With the end of 2019 upon us, we wanted to take the opportunity to update you all on what’s been going on at 1st Line Defence this year, and share some news and plans for the future.
It’s been a very busy year for the company, despite the uncertainly in the sector triggered by Brexit. Although we did see some large projects pushed back in the first few months, as the industry waited for a decision leading up to the 29th March, we felt relatively little effect. The large and varied number of projects that we support, many of them long term and ongoing, meant that we were able to keep work steady.
We have significantly expanded our office staff this year to 47, with the goal of improving logistics and the project support environment. We gained two new Researchers, growing the research department to a total of 16 full-time staff.
Our Business Management team have initiated and implemented many new policies, procedures and training across the company this year. As part of this, significant progress has been made implementing a revised Integrated Management System, and improvements to our documentation, procedures and training will remain a firm objective for the remainder of the year.
This summer, 1st Line Defence invested in the latest commercially available UAV technology and combined it with a specially designed magnetometer system from one of the world’s leading providers of magnetic and electromagnetic survey systems and components. Find out more here.
We invested in our fifth intrusive survey rig in January, allowing us more control and flexibility in providing deep intrusive magnetometer survey, adding to our capability and allowing us to expand. We have also increased investment in repairs and maintenance of plant and equipment, and changed our plant services and haulage supplier to improve the reliability of our plant and logistics. We have recently placed an order for another new rig which is due to come online in March/April 2020.
Due to our continued expansion, this year has seen our Finance Department move to a new premises – they are now settled into a nearby office. We are currently in the process of purchasing an additional office opposite our existing main building to facilitate further expansion. This year also saw the building and testing of a new bespoke company-wide operational system, designed to improve efficiencies in both the office and on the ground.
We would like to thank all our staff, clients, suppliers, families and friends for your support this year, and we are very excited to get started in 2020. Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas, and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.
