DRON & DICKSON: Safely Proven in Hazardous Environments

Premier electrical wholesale and engineering firm, Dron & Dickson, is well versed in transition and reinvention. The company, a pioneer in hazardous and harsh industrial areas, boasts almost a century of experience, operating across various industry sectors, consistently searching for effective solutions for clients.

120 permanent employees and 250 contractors work across five Dron & Dickson offices and on client sites much further afield. Today, Dron & Dickson is trusted to deliver on its promise of ‘everyone home safe’.

“We are starting to move beyond the SME categorisation and we have been on a strong growth trajectory over the last three or four years,” Group MD, Lenny Collins tells Energy Focus.

He explains that the company is diversifying, developing its brand in the renewables space as the wider energy industry places more of an emphasis on sustainability.

“Historically, we are probably viewed as an oil and gas services company, and we are not embarrassed by that. It’s something that we should be proud of,” says Collins, saying that the company is on a strategic diversification journey. “For a whole number of reasons – sustainability, future generations, the environment, our own company longevity – we know that we have to adapt. We are nearly 100 years old, incorporated in 1927, and we will continue to diversify our portfolio. That doesn’t happen overnight, but we are absolutely committed to it, we have our own net zero plan in place to take us to carbon neutrality by 2030. It is front and centre in our strategy to diversify, and we have done it before. We started life in mining and heavy manufacturing. We pivoted in the 1980s to get into oil and gas, and we are on the precipice of another transition, and we believe we can successfully manoeuvre ourselves towards that.”

PERFECT PARTNERSHIPS

Dron & Dickson moved into a brand-new HQ in Aberdeen last year, and this followed the opening of the latest office in Runcorn. At the end of 2022, the group acquired Cable Solutions Worldwide – a major distributor with clients around the world. As always, Dron & Dickson was also busy striking new deals with manufacturers, ensuring the world’s best products are easily available for clients.

Collins – a mechanical engineer with leadership experience across health, safety, environment and quality (HSEQ) and an enviable academic history – splits Dron & Dickson operations across three main divisions that work ubiquitously, complementing each other with every interaction.

“First is electrical wholesale where we are a distributor for electrical products including lighting, junction boxes, glands, batteries, containment – anything electrical for a hazardous, harsh or industrial area. Second, engineering services which connects all products at site and handles maintenance and inspection of all electrical equipment, projects, fire and gas and rope access services. Third is our cable company, Cable Solutions, which connects the products and helps the engineers on site to complete everything.”

This organisational expertise and cohesion was evident in Q4 2023 when Dron & Dickson signed an industry first integrated contract with Harbour Energy – the UK’s largest oil and gas producer – to supply electrical engineering and wholesale services. The agreement was the culmination of a long-term partnership in the North Sea and across the UKCS, affording Dron & Dickson the chance to reduce power consumption and emissions, lower ongoing operational costs, and enhance workplace safety.

“We are the only UK company that can offer the combined range of services across wholesale, distribution, and engineering services. Our main competitors are purely on distribution in terms of the supply of products, or only on the engineering side,” says Collins. “We have used our competitive advantage really well over the last number of years and we have clients who have signed up with us to provide both products and engineering, additionally by adding cable to the mix has further enhanced our holistic offering.”

Growth has been impressive, and the longer-term vision is to expand the company’s presence, opening new offices in underserved geographies. For Collins, who worked at Rolls Royce for 20 years, any expansion is about furthering the Dron & Dickson’s vision while developing new relationships with both customers and suppliers.

“We have two offices in Aberdeen, one in Stirling, one in Runcorn, one in Hull, and one in Lowestoft. Our engineers are out on various assets across oil and gas, petrochemicals, wind farms, pharmaceutical sites – anything classed as hazardous industrial.

“The northeast, around Teesside, and Ireland, both north and south, are part of our expansion strategy. We are actively pursuing that, and I hope that we would have one or both opened by the end of the calendar year,” he confirms.

Through this strategic network of locations that cover almost all of the heavy industrialised regions around the UK and Ireland, Dron & Dickson will become integral in the development of a wider value chain that contributes to safe operations in harsh and hazardous environments.

SUPERIOR SUPPLY CHAINS

In July, the company announced a new partnership with Autronica Fire and Security AS, a global leader in fire and gas safety, prominent in the energy sector. Formalising a longer-term working arrangement, the two companies were confident that the partnership would lead to improved local service delivery. Relationship building like this, says Collins, is essential for further growth.

“We ask many more questions today, beyond just commercial. We look at ethics, where products are manufactured, type of materials that go into products, where those materials are sourced, lifecycle management and we make sure that whoever we engage with is committed to social responsibility. We must get peace of mind that we are dealing with reputable partners who do things in a way that is ethical and responsible.”

Relationships with the industry are reciprocated with Dron & Dickson providing highly relevant feedback to product developers, ensuring ongoing quality and consistency.

“We rely heavily on manufacturing partners, especially on the wholesale side,” Collins adds. “We have forged some longstanding relationships and that helps commercially with pricing but also with innovation. We are at the coalface, our engineers are out there working with the products day-in-day-out, and they can provide detailed feedback. That means our manufacturing partners can implement changes and improvements that will result in improvements and efficiency gains on site.”

Regular engagement is also sought with industry training providers to ensure the team is at the cutting edge when it comes to excellence in safety. Frequent updates and changes to requirements, including CompEx and IRATA (rope access) certification, are important for the industry and Dron & Dickson continues to upskill its people to ensure they are as capable as possible. Across the supply chain, whether service or product based, the company invests in local partners. “Most are UK based, and others are Scandinavian or from Central Europe” says Collins. “We do work from a harmonised set of principles and there is an existing benchmark that companies will adhere to.”

Importantly, the way forward for Dron & Dickson – and the entire industry, even across energy transition and industry reinvention – is through ambitious and innovative strategies that are grounded in safety. The company has proven that safety pays – now boasting multimillion-pound revenues – and, as Collins completes his MBA, this steadfast focus will remain.

“Everything that is done at Dron & Dickson comes from our purpose. I believe every organisation should have a purpose as it defines their existence. Ours is ‘everyone home safe’. Thinking about the environments that we work in, we deal with electricity and we provide safe electrical solutions to prevent explosions and other associated risks. That is why our purpose is simple. It includes everyone who interacts with that environment – our own staff, other contractors, local communities, etc – and that is ultimately what we want to achieve as an organisation,” he concludes.