Utilities & Gas Training

Background: Infancy to Excellence in four years

Lomax Training Services founder, Jim Lomax, has seen his one man band of four years ago grow into one of the country's leading companies in its field - and an expansion from one to 28 people, and from a single desk, to a headquarters and four training centres.

And the growth of the company has accelerated beyond his wildest dreams and moved into new areas to meet the demand from its many satisfied customers.

Originally a gas industry training company, Lomax has not diversified into other utility training serving the electricity, water and cable industries.

First it was training, assessment and qualifications for domestic gas service engineers - now it is all those things plus industrial and commercial service skills, gas network operations, basic skills and support for modern apprenticeship schemes. Add to that the team building, management training and related activity, and you had a business that has just achieved a million pound plus turnover in the last financial year.

The company was launched after Jim took the opportunity to exploit the new market for skills in the gas industry. A growing demand for skilled people due to market expansion and older service engineers retiring, was seized upon and experts in the field recruited to set up one of the most flexible training programmes available anywhere.

In January 2003, the 1000th trainee completed his course - and in less than 12 months, the 2000th followed. More than 5000 trainees have now undergone courses at one of the Lomax' sites.

Now the team is continuing its evolution by growing the proportion of other utility work - and looking to see how the company could take its expertise abroad by exploiting the demand for skills in Eastern Europe and the Far East.

Throughout the four years Lomax Training Services has demanded and delivered excellence - as North East small Business of the Year it has established itself as a leader in its field. Add to that a series of other awards ranging from the achievement of Investors in People and its Silver Award for Excellence in Training and recognition for its high standards from organisations as diverse as the media and the Northern Offshore Federation and you can see its evident success.