Housing Tenants Contact Number - 01245204871

News

Environtec celebrates 30 years in business

If you would like to find out more about any of Environtec’s services, please get in touch. With offices and laboratories across the UK, we can help you wherever you are located.

T: 01245 381900
E: enquiries@environtec.com


If you own or manage a property in the Essex area (or perhaps even further afield), chances are you’ve heard of Environtec.

Formed back in 1994 as a local asbestos consultancy, our business has now grown into one of the leading asbestos management companies in the country. We have an exceptional reputation for quality, and, thanks to our network of offices and laboratories, we now offer national coverage.

In recent years, we’ve also expanded our list of services to include water hygiene, health and safety, fire safety and lead paint solutions.

As we approach our 30th birthday, we thought we’d take a look back at just how much we’ve evolved over the last three decades, and share what our ambitions are for the future.

1994: Environtec was registered at Companies House and began trading as an independent environmental consultancy.

1996: We moved to a new premises in Hertford.

1998: We moved to our current head office in Hatfield Peverel.

1999: We were awarded accreditation to ISO/IEC17025:2005 General Requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories by the United Kingdom Accreditation Scheme (UKAS) (March).

2002: We were awarded accreditation to ISO/IEC17020:1998 General Criteria for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection by UKAS. We simultaneously opened a regional office in Brighouse, West Yorkshire and, later in the year, a further office and laboratory in Mansfield in Nottinghamshire.

2007: A management buyout resulted in a new ownership structure, with John Meates as Managing Director, Paul Shaw transitioning to Technical Director, and Matthew Dennis as Operations Director.

2008 – 2017: We opened several new regional offices in Hamilton, Scotland; Newport, South Wales; Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northumberland; Brighouse, West Yorkshire; Mansfield, Nottinghamshire; and Aberdeen, Scotland. We also established new laboratories in each regional office.

2018: Another management buyout changed our setup internally. Matthew Dennis became Managing Director; Paul Shaw became Commercial Director; Daniel McGuire was introduced as Technical Director; and Ricci Price was inaugurated as Finance Director. Dan and Ricci were already within the business.

2020: Disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic closed the Aberdeen office and led us to merge our Brighouse and Mansfield offices to form our new Central office.

The asbestos industry itself is virtually unrecognisable from the mid-1990s. A significant change came in 2002 with The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002, which outlined that the owners or managers of all non-domestic premises – otherwise known as the duty holders – now had a legal duty to manage asbestos within their building(s). They were obliged to assess and identify the risk of asbestos, continue to assess and manage any asbestos materials that were present, and follow processes and procedures as part of an ongoing management plan.

Such was the impact from these regulations that duty holders were given a whole two years to make sure their work in this area was up to speed. But the government felt this legislation wasn’t enough to counter the significant threat posed by disrupted asbestos fibres, so brought in the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006, which combined The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002, The Asbestos (Licensing) Regulations 1983 and The Asbestos (Prohibitions) Regulations 1992, including any of their subsequent amendments.

The industry was transformed yet again with the introduction of The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. These guidelines placed more emphasis on reducing the risk of exposure to asbestos in a variety of ways.

There has been so much progress in our space – but there’s much more to be done, at government level and within the industry itself. Environtec continues to work with various bodies – including ATaC (Asbestos Testing and Consultancy) and AIC (Asbestos Information Certificate) – to drive better standards and protect more lives.

Our Commercial Director Paul Shaw joined us just three years after our inception. As you can imagine, he’s experienced plenty of changes within our business first-hand – and he’s helped us navigate some particularly dark waters.

Paul said:

“When I joined the company as a trainee surveyor and analyst in 1997, I think there were 7 people in the business. Today, our team is 222 strong.

“I remember the challenges of being a small company, with all hands being on deck and everyone playing their part. Two management buyouts certainly shifted things around, and having so many more people and offices brings its own trials and tribulations – but, of course, it also allows us to compete on a different level. It’s also been fascinating to bring a wider variety of services on board.”

“For me, the best part about working for Environtec for so long has been meeting so many interesting characters. I’ll never forget the part these people have played in our journey, and I’m grateful to have crossed paths with such a fun bunch over the years.”

Paul, along with his fellow directors (current and former), has steered the business through some troubling times, not least the hangover from the 2008 global financial crisis – which, in his own words, was “a very worrying period that led us to batten down the hatches” – and, more recently, the Covid-19 lockdowns.

“Furlough was like nothing we’d ever known,” Paul mused. “We were dealing with daily updates from the government that were changing the way we were supposed to be operating at a rapid pace, and, like most firms, we were spinning so many plates trying to keep up with it all. We soon found that the public’s attitude towards work changed, so before long we were also adjusting to the new demand for flexible working policies, as well as facing the prospect of a new recession square in the face.”

Managing Director Matthew Dennis remembers these times well – but he believes Environtec’s approach throughout the pandemic was a careful and considered one.

“We managed to weather the storm because we have a sensible leadership team who weighed up each decision carefully before committing to a new path,” he said. “But we have always had to adjust our approach according to the obstacles we’ve encountered.

“Sometimes we have been bold, sometimes we have been cautious. We may not have always got it right, but we’ve seen and learned a lot in our 30 years!”

As the last few years have proved, we never know what’s around the corner. However, as a business, we will strive to grow systematically and sustainably, working to maintain our standing as a market leader in the asbestos sector while increasing our capacity across our other divisions.

Get in touch

We will only use your information to provide the services requested. For more information on how we use your information, please see our privacy notice.

National Framework
Partnership - Framework Partner

Head Office

Environtec House
Hatfield Peverel
Chelmsford
Essex CM3 2EJ

Environtec Wales

5a Turner Street
Newport NP19 7BA

Environtec Central

Hermitage Way
Mansfield
Nottinghamshire NG18 5ES

Environtec North East

Unit 2 Riverside Business Studios
Amethyst Road
Newcastle Business Park NE4 7YL

Environtec Scotland

Unit 3
Cadzow Park
82 Muir Street
Hamilton ML3 6BJ

Environtec Ltd is a UKAS accredited testing laboratory (No. 0197) and inspection body (No. 2030).

Environtec is only UKAS accredited for Asbestos Inspection and Testing (excluding Soil Testing & Analysis)