History

The origins of the business go back to the 1920’s when Alec Vallance founded a major electrical retailer and Vallectric was born as one of its service departments.

During the second World War the company found itself installing electrical services to the Vickers tank factory at Barnbow in Leeds and also installing radios in tanks; an early example of changing the business to reflect customer requirements.

Growth in the scale of it’s electrical contracting activities in the post war years led to it being incorporated as a separate limited subsidiary in 1959.

Vallectric achieved independence in 1987 when the retail activities were sold by the Vallance family.

In 1991 the Vallance family decided to allow wider ownership of Vallectric and 25% of the equity was transferred to other Directors and Senior Managers.

In 2006 the Executive Board and Senior Management of Vallectric completed a management buy out from the retiring Vallance brothers, however the family ethos continued in the new organisation, as did the brother's support.

The business went from strength to strength and expanded both its customer base and service offerings and it is testament to the efforts of loyal and committed staff that the business celebrated its 50th anniversary despite two very deep recessions.

In 2015, after 30 years at the helm, the Managing Director and major shareholder, Alan Gardner, decided to retire and was in no doubt that it was in the best interests of the company to continue under the direction and ownership of the existing management team. This was accomplished and now the management team now hold 100% of the equity.  The helm is now shared by three joint Managing Directors which, though not usual, in this instance provides a much stronger and sharper focus to the operational and service elements of the business.

Key factors to the longevity and success of Vallectric in an often difficult industry have been the family culture and the preference for succession from within. In order to preserve these key factors and protect the future of Vallectric, the directors supported by shareholders took the decision to transfer the ownership of the company to its employees by the setting up of an Employee Ownership Trust in March 2020.

The existing directors and management structure remained unchanged in the 'employee owned' Vallectric, but the structure strengthened to include a largely employee elected board of trustees, supported by an employee council to directly represent the beneficiaries of the trust i.e. the employees.

Today, Vallectric has changed significantly from its purely domestic and commercial electrical contracting origins in West Yorkshire and now offers a broad range of mechanical, electrical and complimentary installation services throughout the UK. However, throughout all this change and the journey from family ownership, through management ownership, to employee ownership, the company's core values remain as important now as they did on the day it started over 60 years ago.