Three former engineering colleagues have joined forces to bring two existing engineering companies into a partnership that offers complimentary services to synergise their offering to new and existing clients.
Kaizen Consulting Engineer and Verisys, which have bases in Leeds and Warrington, offer complimentary services and will be managed by the three directors, with an overarching mission to bridge the gap between engineering contractors and consultants. All three directors have extensive experience in traditional engineering design consultancy and contracting.
Chris Tate, Leigh Farr, and Phil Riddeal worked together at fellow Leeds-based engineering consultancy firm Silcock Leedham. Leigh was the first employee at the company over 20 years ago, with Chris joining in 2010 and Phil in 2018. Chris moved to Dubai in 2014 and established the company’s Middle East office, and Phil moved to Dubai shortly after to work for some of the region’s largest MEP contractors before both returning to the UK in 2018.
Chris left his role at Silcock Leedham in 2020 to launch Kaizen Consulting Engineers, and Leigh and Phil joined the business as directors this year. Before this, Phil was running the day-to-day operations of Verisys – before he legally acquired the business – while retaining all of the company’s existing employees.
Kaizen provides consulting services in mechanical, electrical, public health and sustainability engineering, focusing on sustainable long-term building and engineering solutions. The team works on a broad portfolio of diverse projects, and some of Kaizen’s key services include mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering design, low-carbon consultancy, dynamic building thermal modelling, daylight analysis and energy profiling and analysis.
Kaizen has grown to employ eight staff members in total and is currently hiring for senior and associate-level engineering positions. To further bolster this period of fast growth, the company also expanded their office space last year within their Leeds Headquarters and established its presence in the group’s Warrington office. Verisys has employed a further four staff members to its existing workforce since the acquisition and has full-time team members based at the Leeds office.
Co-Director at Kaizen and Verisys, Phil Riddeal, explained, “Energy and building performance is something we have always been passionate about. Our clients’ requirements vary from building to building, and with the broad range of skills our businesses carry in-house, coupled with our passion and enthusiasm, we offer a unique service that has never been more in demand with the global focus on energy. We pride ourselves on providing a proactive, personable, and professional service”
Chris Tate, Co-Director at Kaizen and Verisys, added, “Providing optimum design solutions that are both practical and buildable in the real world is something that I have been passionate about since the early days of my career. So, with the synergy that Kaizen and Verisys offer, I feel we can offer our clients a far superior service.
“We can take the hands-on experience of contracting, detailed design and commissioning and validating new and existing systems and incorporate these into a project’s very early design stages to ensure that the most optimum solution is provided for our clients. This constant process of seeing projects from concept to completion and feeding back the learning of this means we are continuously improving our skill set and offer to our customers.”
Verisys provides testing, commissioning, validation/ verification and other associated services – delivered by a specialist team of engineers. The company formed to offer Commissioning Services to clients throughout the UK. Since its formation in January 2010, Verisys has carried out works for commercial landlords and tenants, design and building contractors, developers and owner/occupiers.
Kaizen and Verisys have worked on projects worth a combined 400 million since Kaizen was founded in 2020, and both companies count large, blue-chip companies among their trusted clients.
