In the early 2000s, Nigel Adams and Gary Escott were colleagues at Prolec, which made safety products for the construction industry.

Nigel was technical director, while Gary headed up sales and marketing.

But when the company was sold and began going through changes, the two decided in 2009 that it was time to start their own venture.

Fast forward 15 years and Ferndown-based SiteZone Safety has grown to be a leading provider of proximity warning systems for the waste and recycling industry, helping to eliminate vehicle-pedestrian collisions.

The company started out as Ongrade, with its signature product Digpilot – the first battery-powered portable system for machine control.

Although machine control has since become a standard feature throughout the construction industry, the UK market wasn’t yet ready for Digpilot, and so Nigel saw fit to pivot the fledgling business.

“During a visit to Intermat Paris – a show for sustainable construction solutions and technologies – I saw a collaboration between a French university and German company looking at RFID (radio frequency identification) for detection of people on conveyor belts.

“I thought it would be a good idea for plant and people in construction.”

After sourcing the technology, they built their first tag-based proximity warning system and found their first customer, a local sand and ballast company.

Before long they’d also caught the attention of Network Rail, and it was time to put the life-saving tech to the test.

Gary recalled: “Unfortunately, our first ever construction project was after the tragic fatality on the M25 upgrade back in 2011.

“We deployed onto many machines, including excavators, dozers and drilling/piling machines.

“It was then that I realised the gravity of plant pedestrian interface, and the life changing impact of fatalities on all involved.

“It’s this that drives us today, to make sure that these incidents are eliminated.”

As Nigel and Gary continued to educate the market on the risks they were setting out to solve, they began picking up clients from both the construction and waste industries – among them Aasvogel and Raymond Brown.

Over the past 15 years they’ve grown to a team of 13 – including engineers, sales and service, marketing, finance, data and production – and their tech is now deployed on 197 waste and recycling sites across the UK.

The journey certainly wasn’t without its lows.

“A challenging time for us was when Carillion went into compulsory liquidation in 2018,” said Gary.

“As any supplier to the construction industry knows, this has a big impact on the supply chain.

“Carillion were an early adopter of our proximity warning system and a large customer of ours at the time.”

Then came the pandemic – which wasn’t itself a threat to the business, but has since posed challenges.

“We still operated during Covid as we were a supplier to essential services,” added Nigel.

“We also had another pivot and rapidly developed a personal detection system to help with social distancing, which was used at the NHS Nightingale Hospital in Birmingham during the pandemic.

“But the post-Covid slump has been the hardest, with more competitors entering the market, as well as our customers who have also been affected by the pandemic needing to reduce costs.”

Nonetheless, the pair remain confident for the future as they celebrate 15 years in business, with plenty of exciting developments on the horizon.

“Data is becoming more relevant,” noted Gary. “The next big step is how we use that data to change behaviour.

“Technology must be simple, and this also applies to data.

“We’ve simplified our data platform so that it’s quick, easy to use, and customers can act from what they learn.

“A whole-site solution is becoming more popular, so we’re soon to launch products that link with the tag or the proximity warning system on the machine to activate signs, alarms, gates to restricted areas.

“We’re also excited to see where our RCV Smart Loader product for the safety of loaders using RCV bin lifts in automatic mode will take us.”

• proximitywarning.com