GMS Services was set up by Howard Parry in 1997. Prior to this he worked as a water treatment consultant, involved in all aspects of water hygiene. In the 1990s Howard helped deal with several high profile Legionella outbreaks, working for specialist legionella management companies.

Through GMS, Howard has provided his customers with peace of mind for a quarter of a century, ensuring that their water systems are protected and compliant with current standards and regulations. The company has had a dedicated team of plumbers since 2001. In 2002, GMS launched a fully electronic management system for both Legionella risk assessment and water monitoring programs.

Howard plans to retire next spring on the company’s silver jubilee and he will leave the business in the capable hands of his daughter, Gemma and son-in-law, Carl.

Taking the business forward

Gemma has been working at GMS since she completed her GNVQ in business studies back in 2000 and Carl joined the company in 2004 to run the plumbing division, so both have seen the business flourish over the last couple of decades. They plan to take it in an exciting new direction by offering LCL Awards Legionella and water safety courses.

Tracy Harker met up with Gemma and Carl to ask them about their plans for the future:

Tracy: Training hasn’t been a big part of the business in the past, so what has made you decide to venture into it now?

Carl: As an industry leader in legionella control, we felt we were well placed to offer fully accredited related qualifications. There’s also a massive shortage of suitable training providers in our area so we’re filling a gap in the market.

We see there’s real potential in broadening our scope and are keen to offer training in a unique setting, to more than just our own engineers. Currently, training makes up only between 5% - 10% of the business, but we plan to increase this dramatically so that it becomes at least 40% by the end of 2024.  We want to become the ‘go to’ training centre for all water hygiene and water safety related courses in the north west of England.

Tracy: What made you choose LCL Awards as your awarding body?

Gemma: Because we’ve put our own staff through LCL Awards courses in the past we’re really familiar with you guys.  LCL Awards also offers a suite of training courses that suit our business - it seemed a natural choice. We’re keen to be the best and therefore wanted to offer the best qualifications.

Carl: The water hygiene industry is something we feel very passionate about and therefore to us, its not just ‘another course’. With our expertise we can deliver training to the highest standards. In fact, we’re planning to develop some of our own courses with LCL in the future and we’re really excited about that.

Gemma: We currently offer LCL Awards’ WRAS training and will be launching the unvented hot water training course as soon as the practical section of our training centre is up and running. It’s being built at the moment, and will give us the space and facilities we need to really move things forward.

Carl: Yes, we’ll be looking to roll out more LCL Awards courses in stages. Legionella training will be next and then we’ll move onto plumbing courses. It makes sense for us to make the most of the knowledge and experience we have here.

Tracy: It does indeed. It’s great to see such passion and enthusiasm for training. We wish you all the best – and we wish Howard a long and happy retirement when he gets there next Spring!

If you’re interested in finding out more about LCL Awards water treatment course, please get in touch and we’ll walk you through them.