Our Story – Over 50 Years of Warmaway
Warmaway was founded by Brian Redgwick – our Grandad.
Brian began his working life as a coal miner before deciding he needed a trade. In 1965, he applied for a job with Servowarm installing gas central heating – a brand new industry at the time. Given just two weeks to prove himself, he did exactly that.
He worked with Servowarm for four years until, in 1969, the company made all its engineers self-employed. That led to a partnership with Brian Batley and Les Rhodes – Redgwick, Batley & Rhodes Ltd – which ran until around 1971/72.
Around that time, Brian’s son John was working as an engineering draughtsman and not particularly enjoying it. He’d done some work for Redgwick, Batley & Rhodes, and one evening Brian came home and asked: “Do you fancy having a go on our own – just me and you?” It was, John thinks, 1973 or 1974. That was the beginning of B. Redgwick Home Improvements Ltd.
The two continued subcontracting for Servowarm as a favoured installation team, eventually taking on a couple of additional engineers to make a team of four. They became so efficient they could install a complete heating system in a single day – something Servowarm customers began actively recommending them for. It wasn’t long before they were attracting their own customers, and a Servowarm manager suggested they start marketing their own installations directly.
In 1982, John was at home recovering from a knee operation when he arranged a meeting with a local marketing consultant, Kevin Smithson. John laid out his plans and talked about the one-day installation concept. As they chatted, Kevin began doodling – and showed John a sketch of the family cat, Jake, curled up on top of a radiator. That sketch became the company logo, and it remains so to this day.
Kevin also came back with the name: Warmaway – gas central heating installed in a day. It became the company’s strapline across all marketing and newspaper advertising.
At the time, Warmaway was working with Ideal Elan boilers and Stelrad radiators, building a strong relationship with Ideal Stelrad – a relationship that, 44 years on, continues as Warmaway now installs Ideal air source heat pumps.
Around the same period, a new product was emerging: the combi boiler. Merchants weren’t stocking them yet, but Vaillant sent a representative to demonstrate the concept – using Brian’s new house before he’d even moved in. Warmaway became one of the first companies in the area to install combis, importing them six at a time directly from Germany. When British manufacturers eventually launched their own versions, Warmaway were early adopters of the Ideal Sprint – the first British-made combi boiler.
Being first has always been part of who Warmaway are. The first to fit a combi. The first to adopt condensing boilers. Among the first in the region to install ground source and air source heat pumps. The company has consistently tried to stay ahead of the game – and largely succeeded.
As the business grew through the 1990s, so did the team. In 2000, Brian decided to retire, leaving John to run the company. Managing day-to-day operations while visiting clients during the day and evening was becoming difficult, so in 2002 John asked his wife Lynn – who worked in the IT department at Dewsbury Hospital – to join him. She came on part-time initially, running the office while John focused on winning work, and moved to full-time after six months. It worked well from the start.
John and Lynn’s sons, Scott and Adam, both had different ideas about their futures after school. Scott had his sights set on architecture; Adam was planning to follow his mum into IT. But the heating industry had other ideas.
During a college break, Scott did some labouring for Warmaway and quickly decided this was where he wanted to be. He left sixth form, enrolled at building college and completed a three-year gas course in just eighteen months.
Adam’s path was similar. After leaving school and before starting an advanced IT course at Park Lane College in Leeds, he worked at Warmaway over the summer to help out. Like Scott, once he’d had a taste of the industry, he asked if he could stay. He enrolled at Huddersfield Building College instead.
Both Scott and Adam worked their way through every aspect of the business – gaining gas qualifications, heat pump certifications and anything else that would keep Warmaway at the forefront of the industry. Gradually, they took on greater responsibility in the office as the business continued to grow.
In December 2023, John and Lynn retired. Scott and Adam now run the business – today known as Warmaway Mechanical – carrying forward more than fifty years of family expertise, honest work and a genuine passion for getting it right.
