Amid Rapid Growth, EDSB Compliance Solutions is Ensuring Clients are on the Right Side of Compliance
As specialists in fire and security compliance, EDSB Compliance Solutions (EDSB) is a national provider of fire and security, mechanical, and passive fire solutions across the UK. Having grown rapidly since its inception in 2008, the business has diversified its portfolio of services, now offering over 40 individual disciplines across three divisions: installation, service, and passive fire.
EDSB’s core services are fire detection, CCTV, and access control, but the business has developed complementary services over the last six years, including fire doors, fire risk strategies, and water hygiene. We sit down with Jonathan Parker, Managing Director, and Mark Solomon, Commercial Director, to hear how the company has nurtured and facilitated such impressive growth.
“We pride ourselves on keeping our clients on the right side of compliance, and ensuring our accredited services are installed and commissioned to the highest standards,” Mark opens. “We operate in more than 40 disciplines within the fire and security industry, providing everything from annual maintenance to water hygiene services.
“Having outgrown our previous site, we moved to a brand-new head office, Compliance House, in December 2023 to enable further growth as we continue to expand our teams. We hosted an open day where several of our customers, suppliers and partners exhibited and celebrated with us. In addition, we were delighted to welcome Simon Banks, who was the Chairman of the British Security Industry Association (BISA) at the time, to officially open the new office.”
Jonathan adds: “We have a great leadership team to drive EDSB forward, and we’ve experienced organic growth year-on-year. Although there are a few reasons for this, I believe we’ve grown primarily due to our integrity; we deliver on our words. This has fostered strong, longstanding relationships with several clients across all disciplines, and this loyal base eventually led us to offer additional services to existing clients.”
Homegrown talent
Passionate about the concept of ‘grow your own’ when it comes to attracting and retaining new talent, Jonathan continues: “Personally, I find it extremely rewarding to watch individuals who I hired at the age of 16 progress into management positions. We strive to ‘grow our own’ talent, and we currently have 14 apprentices working across the business in various departments including engineering, marketing and design. We’re incredibly proud that one of our apprentices, Asim Hussain, is in the final for the Apprentice of the Year Award in the World Skills UK Electronic Fire & Security Competition, and in our eyes, he’s already won!
“It’s important to note that our mentors are just as important as the apprentices,” Mark states. “Our mentors, who are typically seasoned professionals, spend time with our younger apprentices to teach them the ‘EDSB way’ of working. These mentors take pride in what they do, passing this work ethic on to the apprentices as a way of shaping EDSB’s future.”
Alongside apprenticeships, EDSB also provides career opportunities for service leavers. “I believe that any job role is split 80-20; 20 per cent is the technical part of the role, but the other 80 per cent is motivation, values, and a willingness to work hard,” Jonathan suggests. “When it comes to service leavers, we can be confident that they already have that 80 per cent, and our job is to teach them the technical aspects of the role. Instead of placing service leavers on the same course as apprentices, we’ve partnered with Skills for Security, who will work with those with experienced backgrounds, to accelerate their learning wherever possible.
Sustainability strategies
In recent years, EDSB has also doubled down on its sustainability goals. “We began our carbon reduction journey around five years ago, which started with tracking our carbon to identify areas of improvement,” Mark reflects. “We now include information of our initiatives in our tenders and prequalification questionnaires, as our clients are typically looking for such commitments.
“We’re tackling sustainability via three primary groups: ethical utilities providers, the ownership of waste, and electric vehicles (EVs). The first group was addressed by switching to greener utilities to ensure we use renewable energy. Secondly, with the disposal of waste under inspection, we embedded a waste infrastructure into the company, where we can dissect the waste into specific groups and use ethical suppliers to provide transparency on the end location.”
On the transition from diesel to EVs, Jonathan explains: “With 96 per cent of our carbon emitted from diesel vehicles, we recognized the need to switch to EVs. We’ve rolled out around 50 EVs for vehicles outside of engineering, and we’ve been trialling several electric vans over the last few years to ensure we balance the demand for sustainability with the need for sufficient mileage, weight, and reliability. We’ve recently trialled the Volkswagen ID. Buzz, which is the only electric van to do circa 270 miles on a single charge with equipment weight accounted for.
“Based on this successful trial, we’ve committed to rolling out the ID. Buzz to ten per cent of the engineering fleet. We’ve also ordered three Volkswagen ID.3 vehicles, with a plan to add a further 15 of these to the fleet over the next nine months. As we continue this journey, our commitment to sustainability is another reason why we’ve grown so quickly – we’re being targeted by clients looking for companies with sustainability strategies in place.”
Testament to his hard work, Jonathan was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Security and Safety Entrepreneur Awards earlier this year. With the panel commenting on his pioneering apprenticeship schemes and the ability to maintain such values while the business doubled in size, it’s clear that Jonathan is a worthy winner.
“Even today, I’m still shocked that I won,” he shares. “Winning the award was an amazing moment that felt like the icing on the cake of a great couple of years. Although it’s in my name, this is very much a group award that reflects the amazing team I have alongside me. However, we can’t stand still; we’re constantly identifying ways to improve and share our successes.
“I don’t plan on growing EDSB beyond the current 40 or so disciplines, but instead, our future will focus on finetuning and consolidating each division,” Jonathan concludes. “I hope to continue to grow at a steady pace that enables us to sustain the quality and service we’ve become known for, as well as cope with increased demand from both new and existing customers.”