This year, REACT Engineering will mark 30 years in business.

For more than 20 of those years, managing director Phil Redfern has been playing a part in its growth, first during a gap year and now leading the organisation.  

Phil’s dedication to REACT and to developing careers and opportunities for people in his native West Cumbria earned him the accolade of Business Person of the Year at the in-Cumbria Business Awards in November.

However, he had no idea how big a part of his life REACT, based in Cleator Moor, would be when he first stepped foot inside its doors.

“I was a bit unsure of what I wanted to do with myself,” said Phil, who began his career on placement at REACT as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Year in Industry scheme in 2002.

“I did okay at school but I think I probably lacked a bit of focus and drive, so I probably didn’t get the A-levels that I could have got. I probably didn’t learn that you have to work for things until I was part way through my degree.”

His time at REACT inspired him to study mechanical engineering at the University of Leeds, working for the company over the summer holidays and starting full time in 2007.

Founded in 1994 by three directors - who still remain as shareholders - REACT is an engineering and project management consultancy working across nuclear decommissioning projects in the UK.

Phil was immediately attracted to the challenge of running the business and was appointed as a director in 2014.

“We’re a consultancy business and that was the part of the work that I really enjoyed, building a long-term business relationship with clients to identify and scope out pieces of work that they needed to be done to help them achieve what they were trying to achieve,” he said.

“We help customers work out these tricky decommissioning projects, what the technical challenges are and then help develop effective, timely solutions to deal with those legacy buildings and then we help them implement the projects.”

He became managing director in 2016 ahead of a management buyout in 2019 which made him the majority shareholder.

Today REACT’s staff of 55 consists of scientists and engineers, as well as people from a range of other backgrounds. There is also a focus on recruiting graduates and individuals at an early stage in their career.