GSH Group Inc.

Over the past 118 years, GSH Group Inc. (GSH) has evolved from a small engineering business into a global force with over 2,200 employees across three continents. Based in Pinebrook N.J., the construction management firm focuses on delivering full HVAC mechanical and energy management services to some of the largest corporations in the world.

 GSH offers the best of both worlds. “Even though we’ve grown immensely, the company continues with the culture of a family-owned business,” shares Mark Thomas, president of GHS. “Our clients benefit from exceptional service delivery, customer satisfaction and management dedication that’s to be expected by a local facilities management expert. In addition, our customers can rely on our global expertise, financial stability and best-in-class innovations one would expect from a large organization.”

From the U.K. to the U.S.

GSH was founded in 1895 by George Scarr-Hall, the grandfather of the current owner, Ian Scarr-Hall. “The company began in Stoke-on-Trent, England, where the pottery industry was booming at the time,” recalls Mark. “George started out by repairing boilers used in the pottery facilities.” The company continued to thrive during the first half of the century, surviving World War I and II and the Great Depression. “In the 1960s, George was the man-in-a-van, performing mobile service throughout England,” adds Mark.

In 1996, Ian Scarr-Hall came to the U.S. with no contacts or equipment, just some brochures and the ambition to start an American branch of GSH. “We’ve grown slowly and steadily over the last decade,” reveals Mark. “But, in the past couple of years the business has really grown substantially. GSH has evolved into one of the most sophisticated, technically-driven, multinational facilities management firms in the industry, but our main focus has always been pleasing our customers with a unique bias on sustainability and our company culture.”

Mark, who’s been with GSH for almost a decade, was chosen to lead the U.S. branch for his ability to bring the company’s values to the states. “I started as a managing director, then moved onto a position as operations director where I had the responsibility of tackling large European contracts,” he shares. “I came to the U.S. in 2011 to help bring our company philosophy and culture to our New Jersey location.”

Today GSH serves clients mainly on the Eastern Seaboard, from Connecticut to Virginia, but has also recently earned contracts in Chicago and Texas. “Between our U.S. office and our European operations, we’ve seen business shift to sizable corporations,” explains Mark. “We’re excited to expand in the U.S. The economy is coming out of recession far quicker than the rest of the world here and we see it as one of our most rapidly growing markets, in addition to Asia.”

Qualified and Experienced Self Delivery

“We’re grounded in a strong engineering heritage and our management team has strength in being both qualified and experienced,” ensures Mark. “Our philosophy is self delivery. Of course there are the exceptions of some specialty services we do not perform, but for the most part we’re doing the hands-on work, making sure it’s up to our standards.”

GSH offers energy saving solutions, on site operations and maintenance, routine HVAC service, controls and installation monitoring, capital installation, full facilities management service, building equipment inspection and subcontractor management. “On any given job we have a full staff of highly qualified engineers,” details Mark. “One of our most recent largest contracts is for the Baltimore-Washington International Airport for the Maryland Aviation Authority (MAA).”

Mark reveals this project will run the course of seven years, where GSH will provide all mechanical HVAC airport wide. “We won this contract based on our technical capability and energy qualifications,” he says. “MAA saw our innovative approach toward energy reduction and wanted us to do the job. We have 53 engineers on this site performing a huge amount of work from solar systems to energy efficient lighting fixtures. I like to think we’re ‘energy biased’, meaning we’ll go above and beyond to find solutions to reduce consumption.”

Not far from the airport, at the John Hopkins Research Center in Baltimore, GSH delivered full mechanical and electrical installations worth over $9 million. “Although there weren’t as many engineers on this site we still had about 25,” shares Mark. “It took a great deal of collaboration to get this large research facility up and running.”

Mark believes the sky is the limit for GSH in the next couple of years. “Our owner has ambitions of triple growth over the next three years,” he reveals. “In 2012 we entered the Asian market with our first office in Chennai, India, following a significant global contract win. During 2013 we plan to grow throughout Europe, Asia and especially within the U.S. We see the time for growth is now.”

GSH’s intent is to continue to offer global service to major clients with the best of both worlds; the service and care found in a small corporation matched by the expertise and capability of a larger company. GSH Group Inc., remains a worldwide leader in efficiency, innovation and complete mechanical service.

For more information about GSH Group Inc., please visit: (www.gshgroup.com)