The latest franchisees to join the Metro Services Group network know exactly what it takes to succeed – the business has been taken over by Lee Davies and Martin O’Connor following a management buyout of the exiting owner.

Lee and Martin, who have worked in the franchise for 15 and 14 years respectively, are the new owners of Metro Rod and Metro Plumb London North West. They’ve worked their way up from the ground floor of the business, having started as assistants before becoming engineers and then part of the senior team.

Lee explains: “Having been here so long, the only way forward for us was to take over the business! I’ve been part of the management team for six years, and Martin for the last 12 months. When we found out the previous owner was looking to sell, we decided it was an opportunity too good to miss.

“It’s fantastic to be the boss. There’s a lot of added responsibility too of course, the buck now stops with us!”

The business partners took over on 1 May and have combined their considerable experience and skill sets with new technical and financial training following the takeover.

“In some ways it felt the same after we took over because we’d done a lot of the daily management under the old owner, which was great,” says Lee. “And we’re delighted to have retained all our staff. We’re lucky to have such a strong team behind us.”

Plans are already in place for the next stage of growth for their new business.

Lee comments: “It’s going really well, we couldn’t have hoped for a better transition and now we’re looking to take the franchise to the next level. In December we picked up a local council contract which is going very well, and we’re hoping to move into a sister council in coming months – which will certainly keep us busy!”