This week our blog comes from guest writer Andrew Merrell, founder and lead journalist of The Raikes Journal who first published this article in The Raikes Journal on Monday 18th November 2024.

Aged just 25 and suddenly saddled with a very modest family firm, Kane Lewis thought about walking away, but instead set off on a journey of personal discovery that's created a multi-million pound business.

A new regional office in Exeter for a Gloucestershire security firm may not sound too exciting, but read on and you will learn how that business went from a modest £200,000 turnover to a multi-million pound concern and about the inspirational story of its owner. 

That owner, Kane Lewis, delayed university to work for the family ‘locksmithing and building security’ firm and got so used to earning money he never left – but that was a very different time, a very different business and a very different Kane Lewis. 

Back then Severnside Security was a much simpler company turning over a modest £200,000 – that was until his father upped and left one day, leaving his son with a choice - to fold and walk away or learn how to play, and learn quickly. 

He stayed, and today Lewis is steering a fire and security system solutions business for residential and commercial customers that clocked a turnover of £3.68 million in August 2023, £5.1 million this year and has just won a public sector contract worth £5 million to kick off its 2025/26 financial year. 

Turnover for this year is forecast to be in the region of £7 million. 

If word is true, at least one potential buyer has already made an offer, but it seems clear that Lewis isn’t interested. He isn’t finished. And at just 32, who is? 

He’s already won recognition and awards, but it was the new regional office in Exeter driven by Severnside’s recent expansion into Devon and Cornwall that made The Raikes Journal want to take a closer look at just what is really going on.

 

Severnside office

 

Composed, modest, politely spoken and straight talking, Lewis does not put on any airs and graces when we meet at his Gloucester offices on Meteor Court, Barnwood, and he talks about the business and himself as very much a work in progress. 

It emerges he is also one of the already significant and growing number of businesspeople that have used county experts QuoLux to develop their leadership skills, and its Good Dividends model can be seen in DNA of Severnside Security.

That’s the model that argues businesses which are forces for good also grow faster and deliver better financial results.

“When we speak to potential clients we emphasise what we will do to boost the local economy. We will use local contractors, create jobs and recruit locally. We are very conscious of our impact. 

“In Exeter we estimated we’re already adding £100,000 annually into the local economy,” said Lewis. 

He describes the Exeter base as a “strategic hub”, a move to streamline Severnside Security’s parts and hardware distribution for contracts across the deep West. It’s a move that has created nine jobs already and is set to grow by 50 per cent in 2025.  

Total staff numbers company-wide are now estimated at 60. 

When we meet, Lewis has just returned from a few days volunteering with other businesspeople on a project in South Africa for the Footprints charity founded by Gloucestershire business legend Bob Holt. Still more personal development. 

“For me personally it was about opening my eyes a bit more. You can get caught up in your own life and work.

“This is one of the first times in a long time I have been away from work. It puts everything into context,” said Lewis, clearly moved by the experience and keen to embed more of that kind of charitable work into the company.

 

In South Africa for the Footprints Foundation

 

His father, Tony, and business partner Roger founded the business that led to Severnside Security back in 1992. 

“They did nothing with it really. It was just locksmithing and building security. In 2013 my dad went on his own and asked me to come on board with him, which I did,” he said. 

Then in 2017/18 his father, facing a number of personal issues, “just vanished”. 

Aside from the impact this had on Lewis’s mother, his sister and himself, it left him with another headache. 

“It left me with a business I did not really want. It would have been easier for me to close it down. 

“I did not see it as an opportunity. But I took a long look at it and decided to try and rebuild it. That was 2018.” 

Lewis was just 25/26 years old. 

We needn’t go into the details on the family side here, needless to say that a driving force in him was to do right by his remaining family and to step up for them.

“I didn’t have anyone to ask for help at the time. I was embarrassed as well,” he said, when I asked if he could turn to anyone for advice on the business. 

A year later and the world changed again, and so did his view of the business too. 

“Probably about 2019, going through Covid-19, I began to think ‘I could do something here’. That was the reflection piece. 

“Before Covid we were focusing on high-net worth clients. We were project driven and we were working with some big names, but covid made us think what else we could do and that was when we pivoted.” 

In case I think he’s making it sound easy he adds, “I have made mistakes along the way. I hired some people because I thought ‘they are the sort of people I would get on with’. 

“What I should have done is hired the opposite of me. I’ve lost some good employees too. 

“But I was able to work that out, and I now have some incredible people working here. We recruit people who are technically savvy, but what we really look for is people who want to come along for the journey who understand what we are trying to do.” 

That ‘pivot’ during the pandemic was more of a giant change of course and attitude to what the business was capable of.  

“We thought ‘stuff it’, we will go for the major contracts,” he said. 

These are contracts that today see them work with the likes of Mears and Mitie, two of the biggest housing maintenance and outsourcing firms in the UK. 

It was this expansion that saw the business move into the deep West of England too and led to the recent investment in Exeter. 

Those early days of carrying the world on his shoulders have gone. Today he’s supported by a growing number of contacts, gained not least from the QuoLux™ leadership development programme he pursued.

 

Kane with his peers on the QuoLux™ GAIN™ programme during the Good Growth Challenge

 

He undertook its flagship 10-month leadership and business development programme, LEAD™, specifically for owners, CEOs, managing directors, directors and senior managers. 

These are some of the people he now turns to if he needs, as he says, to ‘sense check’ any decisions. 

It’s a way of thinking which may seem normal to those of you reading this – asking your peers in similar roles for advice - but older readers may recall a time when asking for advice was seen as an admission of weakness. 

The Exeter move is the firm’s third regional UK office. 

“The office has been designed as a strategic hub to support Devon and Cornwall and to better service our most prominent client contracts in the region. 

“Currently, these contracts account for 15 per cent of our national turnover, but this strategic hub will enable acceleration to 25 per cent of our national turnover, aligned to the business’s growth plans as well,” said Lewis. 

Severnside’s client base now covers multiple sectors, including the public sector, encompassing housing associations, local authority contracts, and schools, as well as retail, hospitality, commercial, private business and private residential. 

Expansion is also taking place in the Southeast too. 

“What’s clear is that the demand for our services shows no signs of slowing down as we celebrate a number of significant contract wins,” he said. 

“We are looking forward to what lies ahead and are dedicated to protecting businesses and communities throughout the region with exceptional service and knowledge.”

 

To learn more about our leadership and business development program, LEAD™, and how it could help your organisation, please get in touch with Rachael Ramos here. Our next LEAD™ program starts in April 2025.

 

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