Speaking to FM Director, Kevin Walton, Managing Director of GIND UK and sister company Integral Cradles, reflected on a decade of growth, award-winning service delivery and technical innovation, and explains why the next ten years promise to be even more ambitious

When GIND UK was formally incorporated a decade ago, few would have predicted the scale and pace of what followed.

Founded in August 2016 as a maintenance partner to façade access installation specialist Integral Cradles, the company initially existed to support beneficial use and maintenance requirements arising from Integral Cradles’ construction contracts. It was a complementary function rather than a business in its own right. That began to change significantly in 2020, when Kevin Walton stepped in to lead the company and shape it into something altogether more ambitious.

“We made a conscious decision to build GIND UK into a genuine standalone business,” Kevin said.

“The vision was clear: to become the UK’s leading warrantied maintenance provider for GIND SAU products, with a tailored offering specifically designed for the FM sector. FM clients have very different needs from construction clients. They’re managing the whole life of a building, not just the build phase. We wanted to reflect that.”

The commercial results of that strategic vision have been striking. In 2020, from a standing start, GIND UK achieved £1 million in turnover for the first time.

Since then, the business has grown entirely organically, with 80% growth recorded over the past three years alone, a 100% recurring income base, and what Kevin described as “healthy profit margins” throughout.

A whole-lifecycle model

Central to GIND UK’s offer is “a whole-lifecycle solution”, a philosophy that underpins both the company’s day-to-day service delivery and its longer-term commercial strategy. Where Integral Cradles designs, manufactures and installs bespoke façade access equipment for some of London’s most prestigious buildings, GIND UK steps in as the warrantied maintainer, ensuring those systems perform safely and effectively for the full life of the asset.

“The alignment with our Madrid based, key supply company, GIND SAU, has been key to that model,” Kevin explained. “Our shared strategy has always been threefold: to supply the highest quality products, to deliver the highest quality technical and customer service support, and to back that up with manufacturer-supported warrantied maintenance. That’s what we offer the UK market, and it’s a genuinely unique proposition.”

Landmark buildings, lasting partnerships

The buildings on GIND UK’s maintenance roster read like a roll call of London’s most recognisable structures. Among the most notable are One Blackfriars Tower, 52 Lime Street (famously known as The Scalpel) and the HSBC portfolio at Canary Wharf, a relationship that has endured since Integral Cradles first installed replacement BMUs at the site in 2015. GIND UK subsequently extended its maintenance contract for the HSBC portfolio through JLL, securing the relationship well into the future.

The firm is also an approved supplier to the sector’s major property and facilities management players, including CBRE and JLL, a recognition of the confidence those organisations place in GIND UK’s technical capability and service standards.

Other long-standing partnerships include maintenance of the Goldman Sachs London headquarters and the award-winning 52 Lime Street scheme delivered in collaboration with Skanska and CBRE.

“Our clients in FM are managing assets over decades,” Kevin said. “They need a maintenance partner they can trust completely, one that understands the technical complexity of the equipment, responds proactively rather than reactively, and gives them the reporting and assurance they need to manage their own obligations to building owners and occupiers. That’s what we’ve worked hard to deliver, and our client retention speaks for itself.”

Industry recognition

External validation of GIND UK’s approach came in September 2023, when the company won the Outstanding Contribution to Specialist Construction award at the Construction News Specialist Awards.

It was the top prize of the evening at a ceremony attended by more than 500 of the UK’s leading specialist contractors at the Hilton London Metropole, and a moment that Kevin said carried genuine weight.

The independent judging panel was particularly complimentary about the company’s broader commitments, noting that its approach to social value, training and net-zero carbon was outstanding, and highlighting its proactive rather than reactive approach to maintenance as a benchmark-setting characteristic within the sector.

“Winning that award in front of our peers meant a great deal to the whole team,” Kevin said.

• 70 buildings maintained by GIND UK in 2026
• 300+ systems installed by sister company Integral Cradles
• 100% of portfolio under warrantied maintenance by GIND UK

“It wasn’t just recognition for what we’d built commercially. It was recognition that the way we do things, the values we bring to every contract, are genuinely making a difference in how our industry operates.”

Carbon neutral and future-ready

Sustainability has not been an afterthought for GIND UK. The company achieved carbon neutral status in 2026, ahead of many in the wider construction and FM sector, operating a 100% electric vehicle fleet and submitting to independent carbon auditing by Carbon Footprint Ltd. The achievement is a tangible expression of the Sustainable Horizons: A Roadmap to Net Zero strategy published jointly with Integral Cradles, which sets out a clear pathway to net-zero carbon by 2030.

Technology is playing an increasing role in how GIND UK delivers its services. The company is currently integrating artificial intelligence tools to streamline its office operations and, significantly, to enhance site operations and client reporting. It is a development that Kevin saw as central to meeting the evolving expectations of FM clients who demand greater transparency, speed and data accuracy in how their assets are managed.

“AI has real potential to transform the quality of reporting we can offer our clients,” Kevin said. “The expectation in FM is increasingly for real-time, data-rich insight into how systems are performing. We’re committed to meeting that expectation and going beyond it.”

The next decade

As GIND UK marks its tenth anniversary, Kevin was measured in his framing of what the next decade might bring. There are no grand reinventions on the horizon. The ambition, he said, is to continue doing what the company does well, but at greater scale and with even greater precision.

“We’ll continue to grow our maintenance portfolio as Integral Cradles delivers new installations across London and beyond,” Kevin explained.

“There are many significant systems scheduled for delivery in the coming years, and GIND UK will be the warrantied maintainer for those assets. Our technical expertise, our client relationships and our manufacturer-backed warranty offer are what set us apart, and we’ll keep investing in all three.”

Ten years in, the business Kevin Walton helped build from a standing start has become the standard against which warrantied façade access maintenance in the UK is judged.

As the portfolio grows and the technology evolves, the core proposition remains the same: trustworthy, responsive, manufacturer-backed maintenance that gives FM professionals the assurance they need to manage some of the country’s most complex and high-profile buildings.

“With GIND UK, we’ve built something we’re genuinely proud of,” Kevin reflected. “But the best part is that we’re still only getting started.”