cedar Green Projects Jersey Ltd, Danny and Paula are planning to enhance the work they already undertake in the Island with the appointment of a locally based engineer.
“We are doing more and more work in Jersey with a range of hotels and care homes, so we have reached the point where it makes sense to have a permanent presence here,” Danny said. “Plus, as a fiercely proud Jerseyman, I am relishing the opportunity not just to spend more time here but also to be able to provide that high standard of mechanical services to local businesses.”
And it is not just plantroom fitouts and maintenance services which Cedar Green offers businesses both locally and across the UK.
One area of the business for which the couple has seen high demand is its boiler hire, an idea which Danny says raised a few eyebrows when he first developed it.
“We were carrying out a project for the NHS 12 years ago when it became clear that it wouldn’t be possible for the hospital to maintain its services if its plantroom was stripped out,” he explained. “We therefore developed the idea of a plantroom in a trailer, equipping the trailer with everything you would find in a standard plantroom, and then connecting to the hospital using flexible hoses.
“Everyone thought I was crazy to consider this as an option but it worked brilliantly and, at the end of the project, we still had the fully equipped trailer, so we added a rental arm to the business, something which has proved invaluable both as part of planned projects such as refurbishments or asbestos strips and also in the case of emergencies when boiler rooms have, for example, suffered catastrophic failures or been flooded and taken out of action.”
They were also used extensively during the Covid pandemic, with the UK government commissioning several temporary boiler rooms from Cedar Green to serve the many pop-up hospitals hastily established across the country.
“We have also sent some to Jersey, most notably for L’Hermitage Care Home, which suffered a catastrophic boiler failure and needed a solution which enabled the residents to stay in the home while repairs to the boiler room were carried out.”
Having started by hiring a boiler from Cedar Green, the care home went on to acquire a packaged plantroom from the company.
“In many ways this is similar to the trailer option but is a longer-term solution, which is prefabricated at our workshop in Sussex and then transported to site,” Danny explained.
And while there might be a stretch of water between the Island and Danny and Paula’s team, this is not, he says, stopping the company from carrying out maintenance and repair services for Jersey businesses.
“We offer over-the-phone technical support, which often enables a property’s maintenance manager to rectify the problem,” he said. “But we are also always happy to jump on a plane and come over when needed. Our office is only 20 minutes away from Gatwick Airport, and we have a fully kitted-out vehicle and store in the Island, so we can often get to a client in Jersey more quickly than to one in part of the UK.”
lFor more information about the company’s services, visit cedargreen.co.uk.
