Menu

First Engineering Services Ltd was started in 1999, as a one man business by our MD and owner Simon Oliphant.

Working from shared premises his first job came from local company Cavaghan & Gray, which proved to be the start of a long standing relationship – and also the beginning of his successful association with the food manufacturing business. After winning orders from other local companies, Simon took on his first fabricator in 2000; this had increased to four by 2002.  Out of necessity this triggered a move to larger, rented premises in the same year.

First Engineering Services Ltd continued to grow and started to take on larger and more complex jobs, including conveying and material handling systems.  This led to the requirement of expert design staff and the company’s first design engineer was employed in 2004. In 2007 Simon purchased a larger site at Barras Industrial Estate in Dalston and we re-located there with 7 staff including 2 design engineers.  A company website was introduced in the same year.

As the company’s reputation for quality and service spread and the business expanded; new offices where added into the premises; the workshop was extended and the staff levels increased to 12. In 2012 a works manager was employed to assist with the re-structuring and future running of the business.  A local competitor was bought out in the same year, increasing the staff to 19 – this enabled the company’s customer base to expand and diversify dramatically.

A retail outlet, Weldtech UK, was opened in 2013 at the Dalston site, supplying welding consumables and work wear to the engineering trade – an e-commerce site was also launched soon after.

In 2015, we bought out another local company specialising in the supply of equipment to the beverage industry.  This was viewed as a good fit into the business as their busy period falls when the food industry is historically quiet.  This brought nine staff of different expertise but with transferable skills into the business and allowed FES to quote for much larger jobs.

This also necessitated the need to move once again into our present much larger, environmentally friendly and modern manufacturing facility.

At present through investing in the latest manufacturing equipment and qualified people, we now have a team of over 60 people – inclusive of design engineers, machinists, fabricators, fitters, apprentices, labourers and office staff.

First Engineering Services Ltd are currently supplying blue chip companies, both throughout the UK and abroad with various bespoke equipment and material handling systems, as well as maintenance services.  Some of the major customers that FES deal with on a day-to-day basis include Crown Bevcan, Ball Packaging, Britvic, Nestle UK, United Biscuits, Carrs Billington, Greencore Convenience Foods, 2 Sisters Food Group, Pirelli Tyres, Park Cakes, Young’s Seafood’s and Heinz, as well as numerous smaller  businesses.

As well as throughout the UK, there are now material handling lines that have been manufactured by FES in Poland, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Chile, South Africa, Kenya and the USA. The opportunities for the export market are vast and notably in new sectors – for example in 2014 FES manufactured lifting beams for the ship building industry in Finland, which was their first direct export.

A forward looking company,  First Engineering Services Ltd continue to grow through investing in people and the latest manufacturing equipment to meet its customer’s demands.