Established in 1978, Caltech Lifts is an independent supplier and maintainer of lifting equipment, including passenger lifts, goods lifts, disabled access lifts and stairlifts to the public and private sectors. It also maintains more than 1,500 lifts across the UK.

The firm recently opened its first permanent base outside Dundee – in Willow House in Strathclyde Business Park, Bellshill – in order to grow its customer base further in the Central Belt and into the Borders as well as boost the company’s revenue and profit towards its £6 million strategic goal.

Two lift maintenance engineers and one other member of staff are now based there, with its Glasgow-based sales manager and other staff and managers working from the office as required. The firm’s Fife-based engineers will also do work in the Central Belt from the base, as well as collecting parts there. Caltech plans to add Central Belt stairlift engineers to the team in due course.

New general manager

To help keep the company’s planned growth on track, Caltech has also appointed a new general manager. Craig McLachlan brings 30 years’ experience in the lift industry to the role, from stairlift engineer to regional service manager, before his most recent job as senior operations manager for ADT UK & Ireland for the last six years.

Craig will split his time between the Central Belt office and headquarters in Dundee and is taking charge of day-to-day operations, including improving systems and processes to deliver better service and efficiency.

£250k annual investment

The new staff, offices and other investments add up to an annual commitment approaching £250k to Glasgow, Edinburgh, the Central Belt and the Borders by the family firm founded by Howard Renwick and run since 2013 by his sons Andrew (managing director) and Fraser (sales director), who’ve grown its annual turnover to £4.5m and headcount to 37 despite economic headwinds through excellence in service by recruiting local engineering talent and supporting them with cutting-edge systems and processes.

The return the ambitious brothers hope to see is a £2m revenue increase in the next two years to help them achieve the £6m goal Andrew set a number of years ago.

“This marks a major expansion for Caltech Lifts - strengthening our presence across Scotland and bringing more of our engineers closer to customers in the biggest city in Scotland,” said Andrew Renwick.

“We’ve taken on more work in the Central Belt over the years and with multinational rivals acquiring two independent lift companies in the region we felt it was a great opportunity to get fully set up there so we can reach customers in Edinburgh quicker, too.

“Willow House is close to major trunk roads in all directions, so lift owners in the Central Belt and Borders will benefit from quicker response times, local expertise, and the higher standard of customer service our customers closer to our Dundee HQ already enjoy.

“This is also very much a vote of confidence in Scotland’s Central Belt. We’re proud to invest here and bring jobs and growth to the area and its people.

“We hope to become more involved with the community close to our new base in the same we have in our home city and region – through things such as sponsoring children’s sports teams and supporting local charities - so we see this opening as the start of an ever-closer relationship with lift owners in the Central Belt and Borders as well as the communities they’re part of.”

Andrew Renwick added: “Craig’s appointment is also pivotal to unlocking Caltech’s growth potential, not only in the Central Belt through his decades of experience and connections there, but also through using his operations management experience inside a multinational corporation to help us to keep improving our service and efficiency while growing our customer base and geographic reach.

“I have every confidence he will be a key part in enabling Caltech to achieve its growth goals.”