Name:
Tim Hetherington.
Age:
48.
What is your business called?
Applied Engineering Design Ltd (AED).
Where is it based?
What does it produce, what services does it offer?
We’re structural designers; an engineering consultancy firm, so, put simply, we make sure buildings stand up and stay up.
To whom does it sell?
Primarily businesses and private individuals, but regularly to public bodies, trusts and charities. Our clients include architects, specifiers, builders and other sub-contractors.
What is its turnover?
£650,000.
How many employees?
10.
When was it formed?
At the beginning of 2008. We have been a limited company since 2011.
Why did you take the plunge?
When I graduated from Leeds University in 1992 I was already thinking about having my own practice. Unfortunately, I was very naïve and had no idea how much I didn’t know about engineering. It’s fair to say that the reality of my first few years in practice were a disappointment and I became quite disillusioned with engineering.
This changed when I was lucky enough to work at Buro Happold in Bath in 1997 and then for Fenton Holloway in Bristol. The work I did in both places was exciting, challenging and inspirational. My interest in engineering design was rekindled.
However, I also had some other goals I wanted to achieve, so I took a career break to focus on writing and performing electronic music, first in the UK, then New Zealand, the USA, Belgium, and latterly Scotland. Highlights would be performing at Burning Man in Nevada in 2002, releasing a record in 2007 and taking a live show to Istanbul in 2009. By that time I had been living and working part-time in engineering in Edinburgh for five years.
As work became scarce during the financial crash that arrangement became increasingly hard and by 2010 I was working full-time just to get by. As things stabilised financially AED grew naturally out of that.
What were you doing before you took the plunge?
Before I set up AED, aside from the music, I was working for SKM Anthony Hunts in Edinburgh, on projects with a value up to £25 million including Aberdeen Sports Village, St Pauls & St George’s Church Edinburgh, and The Pier Arts Centre in Stromness.
How did you raise the start-up funding?
There wasn’t any available, so I funded it myself with help from my family. As a knowledge-based business the start-up costs were relatively modest, and I was able to generate income quite quickly. Early clients were very supportive.
What was your biggest break?
Early on I began doing engineering for some notable public artworks, such as Nathan Coley’s In Memory at Jupiter Artland in West Lothian, and this gave us an initial footing both financially and in what has gone on to become a high profile and successful area for us, albeit small in terms of turnover.
In 2010 I was joined by a former boss of mine at SKM - Jim Bradford, and he brought a significant tranche of work with him from his main client, the Sharkey Group, that formed the backbone of our business strategy for some years. We became great friends and Jim still works for me, now on design delivery management, which is key to keeping our clients happy.
What was your worst moment?
We are a small practice in an industry where late payment in endemic, so finances can get strained. In the past we’ve had to let people go because of issues around that; and that’s been tough for all concerned.
What do you most enjoy about running the business?
When a client rings up or writes to say we did a good job, it’s very rewarding. There’s creativity in building a business and I need an outlet for the creative side of my character. I also enjoy computers and coding, so I’m in my element with those aspects as well.
What are your ambitions for the business?
To expand our reputation in Scotland and the rest of the UK so we can challenge established, predominantly London-based practices in the marketplace.
What are your top priorities?
I think most companies like ours would say making an outstanding success of the projects we’re currently working on is our top priority. However, on a business level I would say we’re at a point where our workload is so genuinely diverse and fast-moving that our top priority is managing design delivery in a manner that delivers for our clients and cares for the mental wellbeing of our staff while remaining adequately profitable.
We have secured significant project wins in the last year, including a new HQ for Ian Macleod Distillers in Broxburn, a new Tesco call centre in Dundee with Sharkey Group and the reconstruction of Eyemouth Boatyard, so we are quite focussed on consolidating this success.
What could the Westminster and/or Scottish governments do that would help?
Government strategies rarely seem to include the professions and our commercially passive professional institutions don’t help in this regard. The occurrence and management of Brexit by the UK Government is a total failure of statecraft and it’s already affecting the industry, and everything else, very badly.
How do you relax?
My wife and I recently moved from Edinburgh to East Lothian and having easy access to unspoilt countryside and beaches is fantastic. I’m on the road a lot and I have some miniaturised music technology in my bag that allows me to tinker with music anywhere, which is great for putting your brain into a different space.
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