Perthshire building and civil engineering firm JML Contracts has come a long way since it was set up by John and Katie Langley less than 20 years ago.
The thriving Aberuthven venture now has 60 employees and is currently looking at fresh business opportunities outwith Scotland.
Katie told the Courier that JML Contracts has just enjoyed another successful year, with all aspects of the business showing steady growth of around 20%-25%.
She went on: “Our civils side has continued to expand its prefill gabion retaining wall solutions which is proving very popular with local councils, allowing them to respond quickly to flood damage caused by high levels of rainfall recently.
“We have also just taken delivery of a new state of the art CNC machine for our structural insulated panels (SIPs) factory which will allow us to increase throughput of our low-energy house kits by 25%.
“Demand for our house kits has seen us travel as far as the Highlands and into England.
“Our luxury garden rooms operation continues to expand its range from office pods, home gyms and games rooms to self-catering bothies, garden annexes and outdoor hideouts.”
Perthshire’s JML Contracts
Asked about expectations for JML Contracts for 2024, Katie said the year has already got off to a great start in turnover with a busier first quarter than the last few years.
“We hope to build on the local council contracts we achieved in 2023 and also see our new CNC machine pay for itself by knocking out SIPs house kits.
John said the firm has opened a permanent JML SIPs stand at the National Self Build Centre in Swindon this year and is looking to make an larger impact and expand its house-building business into the south of England.
“We are also looking to send our first house kits across to the Falkland Isles which would be our first international contract,” he added.
It was back in 2005 when the business was launched by the couple.
So what made them want to be entrepreneurs?
Katie said: “I think the fact that both our parents had their own businesses gave us the confidence to follow in their footsteps and do the same.
“My father taught us never to be scared to take a risk or make a mistake and used to say that from your mistakes you have your biggest learnings – just don’t make the same mistake twice!
“I think having been lucky enough to do a lot of travelling and to work in lots of different environments/countries, in different roles and with different people gave me enough confidence and self-belief to back ourselves and give it a go.
“We had plenty of prior work experience to know that if things didn’t work out with our own business we could just go back to working for others. We had very little overheads in the early days with our office at home, one work van and the basics in tools and machinery.”
Secret of success
Asked about the secret of their success in the years since then, Katie stated: “Always treat your employees and clients as you would like to be treated yourself.
” Our core family business values are really important to us – we want all our employees to feel a very valued member of the JML team and we try and support them in any way we can through training, career development, frequent company gatherings/events and various wellbeing initiatives.
“Hard work has played a bit part in the success of the business. In the early years, once the kids were in bed, we’d frequently be up until the early hours catching up on admin.
“Our family values of hard work, honesty, kindness and courage are the same as those we instil in the business and I think one of the reasons we have such great customer reviews and an enviable reputation with our industry peers.”
On the subject of their biggest achievements to date, Katie said they had appeared twice on British TV series Grand Designs.
She added: “This was once in 2017 when presenter Kevin McCloud visited our factory in Perthshire to film and the second time in 2021 when we were involved in the Garden Bothy project in Kinross. Both were thankfully very positive experiences and gave our business money-can’t-buy exposure.
“We were also involved in the design and erection of the SIPs house kit for the winner of the RIBA House of the Year in 2018. It was a really innovative and complex design located in the Highlands with difficult access but the project was a huge, award-winning success so it was very exciting to be part of.
“Our largest contract to date has, however, been the newly-located and built Crannog Centre on Loch Tay which recently opened.
“We had the privilege of being involved in this project from the start, working as the main contractor, carrying out all the landscaping and civils works as well as designing and manufacturing the modular cafe and museum in SIPs which were all produced off-site at our factory in Perthshire.”
