About Us
Health and Safety
Gratte Brothers Group is a leading independent provider of comprehensive building services, renowned for exceptional quality. Our services include a complete range of design, installation and maintenance solutions for building services and engineering, security systems and software and foodservice facilities, all uniquely offered from a single source.
Our Culture
Quality, trust and long-term relationships define how we work. At Gratte Brothers, we take a straightforward approach: be reliable, be approachable, prioritise social value and always deliver to a high standard. As our industry evolves, we stay curious and forward-looking, helping our clients navigate change with confidence.
Our people make the difference. Many have built long careers with us, creating a close-knit team where knowledge is shared, support is constant and high standards are understood. We employ around 500 people across a range of management, engineering and trade disciplines and our average staff retention rate is an impressive 16.5 years. By combining
the experience of long-serving team members with the energy and ideas of newer talent, we create a culture that values knowledge, development and shared standards across everything we do.
As a family-owned company since our launch in 1946, we’ve been delivering quality in everything that we do for over eight decades. As we’ve grown, we’ve built an extended family of trusted professionals, reliable suppliers and repeat clients, leading with our values to deliver Quality for Generations.
Our Values
Empowering Our Employees
Everyone deserves a positive working environment—one that keeps them safe and helps them to grow professionally. Alongside professional development, we’re committed to ensuring the health, safety and well-being of our staff.
Putting Clients First
By listening to our clients and delivering to their specifications, we build long-term relationships on trust and capability. Our aim is to be more than just a service provider: we want to be a truly collaborative partner.
Supporting Our Communities
Through hiring locally where possible, making charitable donations, volunteering our time and creating opportunities for young people, we aim to positively impact every community we’re a part of.
Upholding Supplier Standards
We depend on our suppliers, not just to facilitate the services we provide, but also to maintain the reputation we’ve built. We select suppliers who share our ethos. In return, they can trust that we’ll uphold their standards, as they do for us. That’s how we retain long-term, trusting relationships where everybody knows what’s expected.
Protecting the Planet
By developing efficient processes and investing in more planet-friendly, sustainable materials, we take sustainability seriously. While we are proud of our efforts to be a responsible supplier, we are always seeking to improve wherever possible.
Pursuing Improvement, Always
To ensure we’re always improving, we constantly review and refine our processes. This helps us ensure that we’re delivering the highest possible quality for our clients, whatever their requirements.
Our Leadership Team
Meet the Team
Our Clients
Our clients operate in diverse and demanding sectors (airports, data centres, banking, education, leisure, pharmaceuticals, retail and logistics, to name a few!), but they share a common expectation for quality and value. We’re proud that many choose to work with us year after year, reflecting our commitment to collaboration, consistency and continually improving the service we provide. In fact, roughly 70% of our turnover is from repeat business year-on-year – something we attribute to our gold standard human-first customer service, commitment to pursuing improvement, policy compliance and agility.
Tell Us About Your ProjectOur Manifesto We believe in quality, not shortcuts. We're reliable and never unreachable. We're problem-solvers, not over-promisers. We work with honesty and approachability. It's our people that set us apart. Because we're all about delivering quality.
A Family Company
Being a family business means we have incomparable industry knowledge that’s been passed down through generations. We’re unwaveringly committed to the business, and have a long-term shared vision. The unified leadership brought by our family Board means we’re able to expertly manage and develop our staff. Our people are at the heart of everything we do: through their commitment, skills, hard work and constant drive for improvement, they’re responsible for our high levels of client satisfaction.
We’re also committed to providing the safest possible working environment for our employees. As such, we champion health, safety & wellbeing as one of our core values within the Group, as reflected in our internal programme, “SafetyFirst”.
Our History
From small beginnings as an electrical contractor business started by two brothers in the post-war years, Gratte Brothers has now become one of the leading Building Services Contractors in the UK, whilst proudly remaining a family-owned business.
Gratte Brothers First Registered
Gratte Brothers Limited was first registered on 22nd May 1946 by brothers Derrick and André Gratte as an electrical contracting business based in Knebworth, Hertfordshire. Gratte Brothers was started with a capital of £100, a sum equivalent to 20 weeks’ wages for a skilled tradesperson at the time. Shortly after, Derrick Gratte left Knebworth to establish a London branch of the company in Red Lion Square, Holborn and in 1948 expanded into commercial catering equipment maintenance, working for Hertfordshire County Council.
Business Expands
It didn’t take long for our London branch to outgrow the Knebworth operation by acquiring major blue chip clients in the retail and expanding aviation sectors. A number of employees were recruited in this decade who would be promoted to senior roles within the business and remain with Grattes for the rest of their working lives. Meanwhile, a refrigeration department was set up to support the catering equipment contracts being undertaken by the Knebworth branch.
The Second Generation
Martin and Ian Gratte, Derrick’s sons, joined the London Headquarters (by now located in Wicklow Street WC1, having outgrown its original premises) as the 1960s housebuilding boom provided residential work opportunities for the company, and turnover reached £1,000,000 for the first time. Back in Knebworth, Gratte Brothers expanded its services to include design and installation works for catering equipment (to complement the maintenance service already offered) and a dedicated commercial catering equipment division was established.
New Ideas
Martin and Ian Gratte were appointed to the Board, bringing new ideas as international work continued to grow. By the late 1970s, Design and Build contracts were commonplace for both M&E and Electrical only work so Gratte Brothers established a separate M&E design division, and we added a mechanical building services capability to our portfolio of services.
Largest M&E Contract to Date
We won the largest M&E contract to date (£250,000 to provide building services to the Chinese Embassy in London) in the 1980s. Ian Bass, Derrick’s son-in-law, was appointed Financial Director as turnover exceeded £13m. Gratte Brothers was flourishing in international and retail M&E works and the evolving commercial catering business was contributing significantly to the turnover.
Relocating to Regents Wharf
Having outgrown Wicklow Street, we relocated to Regents Wharf, N1 (where our London HQ is still based) and we completed our first data centre project. We also registered a separate commercial catering equipment company, known today as Gratte Brothers Catering Equipment Limited and an electronic security management company, Gratte Brothers Security Management, as subsidiaries of the Gratte Brothers Group.
Over 100 New Staff Join
The 2000s saw Gratte Brothers acquire a mechanical services company, welcoming over 100 new members of staff to our business. This decade also saw the establishment of an M&E Maintenance division, now known as Gratte Brothers Building Services Maintenance Ltd. By this stage, Stephen Gratte (Martin’s son) and David Gratte (Ian’s son) had also joined the business, establishing Gratte Brothers’ third generation of expertise.
The Third Generation
In the early 2010s, Gratte Brothers Security Management Limited flourished and today remains located amongst three offices; our London HQ and our Belfast and Warrington offices. The M&E division of the business also secured a number of high-profile framework contracts in this period, and by this time, had developed its own Principal Contractor capability. In 2016, we celebrated our 70th Anniversary. Steve and David were joined by Chris Bass, a third Grandson of Derrick, and all three were appointed to the Group Board.
£250+ Million Turnover
As of 2022, David Gratte, Steve Gratte and Chris Bass took on operational roles at Group level to become Group Managing Director (David), Group Risk Director (Steve), and Group Sales Director (Chris). This development makes them the third generation of the Gratte family to take control of the business. 2023 saw the Group undergo a significant update to its brand identity. Retaining the charm and familiarity of the original brand, a few tweaks were made to reflect the brand we are so proud of today. As a Group, this decade also marks the milestone achievement of surpassing £250million in turnover: a testament to the incredible dedication of our teams.
