PICTURES: From Osprey Electronics to Imenco – Wick company celebrates 50 years of design and manufacturing with Open Day event
To celebrate 50 years of creating specialist marine equipment, a Wick company is opening its doors to the public on September 20.
Imenco was formerly Osprey Electronics Limited which was established in Wick by Bill Bryan, an ex-Dounreay apprentice who left Caithness for university and eventually worked for Hewlett-Packard in central Scotland.
The original idea for Osprey was to manufacture a range of products which were no longer core to the business or Fortronic, a Fife-based company whose owners had worked with Bill at Hewlett-Packard, and they took a majority stake in Osprey.
Highlands and Islands Development Board, now Highlands and Islands Enterprise, provided financial support and an advanced factory unit – essentially an empty warehouse on the Airport Industrial Estate in Wick, where the company is still based today.
The initial workforce was Bill, three assembly workers, an assembly supervisor, an electronic test technician and a cleaner. The assembly operators were all recruited from a failed fly-tying business on the industrial estate.
Later, the electronics were designed by Don Stewart, also from Hewlett-Packard and product design by Dave Thomson, another ex-Dounreay apprentice. As things progressed, Dave and Don became directors of the company.
The early products were burglar alarms, emergency lighting, power supplies and suchlike. The assembly and test stations were second-hand civil service desks, and the machine shop had a lathe, milling machine, pillar drill and a set of sheet metal rollers.
As the company advanced, it was clear that these products could not provide a sufficient level of sales to sustain and grow a viable business.
Aberdeen in the early 1970s was developing as a major centre for the North Sea oil industry, so with regular trips to Aberdeen, various projects were acquired.
The first sizeable contract was for the manufacture of 12 surface control units for a diver TV system mounted in an aluminium suitcase. This was Osprey’s initial contact with the underwater camera market.
In 1977, Osprey opened a sales/service engineering base in Aberdeen and in addition to the camera business, they supplied engineers and technicians to Shell.
An Imenco spokesperson said: “In 1978, our first apprentice started, Graham Bain, who retired in May this year after 47 years of service.
“There were extensions added to both the Wick and Aberdeen factories in 1983 with a chartered flight of 100 customers coming up from Aberdeen and Robert Maclennan MP carrying out the official opening.
“Our military business started with trials of standard products for a Ministry of Defence research department who were evaluating underwater cameras for divers, mine hunting. It was not revealed at the time that this was for submarines.”
Osprey won major orders for the manufacture of periscope and hull-mounted cameras for the Royal Navy submarine fleet.
“We have changed ownership several times over the years and have most recently been taken over by Imenco Group, Norway, in 2018. We have 45 employees at Wick, including 7 apprentices.”
The company offers a diversity of products for both the subsea and military markets, featured in the poster below.
Imenco is holding an open day on Saturday, September 20, so visitors can see for themselves what the company does.
The general public is invited between 10am and 12.30pm and previous employees between 1pm and 3pm.
“We are hopeful that many previous colleagues will come as without their input, we would not be where we are today,” added the spokesperson.
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