Wealth Management Firm Enters Partnership for Business EV Charging

The Client

St James’s Place is the UK’s largest wealth management company and provides personalised advice that covers financial, investment and tax planning. Since starting trading in 1992, the business has grown rapidly. As well as bases in Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong, the firm currently has 35 UK sites, including offices in nearly all major cities. 

As St James’s Place transitions its fleet of company vehicles to be fully electric, the Corporate Real Estate team is supporting the move with electric vehicle (EV) charge points at the business’s sites across the UK. 

Following a feasibility study to plan charge point installation in car parks across the estate, the team went out to tender to find a supplier who could partner with them for three years to supply the chargers and manage installation. 

At each site, St James’s Place is exploring how charge points could be supplied for use by staff and partners, as well as customers and visitors. And one, easy-to-use back office solution was also needed, to allow the team to monitor usage and provide data on C02 savings across all its sites. 

The Solution

Following a successful tender, Mer (formerly Elmtronics) has installed 22kW fast chargers at St James’s Place’s Cirencester head office and a newly fitted-out Bristol office in Aztec West, with active load balancing to distribute power between multiple vehicles in conjunction with the power across the sites. 

The chargers are all connected via back-office software and the team provides ongoing support and proactive maintenance for all sites. 

“We found the team to be more personable than other suppliers and felt that we could better connect with the team due to their size and locality. They’ve taken extra steps to support us, nothing’s been a problem, and it’s those touches that mean a lot to us.” – Harriett Hodsman, Facilities Coordinator – South 

“We try to form a partnership with businesses and we found that the team reflected our principles. The experience has been seamless. There have been no surprises and any queries have been dealt with very quickly. I think the whole team would agree it’s been a pleasure.” – Liam Leak, Head of Facilities 

A phased plan is being developed to explore the roll-out of charge points at more St James’s Place UK sites, for use by staff, partners and clients.