When entrepreneurs Charles and Josephine Pugh rented a property with “uncomfortable and uncontrollable” underfloor heating (UFH), it sparked a move away from the made-to-order furniture world they had been invested in since the late 1970s.
The couple, who had founded British retailer Multiyork in 1978, set up Wunda Group in 2006 at the height of the ‘green homes revolution’ when barn conversions and self-builds were de rigueur.
The Pughs’ home heating issue had centred on underfloor screed — a level layer of concrete where piping has traditionally been embedded into — with pipe centres too far apart. With no controls, there was a slow response time to heat and the floor became too hot. The Pughs thought the existing systems were “slow and antiquated”.
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Monmouthshire-based Wunda now designs and supplies energy-efficient UFH systems and has cut through to the “DIY consumer” at a time of rising energy bills. The company employs 90 staff and says it has booked over £10m in sales this year.
The heating firm is also a family affair. With Charles as CEO and Josephine CFO, their daughter Josephine is managing director, while grandson Sam Jump is currently head of business development.
The business took off in 2008 when Wunda reorientated as installers looked for kits and components after the self-build market collapsed.
In 2010, their former base near Chepstow was in an old chicken farm shed renovated to offices. The Pughs still visited trade shows and had come across one American exhibitor’s aluminum chip board panel with grooves, which was employed as a last fix in the build.
They pioneered a version with high-compressed polystyrene and put a sample down in the chicken shed, with a heat pump which moved outside thermal energy internally. The closer piping also meant it could be run at lower temperatures.
Jump, who was working in the warehouse at the time and previously led a team of outreachers offering membership, recalled: “Everyone was walking around in T-shirts during winter and the response rate was unreal, the heat pump was operating at the optimum flow temperature with a co-efficient performance.”
However, their product was initially met with scepticism from installers unwilling to test new products. “Where most people think of UFH as this uncomfortable system, we now have a rapid response system and it warms up as fast as radiators, if not quicker.”
A booming DIY industry, renovating homes or building extensions instead of moving, has helped boost Wunda’s profits.
