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The Williams Story: From Foundations to the Future

At the young age of 16 founder of Williams SW Ltd, Stephen Williams, started his first apprenticeship. With a passion for general plumbing and heating engineering he built upon his skill set and strived to gain qualifications recognised by the industry, and so completed an NVQ in Plumbing and Heating Level 2. As Stephen turned 19 with experience and knowledge under his belt, it was time to go solo and set up his own company in Bristol. From boiler & bathroom installations, maintenance to all plumbing systems and emergency plumbing, no job was too big or small for this one-man operation.

As a highly recommended plumber in Bristol it wasn’t long into his new business that Stephen hired his first of many apprentices. Starting out as a sole trader as Williams Plumbing and Heating for six years, it was time to push the business even further for heating and plumbing services. In 2016 Stephen wanted to grow the business and take on larger contracts, therefore decided to trade as a limited company and formed what we know today as Williams plumbing & heating sw Ltd. Being Gas Safe registered, Vaillant and Worcester Bosch Accredited Installer Approved Contractor, Williams’ reputation amongst his customers grew and grew.

Fast forward to 2019 and business is thriving. The portfolio of services on offer has expanded and a rebrand of the company has given the business a fresh new look that builds on the foundations of where it all began, to a dynamic future ahead.

Director of Williams SW Ltd, Stephen Williams, shares why now was the right time to rebrand the business and what lies ahead for the team and its customers.

Why did you decide to rebrand the company?

Growing from a single service business provider for domestic customers to a multi service provider, the brand needed to evolve with the new services and expand into new divisions. Starting out with just plumbing and heating tasks, we have now evolved to electrical and developments for the home and commercial sector. The rebrand reflects the new multitude of what we have on offer and demonstrates the high-quality, polished aspect we add to each individual project.

You’ve been in business for nearly a decade, why now for the rebrand?

With the steady growth of the company and internal structure, we are now more focused on the business as a whole and how we plan to operate it for the future with a brand that is recognisable to our customers. With a bigger team and larger contracts, it was time the brand mirrored the growth and size of the organisation.

In recent times, Williams SW Ltd have branched out into new specialisms such as Building services & Development. Business must be booming?

It’s going really well and growing month by month. We now offer domestic and commercial building services, plumbing and electrical & development, and wanted to ensure that all areas of business were covered. I’m proud that we now have over 30 qualified professionals as part of our team who carry out these services. They are trusted as local professional engineers within Bristol and the surrounding areas, and it’s brilliant to see how the business has grown from just me when I was 19 to the size we are now. As a sole trader I worked from my bedroom and now we have a purpose-built office employing some family members as part of the team too. We’re going from strength to strength and have recently acquired two large mechanical & electrical projects and our client list is continually growing.

I’m very passionate about offering the team opportunities and tasks to grow and become fully trained in their chosen trade. That’s why we’re keen to take on two new apprentices every year with a recognised training provider “on site Bristol” and inspire them to become the next generation of trained trades workers. Looking back on my roots of being an apprentice when I was 16 and the experience that I gained from that, it’s so encouraging to see that we now have six apprentices ranging from first year to third year students working as part of the team.

It’s a busy time for Williams, how will the rebrand help?

It’s certainly been a very busy year and the rebrand of the website, design, look and ethos of the business has all been part of that. The rebrand has enabled us to offer more services and has allowed the team to take on more of the full-service projects rather than just the plumbing and heating sector. This allows us to become a full-service provider and offer a wide range of projects. No longer will our customers have to go to a number of different professionals because we can provide all the skills, specialisms and know-how under one roof. The feedback so far from the rebrand has been very positive and our customer reviews praise our quick, reliable and competent team.

What lies ahead for the future?

The future is a five-year plan to create a bigger team and offer more services within the local Bristol and surrounding area. As Williams SW Ltd evolves larger and larger, we’ll be able to create more jobs for talented enthusiastic plumbers, electricians and builders. We are all about growing our talent from the grassroots and in doing so we will be able to offer more training to young people in the local area. Our foundations lie in plumbing and heating, and now that we are expanding our team with people highly skilled in the commercial and domestic sector, we are developing the new divisions up. With that said we aim to be the first port of call as the main development contractor on new build and renovation projects. Gone are the days of dealing with sub-contractors, our customers are happy in the knowledge that Williams SW Ltd can complete each and every project within the team. Not only does this keep the client happy, but it also means that we have ownership of each task and enforce job security.

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