The quality man

When he started his own business at the age of 26, Rolton was able to assure clients that, despite his tender years, he was fully trained in building services as a profession.

He believes not enough people in the industry can make this claim. "Too many people have come into this industry by default. Half of them are failed car designers or plane designers who all wanted a career in something else, but frankly didn't do well enough at school and ended up in building services."

No one would feel comfortable making this kind of statement unless they were fully committed to maintaining the highest of standards. This commitment was recognised back in June when the Rolton Group became Consultancy of the Year at the Building Services Awards 2003 for what the judging panel identified as a highly professional way of working.

He adds though, that at the Rolton Group, the term 'consultancy' isn't used – it's outmoded and has been devalued by management consultants. "We prefer to say that we are designers, planners and managers," says Rolton. He believes that this is a much better description of the work that's done. "We are doers, and adders of value."

Rolton's first taste of building services came during his school holidays when he worked for his brother-in-law's mechanical contracting firm. After completing his A levels, he enrolled on the building services degree course at Newcastle Polytechnic and then joined Oscar Faber in 1985. "I worked on some of the big London projects of the 80s such as the British Museum and Fenchurch Street station." After two years, Rolton moved onto a smaller firm in Cambridgeshire, and began thinking about starting his own company.

Rolton began doing some of his own m&e consultancy in the evenings and soon found help from his big brother. "David was running his own civil and structural consultancy and he managed to find me work from some of his clients. After six months I was approached to undertake a services design job for RS Components in Corby. This was a £26 million expansion project and it was my first job working for myself."

Rolton soon moved his business from his back bedroom into the firm's current Hyam Ferrers office where brother David was already running his organisation. "We shared the costs of running an office between us as the two businesses grew. Around 1994 we also started a CDM and project management business. By 1999 it was difficult to keep control of them all so we decided to put them all into one hat and run it as one business – The Rolton Group."

The Group opened its fourth office this year and was the first non-USA based engineering firm to gain Ford motor company's Q1 accreditation. "What that has brought us is Quality Operating Systems. QOS is the best practice from the car industry being brought into our sector. You examine various aspects of your business in depth, involving the users and the management, and you look for improvement."

Quality is central to the firm's way of working. But Rolton says that there are other factors in the Group's success. "We don't departmentalise. Our directors and associates aren't allowed to describe themselves by profession."

This means that Rolton Group has no heads of m&e or directors of structural engineering. "We have one point of contact for our clients, our staff are trained in managing clients, and we ensure that everyone has knowledge of other disciplines. I'm an m&e engineer by training, but in client meetings I deal with structural issues too."

Rolton Group was also one of the first to use partnering, "Before it became fashionable," says Rolton.

Peter Rolton is ambitious for both his business and the industry. He sees a future where engineers earn higher fees, for better service to clients. And where clients understand the value that engineers bring to their projects.