Over the last decade, Barrie Wilson has met thousands of installers, travelled across the world with customers and helped introduce some of the biggest innovations in home heating. As Navien celebrated 10 years of growth, we’re celebrating one of the people who has been there from the beginning.
Now our Key Account and Project Manager, Barrie has helped to shape a smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable future for home heating. He’s been there through new product launches, factory tours, as well as countless conversations with installers and engineers across the UK. To celebrate this double milestone, we look back on Barrie’s journey through the industry over the last ten years, reflecting on the transformation of both his career and the UK’s heating landscape.
From a new name in the market to earning installer’s trust
One of Barrie’s first milestones was introducing Navien’s initial launch of the NCB-CE condensing combi boiler range to the UK market. The official launch in 2016 brought a unified, integrated menu structure across all PCB revisions, allowing installers to programme advanced parameters using a consistent system protocol.
Those early years weren’t just about selling boilers; they were about earning trust across the UK. Merchant by merchant. Installer by installer. Conversation by conversation. Barrie had to show that Navien was here for the long term, and its technical support and customer-first approach soon helped establish the brand in the UK market.
Raising the bar for off-grid heating
By 2019, off-grid heating was changing. Barrie spent much of this period talking to off-grid installers who were seeing customer expectations change, Conversations centred around the housing affordability crises, regulatory reviews and significant agricultural policy shifts. After this, consumer expectations began to shift from keeping radiators warm to premium domestic hot water performance and smarter controls with installers needing to prioritise hot water performance and efficiency.
Navien responded in 2019 with the launch of the LCB700 oil boiler, the UK’s first A+ rated oil boiler setting a new benchmark for lower-emission oil heating.
Barrie played an important role during this period, working with off-grid installers to understand their requirements and showing them how the latest technology could make installations easier while delivering better outcomes for homeowners.
One launch that changed the conversation
By 2022, reducing energy costs and concerns around water savings were top priorities for UK homeowners due to surging global gas prices and the unprecedented cost-of-living crisis. This era marked Navien UK’s defining moment with the launch of the NCB range.
For years, homeowners wanting high-quality hot water performance had to rely on unvented cylinders. The NCB range solved this classic industry problem by delivering system-boiler-level hot water performance from a single wall-hung combi unit.
The launch at Old Trafford in 2022 remains one of Barrie’s standout memories. Seeing hundreds of installers and engineers experience the product for the first time and hearing their reactions reinforced how far Navien had come in just a few years.
Taking Navien beyond the UK
Some of the most rewarding moments haven’t happened in exhibition halls at all. They’ve happened thousands of miles away.
Over the years, Barrie has accompanied installer groups including Causeway, iHeat and MPH on factory visits to South Korea and the United States. For Barrie one of the highlights is taking customers behind the scenes into Naviens world-class manufacturing and R&D facilities, allowing Installers to see first-hand the scale of investment, innovation and engineering that goes into every product they install.
For many installers, seeing where the products are designed and built can change their perspective. It sparks confidence and creates conversation in a way that nothing else can. Barrie finds these visits especially rewarding as he can show the installers how their own feedback can influence future developments. This year, he has been working closely with internal teams and installers to help shape future products through feedback. Those perspectives have played an important role in our upcoming heat pump wiring centre, designed to simplify heat pump installations and make renewable heating easier for installers to work with.
Thank You, Barrie
Ask Barrie what he’s most proud of and it isn’t a particular product launch. It’s the relationships.
Over the last decade, he’s watched installers grow their businesses, merchants expand their partnerships with Navien and the company evolve from a relatively new name in the UK market into one recognised for innovation, quality and technical support.
The heating industry has changed enormously over the last ten years and so have we. From condensing boilers to oil heating, to our NCB range technology and renewable solutions, Barrie has been there through every stage of the journey.
Thank you for every early start. Every customer event. Every factory tour. Every conversation with an installer. And every role you’ve played in helping build the business we are today.
