Chris Holdsworth

Expertise

Summary

Experience

• The Utility Forum

  Managing Director

  1998 - Current

  

  Managing Director

• The Utility Forum

  Managing Director

  6 - 20 Employees 2002 - 2025

  

  The Utility Forum are a well established energy management company specialising in providing bespoke solutions to meet our clients needs in the field of utility management, helping you to reduce utility overheads and ultimately become more profitable. We provide assistance with any or all utilities including gas, electricity and water, giving you one point of contact for all of your utility needs. We are more than happy to meet with potential clients to explain how we can help and provide a free initial desk top billing audit to identify savings. 

  Call 01253 851818 and speak to our team /[email protected]

  Alternatively, visit our websites www.theutilityforum.co.uk

  or

  Email for more information to [email protected]

• Initial Plc

  Materials Manager/Sales Director of Manufacturing

  100+ Employees 1977 - 1989

  I joined the Engineering Division of Initial as their Materials Manager, being responsible for the purchasing and storing of all requirements of the business, not just the items required for the products.  I was also responsible for the energy management within the factory at my own instigation as it wasn’t being given any attention.

   The company was responsible for the design, development and manufacturing of all washroom equipment required for sales by the parent group.  These were principally roller towel cabinets at the time.  I took the position with this company because the Managing Director, to whom I was directly responsible, was a highly motivated individual who was quite new to the job and who had been tasked with developing the business forward quite rapidly.  His enthusiasm and vision rubbed off on me and I could see that I could learn a lot about business by working with him.

   One of the things the company had been tasked with was to develop third party sales outside of the group.  I was given the job, as an extra to start with, of doing this.

   This required much work on product development with our Engineering Department and with potential customers.  Within two years we had a whole new range of products including new design roller towel cabinets, warm air hand dryers and paper dispensers.  We had on board many household names that were actually competitors of Initial.  The third party sales had developed to a quarter of the company’s total, with much better margins.

   Whilst developing new products I always took the opportunity of expressing the policy of designing out waste to minimise the use of energy in production.  Along with this I had an ongoing policy in purchasing raw materials in ensuring that they would use as little energy as possible in their process.

   We had success in this in developing low bake powder paints with our suppliers for the coating of the products, which at the time reduced the curing temperature by forty degrees F and reduced the curing cycle time, which provided significant gas savings.

   Around 1985 the company was taken over by BET (British Electric Traction) who at the time were very much into one stop shopping for customers.  The decision was therefore taken to merge all of the manufacturing of Initial into one Division under one Chief Executive who happened to be my boss.  This became a thirty million-pound turnover business responsible for not only the manufacture and sales development of the engineering products but also all the work-wear, dust control and roller towel requirements that the parent company had.  In 1987 I became Sales Director of this Division with my base being in Bradford.  I had no desire to move there as my family was settled in Lancashire, so I commuted.

   After two years of this commuting and constant international travel developing new business, working in an increasingly frustrating environment and on products which I had little interest in, I decided that the time had come to move on which was when I set up my own business, Utility Forum Organisation (Synergy in the early days).

• British Aerospace

  Apprentice - Senior Engineer

  100+ Employees 1963 - 1977

  On Graduating in 1967 I joined the commercial aprt of the operation, working in the development supply department. The function of this department was to work closely with the engineering departments on the specification and purchase requirements of all the major onboard equipment required for the Jaguar Aircraft to enable it to meet its requirements as an aircraft and a weapons delivery system. In the early days I worked on the air conditioning and mechanical systems for the aircraft as thermodynamics and applied mathematics, which had always been my favourite areas of study at university. This work required extensive travel to the manufacturers of the equipment to progress the development and manufacture status of the equipment in line with the aircraft manufacturing agenda.                                            

  This is when I was able to observe first hand how much energy was wasted and to learn what could be done about it.

  The work also involved regular trips abroad for development progress meetings with our French partners, Breguet Aviation.

  As I progressed I moved on to work on the new product, the MRCA (or Tornado as it became, still taking a key role in development supply but also being very much involved in the ongoing purchase of production equipment for the Jaguar.  At the age of twenty-eight I became a team leader and was promoted to Senior Engineer which I was delighted with as it was recognition for me quite early in my career.

  As time moved on I became more involved with day to day management of the Purchasing and Supply function and when I left, aged thirty-three, one of the projects I was bringing to completion was the development, (with an outside software developer), of a fully integrated materials management system for the business.

  I had decided to move on because I wanted experience working in a different business environment.

• Energy Management

  Private Consultant

  1989 - 2002

  Working in the commercial energy arena specifically in procurment and energy efficiency in order to help businesses to become more efficient in their use and purchase of utilities. This time was used to gain necessary qualifications in order to allow for The Utility Forum to be born and at the same time I was developing my own Management knowledge and skills.

• The Utility Forum

  - Current

Education History

• Batchelor of Science - Thin Sandwich

  University of Salford

  1963 - 1967
  Degree and Student Apprenticeship in Aeronautical Engineering

Qualifications

Clubs and Associations

Interests and Hobbies

Email Chris