Over 50 years of BHE

Skilled plumber Randal (Ronnie) Wilkinson had run his own firm, ‘Paragon Plumbing Services Ltd’, since the early 1960s.

With an eye for business, Ronnie spotted an opportunity to deliver quality central heating and heating services to local homeowners.

‘Bolton Heating’ was born, soon shortened to ‘BHE Services’. Bert Hamilton was appointed by Ronnie to manage the central heating and maintenance section, with Stan Rigby at the helm of the electrical section.

Having started out with a team of 4, BHE capitalised on the local building boom to install and maintain gas appliances in new homes across the area.

Few local companies were able to match the breadth and depth of service that BHE offered, and Ronnie maximised this to establish BHE as Bolton’s ‘go-to’ gas and heating engineers. In 1973, Ronnie’s son-in-law Mike Robinson joined BHE to support Ronnie in the running of the business

BHE went from strength to strength, installing hundreds of gas-fired warm air heating systems. During this period, Ronnie expanded BHE into new areas throughout the country.

BHE was appointed by Wigan Council to service and maintain gas appliances across all Council tenanted properties (formerly known as Wigan & Leigh Housing).

We still deliver this work today, enjoying a relationship with Wigan of well over 40 years. With a housing stock of over 22,000 properties, we care for in excess of 55,000 appliances every year and we estimate we’ve carried out 1.55 million boiler and gas fire services!

With the gas heating revolution well and truly underway, and becoming more affordable for many homeowners, we created a gas showroom at what is now our head office in Darcy Lever, Bolton, allowing customers to view and choose from a wide range of heating installations, including gas fires and boilers. Although no longer used as a showroom, the space is still well-used as our logistics centre for our contracts work.

Mike Robinson was appointed as Managing Director in 1995, taking over from Ronnie who sadly died in 1993. Keeping the business family-focused, Ronnie’s son Paul also joined the business in 1995, swiftly followed by Mike’s daughter Rachael in 1998.

Head office evolves from a gas showroom into a fully operational base from which we can manage our growing contract work. The BHE family business continues to grow too, as Mike’s son Andrew Robinson – now a Senior Supervisor – joins the business in 2008.

We begin to provide gas, heating and plumbing support for many more organisations including Bolton Council, Salford Council, Accrington Council (now Hyndburn BC), Haslingden and Rawtenstall Council, and housing associations including The Guinness Trust and Contour & Rivers Housing.

Our gas engineer team grows to over 50 in the North West, installing, servicing, maintaining and caring for gas appliances not only throughout Bolton and Wigan, but expanding into new areas in Lancaster, Morecambe and the South Lakes.

Taking on new contracts, we built excellent relationships with organisations including Lancaster University Students’ Union and Heart of the Lakes, whilst building a thriving business for hundreds of domestic homeowners across the North West. Not only that, we were proud to win our first ‘Family Business of the Year’ award in 2014.

As the business grew, we also introduced a new brand ambassador – Bhertie the Bee!

Our 50th year in business! Through the challenges of 2020, BHE continued to deliver gas safe services to thousands of properties across the North West, protecting families as they stayed at home more than ever before.

As we celebrate our half-century, Ronnie’s spirit, drive and enthusiasm continue to resonate throughout BHE. Our new generation always looks to identify new and exciting opportunities, building our business on a robust foundation of unrivalled service, reliability and quality.