An Andover business which began life at the back of a chicken shed is preparing for one of the biggest periods of growth in its 44-year history, with plans to expand its workforce by around 50 per cent and develop the next generation of engineers in the town.
Shenton Group, based at Walworth Business Park, is significantly expanding its Andover operation as the family-owned power specialist responds to rapidly increasing demand and larger projects across the UK.
The company, which supplies, installs, maintains and rents standby and critical power systems, currently employs around 110 people and operates from its Andover headquarters alongside offices elsewhere in the UK.
Speaking to Andover Radio’s Ben Tuffin during a visit to the company’s headquarters, Shenton Group chief executive Curtis Meek said the business is now working towards growing to more than £50 million, with its workforce expected to reach around 150 people.
Crucially for the town, the family has no intention of moving the heart of the operation away from Andover.
Mr Meek said: “We’re not planning to move out of Andover.
“We’ve got a growth plan to get above £50 million as a business. That will look at least around 150 staff, so we’re looking to increase our staff by 50 per cent over the next five years.”
From a chicken shed to a national business
The scale of the company’s plans is a considerable change from its beginnings more than four decades ago.
Shenton Group was founded by Curtis’s father, Richard Meek, who initially began supplying bottled gas to businesses including bed and breakfasts, hotels and burger vans.
The direction of the company changed when a customer asked whether he knew somebody who could provide a generator.
Mr Meek recalled: “He knew he needed to provide for his family, so he actually started delivering gas bottles to bed and breakfasts, hotels, burger vans, etc.
“One day he got asked by someone, ‘Do you know who can provide a generator?’ and he said, ‘Well, I think I could probably do that.’
“He made his first generator and the business went from there.”
Today, the company works in critical power infrastructure, providing systems designed to keep organisations operating when the mains electricity supply fails.
Its work includes providing backup power for environments such as hospitals and data centres, where even a short interruption to electricity can have serious consequences.
The company describes itself as specialising in standby power, uninterruptible power supplies and combined heat and power systems, providing services ranging from design and installation to maintenance, generator rental and emergency support.
The family connection also remains strong. Following Richard Meek’s death in 2023, his sons Curtis, Jody and Darren have continued to lead the company.
Curtis said the brothers had been brought up to concentrate on what was best for the company rather than competing with one another.
“Dad very much set it up in a way where it was very much what’s best for the business and that’s what our focus is,” he said.
“It’s not about outdoing each other or anything like that. It’s about growing the business.”
Andover operation set to double in size
That growth is now resulting in a major physical expansion at Walworth Business Park.
Shenton Group is more than doubling its operational footprint, with its existing premises remaining the company’s headquarters and additional premises being used for production and testing.
The business has taken a seven-year lease on the additional facility.
Mr Meek said the investment had become necessary because the scale of the projects being undertaken by Shenton Group had increased dramatically.
“Our project size has quadrupled in the last three years and that just takes up a lot of space,” he said.
“Historically, we were kind of short of warehouse space, but now the projects we’re doing and the products that we create are so large they don’t fit inside a warehouse. We just need a lot of outdoor space as well.
“It’s a big investment for us.”
Shenton Group officially announced the expansion in July, describing it as part of plans to support 50 per cent growth while increasing its facilities, technical capabilities and investment in future talent.
New jobs planned for Andover
For the local economy, one of the most significant elements of the expansion is the prospect of additional employment.
Mr Meek, who was born and raised in Andover, said the company deliberately looks to locate suitable office-based positions in the town rather than automatically placing them elsewhere.
He said: “I’m born and bred in Andover, so I have a bit of a passion for it as well.
“We want to create an environment where people want to go to the office.
“Whenever we have a role that is an office-based role, we will always try and focus it, to start off with, in Andover.”
Andover’s location also remains commercially important to the company. Mr Meek said around half of Shenton Group’s projects are in London, while a significant proportion of its maintenance clients are also based there, allowing the company to serve the capital while retaining its main operation in Hampshire.
Shenton Group Academy to train engineers of the future
The company’s expansion is not simply about creating more space.
One of the centrepieces of the investment will be the development of a Centre of Technical Excellence and the Shenton Group Academy, designed to help train future engineers.
The company has also launched an Engineering Maintenance Technician Level 3 Apprenticeship Programme, with training predominantly taking place at Shenton House in Andover.
Apprentices will receive practical experience working with generators, UPS and combined heat and power systems alongside formal training and recognised qualifications.
Mr Meek said the shortage of skilled engineers meant businesses such as Shenton Group needed to take greater responsibility for developing their own workforce.
“The industry is short of engineers. We need to create our own,” he said.
“We’re now the size of business where we can’t keep going and poaching engineers from others within the market. We need to breed our own engineers.
“We want to do that, one, to give back to the community, but also to create a Shenton standard of engineer as well.”
The proposed Centre of Technical Excellence will include live demonstration rigs, allowing trainees to work directly with equipment and see systems operating in a practical environment.
Shenton Group says its new apprenticeship programme forms part of a wider strategy to tackle the engineering skills shortage while giving people the opportunity to learn, earn and establish long-term careers in the sector.
For Mr Meek, the investment also has a personal significance.
“If I look around our senior leadership team, a number of them have been here for 20 years, 15 years,” he said.
“A lot of them have been born and bred locally as well, so if we can carry on that journey then that’s fantastic.”
‘The plan is to keep that going in Andover’
Despite becoming a national operation, Shenton Group’s leadership remains adamant that Andover will continue to play a central role in its future.
The company owns its existing headquarters and Mr Meek said further space could eventually be required if growth continues at its current rate.
“In the future, if growth carries on the way it’s going, we will likely need additional space as well, especially some of the markets we’re looking at,” he said.
“But the plan is to keep that going in Andover. I don’t see a need to change that currently.”
Community involvement will also remain part of the company’s approach, with Shenton Group supporting local organisations in a variety of ways, from providing equipment to working with schools and creating employment.
Mr Meek said businesses had a responsibility to recognise the support they had received while growing and to return some of that help to the communities around them.
“As you grow as a business, you realise that you’ve been helped along the way,” he said.
“It’s time to kind of turn that round and help others as well. So it’s a huge part of what we’re about.”
And with a larger Andover operation, a new training academy and dozens of additional jobs potentially coming over the next five years, Mr Meek believes there will be opportunities for local people to become part of the next chapter of the family company’s story.
“As we grow, there will be skills, talents and resources that we don’t currently have that we’d love to get on board,” he said.
“If there are people who would like to be part of an exciting growth journey, feel free to get in touch.”
Listen to the interview with Curtis Meek below: