When entrepreneurs Charles and Josephine Pugh rented a property with “uncomfortable and uncontrollable” underfloor heating (UFH), it jolted them away from the world of bespoke furniture they had been invested in since the late 1970s.
The couple, who founded British retailer Multiyork in 1978, founded Wunda Group in 2006 at the height of the ‘green house revolution’ when barn conversions and self-builds were de rigueur.
The Pughs’ home heating issue centered on an underground screed – a level layer of concrete where pipes have traditionally been embedded – with pipe centers too far apart. With no controls, there was a slow response time to the heat and the ground got too hot. The Pughs thought the existing systems were “slow and antiquated”.
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Wunda, based in Monmouthshire, now designs and supplies energy efficient UFH systems and has catered to the “DIY consumer” at a time of rising energy bills. The company employs 90 staff and says it has booked more than £10 million in sales this year.
The heating firm is also a family business. 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 reoriented as installers sought kits and components after the self-build market collapsed.
In 2010, their previous base near Chepstow was in an old chicken farm shed renovated for offices. The Pughs still visited trade fairs and would come across one American exhibitor’s aluminum chipboard panel with grooves, which was employed as the last solution in the building.
They pioneered a version with high compressed polystyrene and placed a sample down in the chicken shed, with a heat pump that moves the thermal energy internally. The closer pipes also meant it could be operated at lower temperatures.
Jump, who was working in the store at the time and who previously led a team of people offering membership, recalled: “Everyone was walking around in t-shirts during the winter and the response rate was unreal, the heat pump was operating at the best flow temperature with a performance coefficient.”
However, their product was initially met with skepticism by installers who did not want to test new products. “Where a lot of people think of the UFH as this awkward system, now we have a quick response system and it heats up as fast as radiators, if not faster.”
A booming DIY industry, renovating homes or building extensions instead of moving, has helped boost Wunda’s profits.