The pros and cons of building your own panels

The question of whether having your own panel shop would save money is worth exploring.

Firstly, it’s important to consider whether it fits your business model. If you’re a manufacturing company already set up with warehouse staff, stock, manufacturing schedules, etc., then it may be a good fit - just make sure you have the necessary skills in house for your panels to be compliant. But if you’re a technology and software company or a contractor, it’s an entirely different skill set. In most cases, trying to do several business models within one company is distracting and likely to damage your core business.

Another important consideration is your brand. If you’re a great installer but when you try to make your own panels, you get faults or delays, you could really damage your brand’s reputation.

Cost is another key area to think about. Using skilled installers and engineers to be wiremen will not only be expensive (electrical site labour starts at around £22 per hour), but they’re also not necessarily good at panel building. Trying to fit panel building in around other work can cause a panel to be picked up and put down multiple times, which is far more likely to cause mistakes. Having dedicated wiremen who are skilled and trained to wire panels means they are efficient, focused, and accurate with their work.

And then there's stock. A contracting company is going to struggle to put £100k+ into stock, and buying parts on next-day delivery from UK stockists comes at a prohibitive cost. Panel builders will have discount agreements with their approved manufacturers they know and trust to provide good quality at a fair price. They then stock most of the common parts, meaning lead times are quicker and costs are lower.