History

1963 The Kimpton business started trading as EA Kimpton installing central heating in homes and businesses across Liverpool and Wirral. Just Eric Kimpton gathered a small team around him with the help of two external investors who supported him – Joe Bird and Richard Costain. It was Eric’s responsibility to go out and find new business and provide costings and then over to Charles Robinson and his team team to deliver the installations. The business and the team grew quickly however and soon began to focus more on commercial installs.

1970 With the growth in the business and the more widespread use of air conditioning, an all new Air Conditioning Division was established to install systems in offices and factories across the north west and further afield in the UK.

1973 It soon became apparent that all of these new systems that the business had installed, needed looking after and Queensway Services Ltd. was created as a standalone business to serve the maintenance requirements of Kimpton’s and other air conditioning and heating systems across the north west. This is still a mainstay of the business today.

1974 Kimpton installed industrial scale heat pumps at Walkers Crisps in Leicester. These played a key part in the development of the UK crisp industry. It had always been difficult to store potatoes and prevent them from sprouting or rotting. The advent of heat pumps and the ability to ensure warm dry air surrounded the stored potato, allowed them to buy in bulk, when prices were cheap and store them for longer than ever before. This in turn allowed them to benefit from a stable and consistently priced supply of their main staple ingredient. A similar system was installed at Golden Wonder in the same year.

1978 Work on the new Arrowe Park hospital began and as part of the construction, Kimpton installed all of the Plumbing and Sanitary Ware throughout. Over recent months, the team have revisited site to update, upgrade and replace parts of the system after their near 50 year working life.

1995 The work to completely refurbish LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) was completed with all new LPHW heating to most areas and ventilation for all practice and performance spaces. We still maintain those and all additional systems to this day.

1995 Originally described as the best concert hall in Europe when it opened in 1849, before being destroyed by fire in 1933, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall was restored to its full art deco splendour as a concert hall and cinema in 1995 following a £10.3 million refurbishment. This is another project where we continue to maintain the systems we install.

1999 One of the first purpose built student accommodation projects (PBSA) began with the £850k Timber framed six storey Paddington Gardens Student Accommodation, creating 280 beds for students coming to lLiverpool to further their education.

2001 An MBO commenced to allow Eric to retire and the next generation take the reins and drive the business forward. This saw Richard Kimpton take over as Managing Director, and the name of E.A.Kimpton & Co Limited and Queensway Services Limited be combined under the simplified trading name and service offering of Kimpton Queensway.

2004 Our first huge, 1,200 bed purpose built student accommodation development was delivered with the £3.2m Grand Central Student project.

2005 We completed the £1.3m full commercial fit-out and refurbishment of the first two floors of 100 Old Hall Street, the city’s biggest office building – The Plaza to create a total of 54,000 soft of prime office space.

2008 Kimpton were early to the party when it came to heat pumps and already had 30+ years experience by the time the first Ground Source Heat Pump project was completed with the project at Wellington Employment Park. Since this first one, they have gone on to deliver many, many more.

2009 As part of the refurbishment team, we updated the entire HVAC systems and BMS at The Gladstone Conservatory – a Grade II listed Glass House located in Stanley Park, Liverpool.

2010 As a partner in the three way TKR team, we completed the design and build of our first Data Centre for Unilever, to provide computing power and data storage for the entire business across the world. It was designed to be incredibly safe, reliable and expandable. (Poss show video graphic here)

2012 With renewables already showing signs of it becoming a huge growth area in the future, Kimpton completed their MCS accreditation and installed Solar PV over 65m2 on the head office roof. This has now produced over 100mW of power for the business and saved nearly 6,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide.

2012 We were also first to install a transpired Solar Collector at the Sustainable Building Envelope Centre (SBEC). The cladding is as much as 80% efficient and on cold sunny days, can deliver up to 50% reduction in the overall energy consumption.

2013 After the procurement of F&T Noise Control in 2003, the level of expertise grew and took the business into acoustic enclosures for Supergrid components, but also allowed us to design, build and install our First acoustic packaged plant room. These have now become a business staple, supplying them across the UK.

2014 Kimpton were employed by The National Trust to provide the complete design and installation of the first commercial Marine Source Heat Pump in the UK. The 300kW system, made up of four individual heat pumps, was designed to serve the Plas Newydd Country House Estate with clean, reliable energy at a CoP of 3.0-3.2, well above the target set for the project.

2017 As pressure on the housing market grew, a new business sector emerged of Build to Rent and Kimpton were again, early to the market with the 800 bed Bath Lane BTR project in Leicester. These brought high quality homes to rent to city centres at sensible long term rents.

2020 The Carden Park Spa and Spa Garden opened within the 1,000 acre of grounds at Carden Park Country Estate in Cheshire. The build stretches over 4,500 sq.m and includes two large vitality pools, a beauty lounge and relaxation spaces. In addition, there is an ice fountain, snow shower, experience showers, foot baths and heated loungers. There are 14 treatment rooms, a restaurant and bar, changing facilities and the outdoor spa garden. In this, almost all of our work is hidden.

2021 Work began on the refurbishment of the Capital Building. Initially a £7.5m HVAC replacement project, with the level of service our team were delivering, the project grew in scope. It quickly became a project for the Turnkey team too, who have since completed the full refurbishment and fit out of floors throughout the iconic building, close to Liverpool’s waterfront.

2021 Kimpton ESG group is formed and begins to influence the decarbonisation strategy of the business and the services offered to clients. The world has finally began to understand the need for decarbonisation and demand grows almost overnight. Sadly the supply of qualified engineers does not match the demand, so the Kimpton Apprenticeship programme is completely replanned.

2023 Appointed by the ACC Arena Group for the Hard FM Contract, we were immediately called upon to help ready the building and surrounding areas for the arrival of the global phenomenon that is Eurovision. The event became one of Liverpool’s greatest successes and the Kimpton FM team worked hand in hand with the ACC team to complete the work required.

2023 On Saturday 18th November 2023, almost 60 years to the day after the business was formed, the Kimpton team and their partners celebrated together, in a spectacular black tie dinner, at Carden Park Hotel and Spa in Cheshire. 164 people, including every one of the apprentices came together to look back over some the business successes over the years, toast absent friends and share some of the plans for the future.

2023 Kimpton were announced as winners at the Liverpool Chamber Awards in two awards. We were particularly pleased as the first was for Talent Development Award as a reinforcement to our recruitment and training programme for talent development. The second was a real surprise, when we scooped the overall Chairs Award!

2024 After 23 years at the helm, Richard Kimpton, Ronnie Tierney and Colin Swanick hand over the reins as part of the businesses’ Second MBO. Led by Tim Davis, the senior team is made up of NINE former apprentices. If that isn’t a sign the talent development is working, I don’t know what is!

2025 and beyond
Kimpton will continue to grow and innovate. From our base in the North West UK, we will continue to deliver exceptional service, great value and technical expertise that is un-matched by any of our peers.