Conversations with... Lee Bignell of Mobius Works

Angela Appiah Shippey met with Lee Bignell, Managing Director of Mobius Works, one of Bristol's leading integrated services companies.

I was really excited to meet Lee Bignell of Mobius Works because having worked with numerous SMEs I was really keen to understand how a business which was only set up in 2017 with 3 founders now has 49 permanent employees (including a number of apprentices) and has year on year turnover growth which is just as impressive. They recorded turnover of £6.8m for the year ended March 2020, up from £4.8million for the 2018/19 financial year which itself was more than doubling its 2017/18 total.

Having spent an hour chatting to Lee I can totally understand why he is so successful. He is very driven, astute, and business savvy. Him talking about the importance of governance and how much time the Board invests in understanding the commercial data was like music to my ears. He is also very personable with a high level of emotional intelligence. His team are very important to him as he recognises that they are the lynchpin to the company’s success. He is very loyal towards them and takes responsibility in their personal development, such as his recent investment in a business coach to help the team get the best out of themselves and help them see how they are key to Mobius’s success.

Mobius Works is one of Bristol’s leading integrated services companies. They are behind many of the city’s most exciting drinking, dining and working spaces and most notably they are the company behind the design and fit-out of many of the shipping containers in Bristol’s innovative Cargo development at Wapping Wharf, Bristol. 

Other key projects include the new Yeo Valley Cafe in London (they saw Wapping Wharf and contacted Mobius as a result) and the headquarters for The Loungers Group and Mobius counts Punch Taverns, Star Pubs and Mitchells & Butlers as clients.

So, as you can see Mobius Works not only did a lot of work in the hospitality sector, they were famous for it. Hence Lockdown 1.0 must have induced panic. Well it did initially but that lifted quickly and now Lee reflects how Coronavirus was actually really good for the business. They had been growing at some pace since 2017 and literally had no time to take a step back and reassess their strategy and where they were going.

Whilst they could have carried on just doing hospitality, it was never really their intention to stay in one sector – as a business they acknowledged that some diversification of sectors could only be a positive. They thought healthcare would be good due to the fit-out process being similar and Mobius having the capability to do mechanical and electrical work. They also considered the luxury residential sector on the basis of the current trend being people prefer to improve their current properties rather than move.

Having realised that they wanted to expand into different sectors they knew they would need to rebrand by not only updating their website but also looking at their whole marketing strategy. This was key, as looking to attract different sectors was only part of the story, they also wanted to diversify beyond the South West.

After considering three different marketing companies over a couple of weeks, they narrowed it down to Bristol based agencies Duchess Media and Hey! What? who Lee described as seeming “really fresh and vibrant.”

The new website launched in the summer and I must admit it really is gorgeous. It must be working, as the company are already receiving more enquiries than ever from the luxury residential sector into their Mobius Homes division.

So, Lockdown 1.0 gave the business the headspace to re-evaluate their direction of travel and the strategic changes which previously might have taken years to come to fruition were forged within months.

Meanwhile, after the initial severe Lockdown period, the team themselves remained busy. Mobius could still run compliance projects during the crisis as many establishments required electrical testing before reopening. Furthermore many of their clients now faced the new challenges of social distancing and increased cleaning requirements and so they have been able to create a new range of services to help businesses implement Perspex screening, repurpose unused space for extra seating and ensure all of their appliances are cleaned and serviced ready for reopening. Finally, as mentioned above, the diversification of sector and location meant there were a lot more opportunities available to work and enquiries in relation to new types of work saw an upturn.

One of the interesting things for me to come out of my conversation with Lee was how during Covid he seemed to do the opposite of what many others were doing, even acquiring a new business during Lockdown, and by doing so have been able to improve margins by subcontracting less. Their successful rebrand was at a time when other companies were cutting marketing spend. They also continue to invest in people, so this year saw Lee bring in his first Commercial Director, Mark Shortland.

But probably the most exciting development is the launch in October of a brand new branch of the company called Mobius Construct which will specialise in delivering larger projects (£400k to £5m) as main contractor across the south of the country. It will include building, construction, refurbishment, interiors and fit out, as well as being able to offer ongoing maintenance and facilities management via Mobius Works.

Mobius Construct will be headed up by Bristol based Tim Stringer who is a key addition to the business as he has over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry. Another key addition is Carly Willis who specialises in delivering high end commercial projects and will be a key member of the Consultancy team as Clients look to design the workplaces and hospitality venues of the future.

Lee’s view is that "in challenging times it’s so important to have a great base and a fantastic team in place to drive our business forward”.

The other thing that Lee is passionate about is Corporate Social Responsibility. Mobius do a huge amount with the Bristol youth charity Empire Fighting Chance and are also a partner of Community of Purpose CIC who annually host the Bristol Youth Heroes Awards. During Lockdown Mobius teamed up with the Bristol Food Union to support the local community. He and his daughter spent every Friday dropping food boxes to those in need all over the city. 

At the heart of it all Lee is a very proud Bristolian. When we discussed how amazing it was to see all the cranes around Bristol - to us they signified an optimistic future post Covid - Lee proclaimed how much he loved his job as it was just lovely to work in your own city and help to beautify it and when you wander into one of Mobius’s wonderful creations you realise that is indeed true.