After John Clough was asked by his bosses at British Coal to come up with a closure strategy for North-East pits, he swore to replace jobs lost in the region. Deputy Business Editor Dan Jenkins reports on his success.

THE Eaga Partnership sounds too good to be true. Based in the heart of Newcastle, it has strong ethics, is owned by its 750 employees and is dedicated to energy efficiency.

But after talking to its founder, John Clough, it all starts to make sense.

A former manager at British Coal, the 46-year-old has taken Eaga from a four-person operation to a multi-national group, without compromising his principles.

"I was lucky enough to go from being a polluter to getting into energy efficiency," he said.

Born in Bedlington, Northumberland, he studied chemistry at Newcastle University, graduating in 1980.

"I always wanted a career in management and at the time, British Coal was definitely offering the best training package," he said.

He got married the October after his graduation. "British Coal promised me at least three months in the North-East," he said.

"I actually got a call from them while I was on honeymoon, telling me to get to South Wales."

After his training, he came back to the region for his first posting at Hawthorn Coking Works, near Seaham, east Durham.

During the Miners' Strike of 1984, he was in charge of maintenance at the nearby plant at Fencehouses, and another in Hebburn, South Tyneside.

After the strike, he spent three years at a smokeless fuel plant in Coventry, but felt his career had stalled. He completed a teaching course at night school and became a part-time lecturer.

"In the end, I asked British Coal for some broader experience, or said I would leave."

He was offered a post with its operational research executive, the body that planned the closure of the pits.

"I did a lot of the North-East Coalfields Strategy," he said. "This was how long the North-East coalfield was going to last and what the closure plans were.

"There were no definite answers, but we could look at various scenarios."

After two years, he was drawn back into British Coal proper, as second in command at the Monkton plant, in Hebburn.

"Three weeks after I got there, the manager told me he was leaving, so I was acting as manager almost straight away."

In 1990, he received the call to close the site, making 330 workers redundant.

"We had the plant in operating profit for the first time in its history," he said.

"But what made it doubly ironic was the closure fitted one of the scenarios I had written. I suppose you reap what you sow.

"It was an awful blow for me. There were 330 guys there out of work and that hit me hard.

"I got offers from British Coal to go pretty much wherever I liked, but I decided it was time to get out."

As he left, he made himself a promise. "The one objective I set myself was to put back as many jobs as I had lost within ten years."

He saw a job advertised by national charity NEA, which is still based in Newcastle, for its latest project, Eaga.

It was set up to operate a Government scheme providing insulation and draft-proofing to low-income households.

"We started on December 3, 1990, and were supposed to be up and running by January 1, 1991," he said.

"I still don't know how we did it. We just kept one step ahead of the wolves, if I'm honest.

"We built it up from literally nothing. After a month, we were 20 people, after three months we were about 50.

"We got a reputation for our very high standards of customer care and the Government started to put more money in."

As its remit spread into other areas of energy efficiency, the utility companies turned to Eaga to deal with their vulnerable clients as well.

"There is not a lot known about how to reach these people, because companies don't really want to market to people who haven't got any money," he said.

By the end of the 1990s, the company had 140 staff and a turnover of up to £12m a year.

"It became clear then that we were going to face competition. Throughout the first ten years, we were entirely not for profit.

"We made money, but founded a charitable trust and put the profits into it.

"With competition on the horizon, we needed to form some joint ventures and couldn't do it as a not-for-profit organisation."

Mr Clough decided on an employee-owned company, set up on the same lines as department store chain John Lewis.

The model has proved very successful. Employees receive an equal share in the profits, which Mr Clough believes is the best incentive for them to work hard.

There is also a staff council that has the power to sack the board of directors if it is not happy with their performance.

Eaga's expertise in delivering energy efficiency for vulnerable people has led to it winning the national contract to operate the Warm Front scheme for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

This month it secured a £3m deal with British Gas to run its Quality of Life programme, offering low-income households benefit entitlement checks.

It also provides free energy efficiency products and links to advice from national charities on a range of issues.

Its niche market means it has to operate on different lines to a call centre.

"We task our people with solving problems at the first point of contact and as quickly as possible," he said.

"I used my mother as a test case and thought whether she would be happy using an automated system. Vulnerable people want to talk to a real person and they want their problems sorted out there and then.

"I think there is a lot of room for things to be done on a qualitative rather than quantitative basis. A lot of companies measure what is easy rather than what is important." Mr Clough spends an increasing amount of time in Canada, looking after Homeworks Services, which has centres in Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto.

"The social agenda in Canada is developing, but they are about 15 years behind us," said Mr Clough.

"It is a long ball game out there for us and will be our low-cost beachhead into North America. There are huge opportunities over there, on both sides of the border."

As for his target of creating 330 jobs by 2000, he missed it by only six months.

"But we have 750 now," he said. "It is a nice feeling to know you are doing something positive for the North-East and the 250,000 customers we deal with every year.

"That is what makes you want to get out of bed in the morning."