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In 2025, Fairburn Heating Solutions proudly celebrates its 20th anniversary — and what a journey it’s been.

Back in 2005, the company was just a vision shared by three determined individuals: Craig Carr, Mark Johnson, and Keith Fairburn. With no employees and only five clients, they rolled up their sleeves and got to work. What started as a tight-knit partnership quickly grew into something much larger — and today, Fairburn is home to a team of 12 and has taken on 10 apprentices in that time.

Our first employee, Sean, joined us in 2007 and paved the way for the dynamic team we have today. In 2023, we moved from our original base in Martley to larger premises in Blackpole, to support our continued growth.

From those early days of servicing a small client base, we’ve expanded to support over 128 clients across 26 industries — a number that continues to climb. Our work has taken us far and wide, with completed projects in eight countries (yes, even as far as Russia in 2019). Among our more ambitious jobs was the replacement of 11 air handling units in a sixth-floor automotive paint shop “penthouse” — a true test of the team’s skill, scale, and stamina.

We’ve also continually raised our standards. Gaining SafeContractor accreditation in 2010, followed by Avetta in 2015 and ISO 9001 in 2019, we’ve committed ourselves to the highest levels of quality and safety. Our services have evolved dramatically over time – recentring our approach to the industrial process heating world to delivering complete turnkey solutions for key clients with shared values. For well over a decade we have been offering integrated mechanical, electrical, civils, and controls solutions. Most recently, in 2024, we completed hydrogen training and are set to deliver our first hydrogen client project in 2025.

Technology has played a big part in our evolution too. We introduced tablets for engineers in 2016/17, replacing mountains of paperwork and bringing efficiency to the field operation and faster, more accurate reporting to clients.  In 2023, we took a major step forward by integrating our field service, CRM, and finance systems into one streamlined, cloud-based platform — tailored exactly to our needs.

As for ownership, our structure has changed over the years. We started as an equal partnership, became a limited company in 2006, and eventually, Craig Carr took the helm as sole owner after Keith Fairburn and Mark Johnson moved on in 2014 and 2017, respectively.

Through two decades of change, innovation, and growth, one thing remains constant: Our core belief that process heating should never cause downtime; this underpins our commitment to quality, our clients, and each other.

Here’s to 20 years — and the exciting road ahead!

We’re delighted to announce that Mark Taylor joined the Fairburn Heating Solutions team as Process Gas technician in September.  Mark is a qualified commercial gas engineer who brings considerable experience to the team.  He has worked extensively in facilities management, unplanned breakdown callouts and remedial work.

The recruitment of Mark increases the breadth and depth of the team which now has 5 Process Gas Technicians and 3 Process Gas trainees in addition to Craig Carr who in addition to being Managing Director is a Gas Safe Registered Commercial Gas Technician.

Commenting on the expanded team, Craig said “I’m really pleased Mark decided to join the Fairburn team.  His skills and experience are a great addition and gives us more capacity to service our growing client portfolio.”

You can see the whole Fairburn team or explore the career opportunities at our website.

With the 2024 summer shutdown season now closed, the team at Fairburn have only just had time to catch their breath following phenomenal growth in project and installation work, setting new company records.  Sales in the 12 months to the end of August are up 70% compared to the average for the previous 4 years as satisfied clients keep requesting more and more installation and maintenance work on their process heating systems.

With this dramatic surge in demand for their services, Fairburn have been recruiting to expand the team of process gas engineers, as well as developing their own trainees to support the senior technicians.

Craig Carr, Manging Director commented “Growth has been crazy this year, driven both by an expanding client base and our existing clients trusting us to do more work for them.  The high skill levels of our engineers and their wealth of experience means they do a first rate job every time and clients want even more!  We’re responding to that by developing our trainees and selectively adding experienced, qualified engineers to the team.  We need to grow our capacity to meet the growing demand, but have to make sure we maintain our high quality standards at the same time to ensure the recent growth is sustained.”

If you would like to join the growing list of satisfied clients of Fairburn Heating Solutions, you can call the team on 01886 358 025, send an email to totalsolutions@fairburnhs.com or use the contact form on this website.

We are saddened to announce that Mark Johnson, a founder and former director of Fairburn Heating Solutions died suddenly on 28^th May.  His funeral will be held on the 28^th June, and the company will be closed on that day as a mark of respect.  Craig Carr, Managing Director commented “The thoughts and best wishes of everyone at Fairburn go to all Mark’s family and friends at this difficult time.  Mark was one of the driving forces that helped establish and grow Fairburn Heating Solutions and those of us who worked with Mark have many good memories of our time together.”

The Fairburn Heating Solutions team has been boosted by three new arrivals in the last 12 months, in addition to on-going development of the existing team members.

Finlay Robinson-McCrae joined Fairburn in April 2023, as a Process Gas Trainee.  Finn works mainly with Sean, supporting our clients in the North West of England.  He has just started his college apprenticeship which involves around 30 weeks of block release studies over the next 2 years.

Harrison Barrowclift is also a Process Gas Trainee, who joined the team in October 2023.  He generally works with Sam, and his hard-working attitude has already earned compliments from clients and other team members.

Amy Cooper is our newest recruit, joining us in December 2023 as Office Administrator working with Niki.

We’re also delighted that Sam Harris qualified as a Process Gas technician in January 2024, and Jay Bovill is now qualified as a Gas Engineer, and is working towards his Commercial Gas Engineer training.

If you would like to be the next new member of the Fairburn team, please see our careers page for the latest vacancies.

Earlier this year, the Fairburn Heating Solutions team completed one of the biggest contracts the company has undertaken, installing the main gas pipework on a new brick Kiln made by Keller at the Ibstock Atlas site near Walsall.  In addition, the job involved the installation of compressed air pipework for the air actuator dampers and the cooling air for the sight glass viewing ports.

The kiln is rated at 20 Megawatts, from a total of 650 gas burners, supplied by an 8-inch gas pipeline.  It is part of a £45M clay brick manufacturing facility which can produce up to 80 million bricks per annum.  Construction of the site began in 2020 and the site has been visited by Andy Street, the West Midlands Mayor and was opened by the Mayor of Walsall.

The new facility will have an industry leading manufacturing cost and sustainability profile.

Reflecting on the project, Craig Carr, Managing Director of Fairburn Heating Solutions said “This was a great project for Fairburn Heating Solutions Ltd; as with most sizable jobs they are never without challenges along the way, however as always, the team have pulled together magnificently to deliver our work to Keller Kilns GmbH & Ibstock Bricks’ satisfaction.

Great work team Fairburn!”

To discuss your process heating installation [link] projects, no matter how big or small, call us today on 01886 358 025, send an email to totalsolutions@fairburnhs.com or use the contact form on our website.

The Fairburn Heating Solutions engineers have been racking up the miles recently, visiting clients in all parts of the British Isles.

Craig, Harrison & Sean travelled to Wastecare in Sandwich Kent, adding a high velocity burner to the end of the medical incinerator to improve performance & reduce downtime caused by product sticking to the incinerator internals This was a project designed by Kempston Controls Thermal Solutions division. The project was handed over by James Brown representing us.

The incinerator now has capacity to run at temperatures over 1200°C.

Craig, Dan, Sam, Jay and Harrison all headed to the Isle of Skye to install 14 gas meters for Mowi which will support their energy efficiency drive and carry out their annual dryer service and also to upgrade flame sensing on dryer 2 to self-checking UVs on three of the burners

Sean, Dan, Fin, Harrison then returned to MOWI to install 5 x Ratiomatic burners supplied by Kempston Controls to dryer 1 to allow the customer to run at much lower temperatures to suit the new product requirements.

Sean was in Ireland at the Eviosys canning plant in Athy, County Kildare to install a new modulating gas valve to an existing canning line that failed.

So wherever you are in the UK or Europe, if you would like to talk about your process gas heating design, installation or maintenance, call us today on 01886 358 025, send an email to totalsolutions@fairburnhs.com or use the contact form on our website.

With effect from 1^st November 2023, the team at Fairburn are relocating to 96B, Blackpole Trading Estate West, Worcester WR3 8TJ.  Our phone number is unchanged as are all other contact details.

Commenting on the move, Managing Director Craig Carr said “Since we opened our office in Martley in 2005, the business has changed considerably and now is a good time for us to move to new premises that meet our current requirements and give us a good base for the future development of Fairburn Heating Solutions.   Our new location, closer to the M5 will improve our response time to the vast majority of our clients and the additional office space is a better working environment for the team and will help them deliver the excellent service that our clients value.”

Cam Fraser finished the season in style with a second place and first place at Brands Hatch last weekend, securing the British GP2 championship by a massive 83 points from his nearest rival.

Cam achieved 7 wins, 12 second places and 2 third places from his 22 races this season, a phenomenally consistent performance across over 7 months of hard racing.

A massive “well done” from all of us at Fairburn Heating Solutions, we’re so proud to sponsor you and your team.

Cam Fraser (pictured above) has made a flying start to 2023, building on his second place finish in the British GP2 Championship in 2022.  Cam picked up a second place in the first race at Silverstone and then won race two.  After the first six rounds he has taken 133 out of a possible 150 points and leads the championship by 8 points.  The next two rounds take place at Knockhill this weekend (16-18 June) and we’re keeping everything crossed for more strong results.

Michael Tustin (above), our other sponsored racer is competing in the EMRA 401- 600 cc class in 2023 and opened the season with a 4^th and 3^rd place, then won both the 3^rd and 4^th races to open up a big lead in the championship table.   He is also leading the Mallory Trophy for bikes up to 600cc with 90 points out of a possible 100 so far.

Craig Carr, Managing Director of Fairburn Heating Solutions said “It’s great to see Cam pushing on again from his strong performance in 2022 and Michael has made a tremendous start too; it’s great to see both our riders at the top of the table and we’re very proud to be associated with them again this season!”