Weymouth: Bay Engineering doubles turnover with help from Dormen

Bay Engineering is set to double its turnover to £1 million after it was paired with a specialist mentor from Dormen – the Dorset business mentoring service which links experienced business people with companies.

The Dormen service at most costs a £100 annual administration fee, as the mentors are unpaid.

Based in Weymouth, Bay Engineering was turning over £500,000 before the recession of 2008 and that dropped slightly in the immediate years afterwards. Managing director Darren Taylor then contacted Dormen, which suggested Frank Guinn as mentor, and the partnership has been a spectacular success.

Taylor, who along with Steve Balem established the company in 2001 following a management buyout, said that the main thing the mentor has done is to give him confidence. He said: “We thought it was too good to be true when we discovered Frank Guinn actually had an electronics background. We had a meeting and he basically got us asking ourselves the questions we should have been asking.

“Because we were meeting with him every month we were more motivated to put in place things than we might have been, and have gone from strength to strength . We moved premises in March last year, bought a great deal of new equipment and are now looking to turn over £1m this year and grow our workforce in the future from 11 to 20 people.”

Guinn, who formerly ran several highly-successful electronic businesses, said: “Like everyone, Bay Engineering was hit by the recession. I had a meeting with Darren and Steve and we discussed how they could diversify by doing assembly work. In the meantime they gained new customers and started to recover. They put in place controls to monitor costs to see which projects were most profitable. They have done everything properly and invested profits back into the company with a new building and new machines.

“When I sold my businesses I wanted to put something back and I do like to see young firms succeeding. I am able to warn businesses of tank traps because I’ve been there before and I am able to guide them away from problems.”

Vivian Dunn from Dormen, said: “We have mentors with expertise in all sectors and we’re looking for businesses to partner them with. Bay Engineering had ambition to expand and Frank was able to help them do that while avoiding mistakes. Mentors can often just instil confidence in business people and point them in the right direction – and that can be incredibly valuable.”