A Pocket History of Drake & Scull

A Pocket History of Drake & Scull
 The history of Drake & Scull begins with two companies - Drake & Gorham and Arthur
 Scull & Son. Both companies were founded by Victorian entrepreneurs with inventive
              minds, a talent for business and remarkable energy and vision.

Bernard Drake was born in 1858, the eldest of nine children. On reaching the age of 19, he
announced that he wanted to become an industrial engineer - not a military engineer like his
father. When the outraged Colonel Mervin Drake finally calmed down, he managed to obtain
an introduction for his son to Sir Joseph Whitworth, a celebrated engineer.

Bernard worked at Whitworth's works in Manchester for four years. In his spare time he
studied the exciting new trade of electrical engineering. At the age of 23, he left to join the
Brush Electrical Company. Three years later, he moved again, to become Managing
Engineer with the Electrical Power Company at the princely salary of £300 per year. It was
here that he met Marshall Gorham, the firm's Works Manager.
Marshall Gorham, like Bernard Drake, was a brilliant inventor. The two men soon found that
they worked well together and combined their inventive talents. Over the next 15 years, they
invented and patented an astonishing number of devices, including an electronic recording
system, a table lamp, an electric sign, a device for purifying exhaust fumes and a primitive
type of outboard motor.

Drake & Gorham
In 1886, aged 28, Bernard Drake borrowed £500
from a wealthy aunt to form a new company, Drake
& Gorham. The two partners had a clear and simple
objective – to install electricity into private houses.
Both Bernard Drake and Marshall Gorham had
impeccable credentials. Both men had installed
electric lighting into the homes of European Kings
(Drake for Alphonso XIII of Spain and Gorham for
Charles I of Romania). For England's Victorian
gentry there could be no better recommendation.

During the 1880s the partners installed electricity into the great country houses of Britain -
places too remote to be served by the mains supply. Sightseers gathered, whispering in awe
as the windows of the houses were magically illuminated and night turned into day. The
Company's major breakthrough came in 1893 when Drake & Gorham won the contract for
installing electricity into Chatsworth House, the Derbyshire seat of the Duke of Devonshire
and one of the greatest stately homes in England. Forty reporters came to cover the
completion of the contract. After that, the volume of work increased steadily.

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In May 1901, Drake & Gorham became a limited liability company with a capital of £125,000
divided into £1 shares. During the pre-war period, Bernard Drake and Marshall Gorham
expanded the range of the Company's activities. The Company began doing a lot of
business in the great cotton mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Initially they installed lighting
systems. But Bernard Drake soon saw an opportunity to install electric motors to replace the
old steam powered engines.

The first few months of the war had little effect on civilian life in Britain. But by 1915 the
economy had changed drastically to cope with the war effort. Drake & Gorham was engaged
in electrical installations for military camps, hospitals, munitions factories, engineering works
and an airplane factory. The firm's profits rose steadily throughout the war years. But after
the end of the war came the Depression. Only a number of major mill conversions, a
successful venture into electrically powered vehicles and an award for a huge electrical
installation at the Bank of England kept the Company safety in profit. Unfortunately, Bernard
Drake never saw this contract completed. He died suddenly in 1931 at the age of 73.

                               Hamlyn Drake
                               Hamlyn Drake was 32 years old when he became Chairman.
                               Like his father, he was a shrewd businessman with an
                               inventive turn of mind. During the Depression, he consistently
                               refused to lower the standard of workmanship or materials.
                                Instead, he concentrated on diversifying the business.
                                In 1938, the firm's order books began to change, showing a
                                number of large contracts for RAF aerodromes. Drake &
                                Gorham's factories switched to war work, manufacturing parts
                                for Churchill tanks and equipment for military aircraft. This work
                                was carried out under the most difficult of conditions. Many
skilled men joined, or were conscripted, into the forces. Government work meant long delays
in payment. Drake & Gorham had to rely on unusually large overdrafts to finance this great
increase in activities during the war.

At the end of the war, the Board of Directors took a bold decision - to expand the Company.
The policy was a success and the 1950s and 1960s saw Drake & Gorham winning a number
of key contracts both in the UK and overseas. By 1963 the firm had become a worldwide
business, employing around 2,000 people and producing an annual profit of £300,000. But
for some years the directors had been looking for a means of further expansion that would
place the Company in the field of multi-service contracting. Their aim would dovetail into
those of Drake & Gorham. There was one company that was ideally suited for such a
merger, a company that had often worked alongside Drake & Gorham and had much in
common. This was Arthur Scull & Son; a Bristol based plumbing, heating and ventilation
company.

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Arthur Scull
Arthur Stanley Scull was born in Bristol in 1860, one of 11
children. The Sculls were not a wealthy family and, at the age
of 14, Arthur was apprenticed to G. F. Tuckey, Master
Plumber.

After financing his indentures, Arthur rented a small workshop
in Milk Street, Bristol. For the first few years, his "sanitary
engineering" business remained small and Arthur could not
even afford a handcart for the transport of tools and fittings.
But by 1899 he was employing two Plumbers and their Mates,
plus an apprentice, William Rudman, who was eventually to become a Director of the
Company and a close family friend of the Sculls. The firm began to specialise in the repair
of church roofs, which were then largely made of lead. The high quality of their work soon
led to jobs on country houses, the first being "Giencof' at Wookey Hole. Arthur Scull began
making his reputation for country housework at the same time as Bernard Drake was making
his reputation at Chatsworth House.

The Company grew in size and prosperity. During the 1900s the firm began winning major
commercial contracts including hospitals, municipal buildings, factories and some of the
finest private houses in the land. Arthur Scull was full of confidence. The Company had
grown steadily for 23 years and was still expanding both at home and overseas.
Unfortunately, the early archives of the Company were destroyed by firebombs in 1941. But
it is clear that the business did not do well during the Great War. Another blow came in 1916
when Arthur brought his son into the firm to learn the business. Ten days later the boy
announced he had joined the army. Arthur, enraged, threatened to tell the authorities the
lad's real age. He eventually calmed down and Anthony spent the next three years in the
trenches of the Western Front.

When he returned to civilian life in 1919, Anthony found the Company sadly depleted. But
he soon showed a remarkable talent for business and his energy and enthusiasm began
winning contracts. In fact, the firm's order book grew so fast that his father struggled to find
finance for the extra work. In 1925, Arthur took his son into the business as a full partner and
the firm became Arthur Scull & Son. Anthony not only increased the Company's country
house work but he also greatly enlarged the range of contracts. He secured work on
cinemas, hotels and office blocks, and most significantly, won some of the earliest public
housing contracts.

Early in 1928 Arthur Scull decided to retire. That same year Anthony Scull was appointed
Chairman and Managing Director and William Rudman; the Company's first Apprentice
became a Director. The Great Depression caused serious problems for the Company. But
Anthony Scull refused to compromise on quality. By careful economies and planning, the

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Company continued to obtain its share of contracts. During the Second World War the
Company was kept busy all over the country carrying out plumbing and heating work in
aircraft factories, air fields, service and evacuation camps, munitions factories, foundries,
mills and military hospitals. When the war ended the Company was in a strong position.
Local Authorities were keen to get back to house building and widespread German bombing
had created an enormous backlog of work. Arthur Scull & Son was one of many companies
that helped to rebuild the city of Bristol.

In 1948, the Company undertook remedial work on Bristol Cathedral. This lead to further
contracts, most noticeably the roofing of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's magnificent Anglican
Cathedral in Liverpool - a building second only in size to St Peters in Rome. During the
1950s, the Company continued to expand, working on Lloyd's new building in the City of
London and Battersea Fun Fair. By 1963, the Company achieved a record profit of £76,569,
employing 1,200 staff.

Merger
The merger negotiation between the companies of Drake & Gorham and Arthur Scull & Son
was carried out in secrecy during the first month of 1964. When the merger was complete,
the Drake & Scull Engineering Company was formed and divided into four Regions,
operating from London, Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow.

The new company soon embarked on multi-service contracts, working on various hospital,
government, commercial and industrial work, university buildings, public authority work and
overseas contracts. After its first year, the Company showed a profit of £364,762 before tax,
both parties having made record profits. Two years later, in March 1966, Anthony Scull
retired as Director and Deputy Chairman of the Company after 51 years in the business.
The late 1960s were a time of unprecedented expansion for Drake & Scull. The Company
acquired Sturtevant Engineering Company Ltd, the historic firm of Holland, Hannen and
Cubbit and Chiltern Electric, a switchgear manufacturing company. It also expanded into
Scotland following the purchase by James Coombe Ltd. By the end of 1969, the Company
was employing 10,900 people in the UK alone with a profit of £1,467,623.

In August 1983, the Company merged with Simon Engineering Group, a holding company
with around 50j trading subsidiaries, mostly in the manufacturing business. But 1987 saw a
rural electrification project in Nigeria go badly wrong. It reminded the board of the difficulties
they had been experiencing understanding the rewards and risks of mechanical and
electrical contracting. In 1988 Simon Engineering announced its intention to sell Drake &
Scull.

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A new start under EMCOR
The favoured buyer was a young US company called JWP
- a group of specialist mechanical and electrical
contractors. An early spin-off of the new relationship was
the award of the E50 million Canary Wharf contract. This
was soon followed by a facility management contract for
British Airways, which marked Drake & Scull's coming of
age as a premier facility services provider. The Company's
facility services division grew from a starting turnover of £8
million to a profitable £68 million in only five years.

This success and the award of the £75 million Jubilee Line Extension contracts softened the
blow of the early 1990s recession. In December 1994 Drake & Scull's US               parent
company radically restructured and emerged, phoenix-like, under the new
name, EMCOR. It soon became apparent on Wall Street that the
company had completed a remarkable turnaround in fortune.

By the beginning of 1996 the UK recession had finally come to an end.
All economic indicators were pointing to a period of strong, healthy growth.
Drake & Scull's facility services division now had a turnover in excess of £100
million, it's contracting division was increasing market share and in
September 1996 it launched a new South African facility services
company in a joint venture with the Tsebo Outsourcing Group
(formerly known as the Fedics Outsourcing Group). But most
importantly the Company had committed itself to a major culture change
underpinned by four core values, designed to make the Company more
efficient and effective: commitment to customer satisfaction; commitment to
quality; recognition of the individual; integrity and openness.

From its humble beginnings Drake & Scull Engineering Ltd has developed into a world class
engineering and facility services provider with a turnover of around £350 million. Now, with
the backing of the $2.2 billion EMCOR Group, the Company is ideally positioned to take
advantage of the new opportunities.

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Drake & Scull FM (SA) (PTY) Ltd
In September 1996, DSTS launched a new South African facility services
company in a joint venture with the Tsebo Outsourcing Group (formerly
known as the Fedics Outsourcing Group). Facilities Management had
taken off in the UK during the late eighties, and by the mid-nineties
Britain was a world leader in the field. South Africa, however,
still had a largely untapped market.           The venture was
enthusiastically supported by EMCOR, who had themselves drawn
on Drake & Scull’s expertise in the FM business. The new business
flourished as clients saw the gains that could be achieved by outsourcing
their non-core activities. All it lacked was a flagship contract to signal its
arrival as a major player on the world scene. This finally came in 1999 when Drake & Scull
South Africa won the R170 million Standard Bank Contract for the facilities management of
the Bank’s head office in Johannesburg.

Drake & Scull offered a complete package of service to help reduce overheads and improve
standards as well as allowing the Bank to focus its effort on its core business. The scope of
the services covered everything from space management, help desk and cleaning to
managing the catering, mail room and maintenance.

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