A Fleetwood-based manufacturing company that has been supported by Boost, is aiming to hit £15m annual turnover in the next five years.
Craig McNaught founded EcoDuct in 2019 to develop new and innovative in-house manufacturing techniques for fabricating sustainable pre-insulated non-metallic ductwork solutions.
Ductwork is used in the heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) of buildings and EcoDuct has multiple technical, performance, sustainability and environmental advantages over traditional metal ductwork plus insulation.
McNaught, who is now the operations director, combined with an industry leader with global experience, Paul Groves, to take the business to the next level.
He contacted Boost in 2022 for help in growing his business and was visited by Mike Reece, an adviser from Boost’s Business Advice Service.
He quickly understood the company’s ambitions and referred EcoDuct to a number of targeted support programmes for Lancashire businesses, including Made Smarter, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and Chamber Low Carbon.
“After we initially met with Mike, the support snowballed from there,” McNaught explained.
“Made Smarter are helping with us moving to a paperless factory while AMRC helped with airflow tests and BIM models.
“Boost enabled me to be in contact with business support advisors and helped to access grants which we didn’t know about.”
Boost was founded in 2013 and BusinessCloud will be showcasing some of the thousands of businesses to have benefited from their help in the following decade.
Through Boost, EcoDuct received £50k from Innovate UK Edge – the aptly named Innovative Transformative Technologies Fund – for additional product development, quality assurance, testing and certification and improving the cost to market.
McNaught said: “It has meant that new products have been able to go through the development and testing process quicker. We have now sold over 5,000 ductwork sections in the last 12 months.
EcoDuct now has 15 members of staff, with a stellar list of clients including Nike, Lloyds Bank and NG Bailey, to name a few.
The company is on target for turnover this year of over £1.5m, but McNaught and Groves want to grow this ten-fold to £15m in five years on the back of the EcoDuct products.
McNaught said: “EcoDuct is an innovative and unique UK-made, non-metallic pre-insulated air duct that has multiple technical, sustainability and environmental advantages over traditional metal ductwork and delivers optimal thermal and fire performance and airflow efficiency.
“In an industry in which rigorous new standards and higher consumer demands are emerging, it offers unrivalled energy efficiency, environmental and sustainability credentials with meaningful energy savings and a reduction of the carbon footprint of every building in which it is installed.
“EcoDuct is fully aligned with all the major international building environmental assessment programmes, such as BREEAM and LEED.
“Fabricated from high quality phenolic insulation, which offers many advantages over traditional metal ductwork and insulation, it is lightweight yet extremely robust, while generating meaningful installation cost and time savings.
“In fact, it is the only ductwork in the UK and EU that has the best possible Class D rating for air leakage – a testament to the precision fabrication, robustness, longevity and enhanced performance of EcoDuct.”
And he had this advice for anyone considering using Boost: “Use all the help you can get,” he said. “(They’re) great people with a variety of experience that you can tap into.”
EcoDuct was shortlisted in three categories in the 2024 BIBA Awards and was highly commended in the Manufacturer of the Year category.
Led by Lancashire County Council, supported by Government and 10 local authorities, Boost is Lancashire’s Business Growth Hub, one of 37 Growth Hubs in the UK. Boost’s mission is to help Lancashire businesses thrive. Since 2013, Boost has supported over 14,000 businesses, helping create 3,500 jobs while adding £100m to the local economy.
From September 1, 2023, Boost is funded by Lancashire County Council, Department for Business & Trade (DBT), and UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) allocations from 10 Lancashire local authorities (Boost local authorities partners).
Boost’s local authority partners are Blackburn with Darwen Council, Burnley Council, Chorley Council, Fylde Council, Hyndburn Borough Council, Pendle Borough Council, Preston City Council, South Ribble Borough Council, West Lancashire Borough Council and Wyre Council. Boost offers six core services including:
- Business Support Helpdesk
- Business Advice Service
- Growth Catalyst
- Scale to Thrive
- Flying Start
- Access to Finance
The Business Support Helpdesk offers advice and guidance to anyone thinking of starting a business and all new and existing businesses in Lancashire.
Businesses located in the 10 Boost local authority partner areas are eligible for the Business Advice Service, Flying Start, Growth Catalyst, Scale to Thrive and Access to Finance.