Blog

Five minutes with… Michael Larner

Meet Dext Operations Director Michael Larner.

Very early in Dext’s journey, when Neil was looking for a ‘plumbing genius’ he was lucky enough to find Michael, whose role has evolved as the business has grown.

How would you describe your role at Dext?

My job centres around making sure everything runs smoothly. I focus on the forward planning of labour and materials as well as liaising with contractors and suppliers so everyone communicates clearly and are all pulling in the same direction at all times.
I spend a lot of time assessing our systems to ensure problems won’t crop up in future, and – in the unlikely case an issue arises on site – I’ll most likely be the one troubleshooting.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I don’t think there is such a thing as typical day in my job – every day brings something different. I might be visiting customer sites anywhere from Burnley to Battersea and beyond!
When I’m not out on the road I’ll be in the office placing orders and keeping schedules up to date, or tinkering in the workshop.

What do you think is the best thing about Dext’s systems?

The simplicity of them.
It took a lot of work to bring them to market, with an extraordinary amount of research and development, but the core idea and the way they actually work is incredibly simple.

What do you wish more people knew about Dext?

I wish more people knew about Dext, full stop.
Heat recovery ticks so many boxes for environmental sustainability and massive cost savings – I can’t believe Dext isn’t a household name already.

How and when did you become involved in the company?

I was headhunted to work for Neil’s heating and cooling business originally, and I came on board when he told me about his heat recovery idea. As a gas engineer at the time, I was becoming disillusioned with all the wasted energy I was seeing on a day-to-day basis. I was being offered a chance to try to change that and I couldn’t turn it down.
I genuinely think Dext’s heat recovery systems are the future of commercial heating.