Utilities and affordable housing contractor United Living Group has agreed two strategic acquisitions to strengthen its place in the energy retrofit sector.
At the skills level, it has bought a majority stake in training specialist GTEC. The training provider is focused on closing industry skills gaps and providing formal qualifications and retrofit training in the net zero space across the UK and further afield.
GTEC’s training courses cover heat pump, solar PV, battery storage, solar thermal, biomass, EV charging and energy efficiency, plus a wide range of bespoke training programmes for larger clients.
In the last four years, GTEC has delivered over £3m of funded training places through various government schemes.
The training provider has expanded its range of training courses from a single site in Hawes, North Yorkshire, to over 19 locations throughout the country.
It will continue to operate as a standalone, business delivering training to the wider market and will also support United Living’s group-wide training requirements.
United Living has also taken a majority stake in Thormer, a subsidiary of GTEC, which has developed a unique integrated software package and app, Heatly.
This digital tool makes heat pump system design, surveying and installation easier.
Neil Armstrong, chairman and chief executive of United Living Group, said: “In line with our commitment to provide high quality, technology-enabled services and to expand our highly skilled workforce, we are pleased to announce the acquisition of a majority stake in GTEC Training and Thormer Solutions.
“This acquisition will help us to address one of the key challenges facing us, our clients and industry as a whole; which is to bridge the skills gap and expand workforce capability and capacity.”
