Colin McCurdy is managing director of Zenith, which has been providing services to major energy companies for more than 20 years.

Where is your business based?

While we are based in Edinburgh with a satellite office in Luton, our teams operate in locations across the world.

What does it produce/do?

Zenith is a group of companies which support the oil and gas, petrochemical, power, renewables, and historic building sectors with the challenges of inspecting, maintaining, and repairing tall and awkward structures.

The group is made up of three businesses: specialist access solutions, property conservation, and engineering and design consultants. Each division provides services independently and collectively to deliver a full end-to-end service.

Our teams provide safe and cost-effective solutions to complex issues in the most demanding environments, both on and offshore. In layman’s terms, most of our clients have an awkward structure, where traditional access or scaffolding for maintenance, inspection, repair and/or refurbishment isn’t always possible. Costs for maintenance are high - our engineers and field operatives have the knowledge and experience to design solutions, which will safely enable access and repair to specific areas - saving clients’ money and time.

Our skilled field operatives have propelled us to a level where we are now being approached by major blue-chip companies around the world to design, deliver, install, and repair a wide range of access and lifting solutions.

To whom does it sell?

We work with world-leading blue-chip companies in the energy sector such as Phillips 66, Prax, Exxon, Tarmac, Cemex, Chevron, INEOS, Petroineos, DRAX Power, BP, Shell, and Total, to name a few. Essentially for any facility with a confined space at height, heavy lifting at height or an awkward structure, our team can create an engineering solution.

Our property conservation division supports clients across a range of sectors including education, government, hotels and historical properties, providing a vast range of services including stonemasonry, maintenance, repairs, rope access, and scaffolding. The client portfolio for this side of the business includes the University of Edinburgh, Strathclyde University, and Historic Environment Scotland.

What were you doing before?

Before founding Zenith in 2003, I spent 23 years working as a steeplejack, starting as an apprentice before working my way up to operations director.

Why did you take the plunge?

In 2003 my former employer went into liquidation, which pushed the move to start Zenith. I resigned from my role on the Thursday, and by Friday afternoon Zenith started operating.

Very quickly, multiple long-standing clients joined us, allowing us to employ 12 members of our former team. It was a daunting yet hugely exciting prospect. Fortunately, we were well known in the industry – clients knew us and more importantly, they trusted us. 

What are your ambitions for the firm?

We are very lucky that the business has grown relatively organically, but that is down to our highly skilled and professional team working in partnership with our clients. We are exceptionally fortunate to have a strong, loyal, and dedicated team who put safety and quality at the heart of everything they do and without them, we wouldn’t have the trust we have received from clients. 

Many of our employees are local, so we are always looking for ways to positively impact the local community. Whether it is providing support to various children's activities, sponsorship of future sporting stars, food banks or various ways of enhancing the local environment, I believe it is important to support the local community.

This year we are celebrating our 20th anniversary of being in business, which is a fantastic achievement. We will continue to invest, support, and nurture our incredible team to continue growing over the next 20 years.

What single thing would most help you achieve the goals for your business?

Relationships and reputation in this business are hugely important. We have worked with many of our clients for 15-35 years. The success of the business to date, and going forward, is built on that reputation, and developing client relationships.

That starts with the team on the ground. They are the real ambassadors of the Zenith Group.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned?

At Zenith, we all share the same values and ethos, our people are our biggest asset. Everyone across the group plays a part in the success of the business, operating to extremely high standards, proud of the work they deliver and the teams they support. 

What has been your most challenging moment in life or business?

One of our biggest challenges was in 2010 when we were approached by Texaco Chevron who were looking for a solution to change a flare tip on a 110m high onshore flare stack in the remote Kazakhstan desert. Due to the height of the flare stack and weight of the flare tip, a crane was an impractical solution due to its remote location.

At the time no solution existed, we didn’t have the inhouse academic expertise and therefore outsourced the design. Following a rigorous design process, we developed a bespoke Davit system that could be erected at the head of the flare. Thanks to the combined effort of our site team and outsourced engineering, this was a great success, leading to us changing out flare tips annually for Chevron since 2011 using this method. Zenith also looks after their 175m demountable flare stack, and all steel and concrete chimney stacks located on the site.

The success of the project fundamentally changed the direction of the business, with the innovation revealing a global requirement for such a service in remote onshore parts of the world, and offshore, where flare tip changeouts had previously relied on helicopters and barge cranes, both extremely challenging and expensive.

From there, the decision was taken to build our own in-house engineering team to enable us to bring innovative ideas to fully engineered and designed solutions.  This brought a new elevated level of academic excellence. Our engineering team is now an integral part of our group working in collaboration with all business divisions. 

What do you now know that you wish you had known when starting out in your career?

I wasn’t academic at school, but I had a passion for being outdoors - I enjoyed being outside and knew that was where I needed to be in whatever path I took. I set my sights on becoming a steeplejack and certainly had no idea of the journey I would go on, but I wouldn’t be on this path if I hadn’t taken chances and opportunities when they presented themselves. I’ve been lucky to meet and work with some incredible people along the way.

It’s not the traditional route to becoming a business owner but I would encourage people to follow their passions and don’t be afraid to take a chance – things tend to work out if you do.