Paisley-based electrical engineering group Power One is on course for a year one turnover of £2.5 million following a raft of contract wins in the telecoms and utilities sectors.

The group has landed a prestigious i beacon project for 14 heritage and tourist destinations, including Kelvingrove Art Gallery and the city’s famous Willow Tearooms, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

The company has also secured a number of LED street lighting projects across Scotland.

Working with one of the UK’s largest cellular asset management companies Power One also has projects in the pipeline to deliver integrated cellular systems across the UK for Vodafone, Telefonica and EE to fully embrace 4G and prepare for 5G.

Despite his former company being forced into administration in September 2017, managing director of the newly-formed Power One Group, Mark Ward, said the future is very promising.

Ward said: “We have gone back to our roots, focussing on smaller contracts and sticking to what we know best. From a standing start, we have secured a number of high profile projects with a healthy pipeline of contracts in the offing, including the delivery of high powered cellular systems for stadia and shopping centres.

“With 5G just around the corner we are preparing for the massive opportunity this presents and anticipate building turnover to £4m next year, then up to £6m the following year.

“Our next step is to secure investment, ideally from an active equity partner with experience of our sector, to help us push forward with our next stage of growth.”

Learning lessons from the past, Ward vows that Power One will never again take on a construction contract.

He adds: “SMEs are simply not protected by NEC 3 contracts. It’s too much of a risk and often, not until nearing the completion of contracts that things start to go wrong and smaller companies become exposed. It’s a risk we’re simply not willing to take.”

Ward has been invited to speak on the subject at a Parliamentary Review in Westminster by Lord Blunkett and Sir Eric Pickles.

Power One now has 23 employees and is headquartered in Paisley. The board comprises operations director, Paul McDaid, chief technical operations director, Garry Cree, project director, Victoria Macdonald and managing director Mark Ward.

The group is supported by Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Investment Bank, advised by Campbell Dallas and banks with Bank of Scotland.