ABOUT US

In 1994 Lerwick Engineering & Fabrication Ltd was officially founded by the previous Managing Director David Suckley, specialising in all type’s of fabrication and engineering, but mostly concentrating on the various types of welding. LEF has since then spent many years working with the biggest companies in the business. Working with BP for many years on their Sullom Voe Oil terminal carrying out various works LEF have been at the forefront of all welding working in and around Shetland for the last 20+ years.

A year which will go down is the company’s history. It was the beginning of this year that one of the most notorious storeman in LEF’s history took up his role (Infact the only storeman we had for years). After coming in to look after the store for ‘a couple of weeks’ when the last storeman left for another job Jim Ridland took the reins. No matter who you speak to in Shetland and beyond Jim’s name is synonymous with LEF and the store. Ruling the store with his stories of Shetlands fish history and knowing that no matter what you get from him it’s always his last one… Jim is the heart and soul of the company and we are very lucky to have him in the Store.

This year William   became a shareholder and director of the company. Willie took control of mainly the blast and paint shop as well as helping his Co-Directors with the general running of the company. Wille has a fantastic knowledge of everything to do with metal work and fabrication, and is a real asset to the company.

After a difficult year for all at the company, we were happy to announce that Ryan Owen was promoted to the post of General Manager. Ryan has worked for the company since 2005, starting off as an apprentice and working his way up through the ranks. With his knowledge of the industry, ambition and drive to push the company onwards and upwards he was the ideal man for the job.

In 2014 we celebrated being in business for 20 years. This is a fantastic milestone for a company of our size and is due to the hard work of our Directors, loyal staff and highly skilled workforce. Dave the only remaining founding Director along with the rest of the team continue to carry on heading in the original direction he set out. While previous directors and staff have come and gone the original value of producing great quality work for best value time and time again has always stuck.

This was a tough year for the oil and gas industry, there has been a significant downturn within the industry however at LEF we have continued our aim to be proactive towards providing cost effective solutions to our clients problems. In November we were successfully audited by TWI and were delighted with gaining the worldwide recognised high quality welding standard BS EN ISO3834 and CE Marking. We will continue to carry on this aim in 2016 along with looking for more innovative and effective ideas.

LEF throughout the downturn have continued to provide cost efficient services allowing us to be competitive with mainland UK for all works carried out. In September we were delighted to have Ryan become a Director of the company. Ryan’s passion, ambition and drive to move the company forward made this a logical and exciting progression forward for the company. 

This year saw a lot of key moments happen within LEF. We introduced key members of staff who are now pushing the company on further that it has ever gone before. We invested around £350,000 on key equipment which has allowed us to be more cost effective in jobs and produce some outstanding work never before seen from a machine on the island. The new top of the range Plasma CNC Profile Cutting Machine was one of only 3 in the UK, it allows us to do far more complex work than had ever been done at LEF. The new large saws that were put in place this year are also allowing us to cut material bigger and quicker than before, utilising a full automated system we are able to use this to cut materials with a finer tolerance. 

We also took on some fantastic fabrication jobs which due to the size of our workshop we were the preferred choice for the companies who required the jobs to be fabricated inside. Our Coatings Division also had a very different job this year, they were tasked by to blast and paint a work barge that was being sent to the Antarctic to assist on construction work there over their summer months (our winter).

Jake Watt existing General manager completed a 100% share management buyout of existing directors who have taken retirement. 2022 became a pivotal year for LEF under new leadership looking at many of the existing company processes, as well as a new branding and identity. During this phase LEF also seen a high growth trajectory doubling in size and large investment into its assets.

Continuing from 2022 growth continued with LEF taking on larger profile jobs and forming many valuable relationships with clients. LEF opened its facility division comprising of electrical, plumbing, utilities, facility management and renewable installation.  Many cloud based interoperable software’s came live during this year increasing company efficiency, and providing clients with remote access to track and monitor project live and moving it towards a paperless company.