‘Our goal is to help people understand that underfloor heating is affordable’

When entrepreneurs Charles and Josephine Pugh rented a property with “uncomfortable and uncontrollable” underfloor heating (UFH), it sparked a move away from the made-to-order furniture world they had been invested in since the late 1970s.

The couple, who had founded British retailer Multiyork in 1978, set up Wunda Group in 2006 at the height of the ‘green homes revolution’ when barn conversions and self-builds were de rigueur.

The Pughs’ home heating issue had centred on underfloor screed — a level layer of concrete where piping has traditionally been embedded into — with pipe centres too far apart. With no controls, there was a slow response time to heat and the floor became too hot. The Pughs thought the existing systems were “slow and antiquated”.

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Monmouthshire-based Wunda now designs and supplies energy-efficient UFH systems and has cut through to the DIY consumer at a time of rising energy bills. The company employs 90 staff and says it has booked over £10m in sales this year.

The heating firm is also a family affair. With Charles as CEO and Josephine CFO, their daughter Josephine is managing director, while grandson Sam Jump is currently head of business development.

The business took off in 2008 when Wunda reorientated as installers looked for kits and components after the self-build market collapsed.

In 2010, their former base near Chepstow was in an old chicken farm shed renovated to offices. The Pughs still visited trade shows and had come across one American exhibitor’s aluminum chip board panel with grooves, which was employed as a last fix in the build.

They pioneered a version with high-compressed polystyrene and put a sample down in the chicken shed, with a heat pump which moved outside thermal energy internally. The closer piping also meant it could be run at lower temperatures.

Jump, who was working in the warehouse at the time and previously led a team of outreachers offering membership, recalled: “Everyone was walking around in T-shirts during winter and the response rate was unreal, the heat pump was operating at the optimum flow temperature with a co-efficient performance.”

However, their product was initially met with scepticism from installers unwilling to test new products. “Where most people think of UFH as this uncomfortable system, we now have a rapid response system and it warms up as fast as radiators, if not quicker.”

A booming DIY industry, renovating homes or building extensions instead of moving, has helped boost Wunda’s profits.

In 2024, it ran an experiment with a DIY TikTok creator who installed a UFH system. Wunda claims it saw enquiries from consumers increase 1,000% year-on-year, with a typical installation of 50m sq costing up to £2,500.

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“I had no idea how big the renovating space is on TikTok,” said Jump. “It is more relevant now as people are thinking more pinch than ever.”

Jump says that consumers putting the pipe and panels down on the floor themselves saves two-thirds of the cost until the final hook up by a professional. It is also generally accepted that UFH is 25% more efficient than radiators.

However, in a YouGov study commissioned this year by Wunda, only 14% of 2,000 UK homeowners realised that underfloor heating, which includes adding on top of an existing floor, can reduce their energy bills. More than two in five homeowners said underfloor heating’s space-saving attribute was a major benefit over the traditional radiator.

“When you look at UFH, it becomes a bit of a no-brainer. It takes so long for people to adopt as we have all grown up with radiators,” said Jump.

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“Our obstacle is education and to help people understand that this solution is affordable and more accessible. That’s our goal.”

As one of the founders’ legacy remits, Wunda has now brought manufacturing back to the UK and Jump, who has a seat at the boardroom table, says the entrepreneurial spirit still runs through the firm.

“We do have to constantly stay on our toes,” he added. “Because we are always trying to introduce something new, we also have something of a ‘day one’ attitude.”

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