Plant safety manufacturer Prolec moves to Hampshire
Europe’s largest manufacturer of plant safety systems in the construction industry has relocated within Hampshire to a new research and development facility.
With a team of development engineers, Prolec is now testing innovations in safety-critical systems from an office and adjacent testing field in Upham, seven miles south-east of Winchester.
The company previously had a Hampshire base at Ocean Village Innovation Centre (OVIC) in Southampton, utilising 12 serviced offices in total over six years as it flexed workspace to meet operational requirements, including during the pandemic.
Established in 1982, and also with an office in Poole, Prolec was acquired by the Kinshofer Group, an international leader in excavator attachments, in December 2022 from James Fisher & Sons.
Nigel Shaw, Prolec’s managing director, said: “Demand for our productivity and safety systems to the construction equipment industry continues to grow, with our new site at Upham enabling us to walk outside the office, get to the field and test our software and hardware in real world with an array of deliberate physical hazards – overhead, at the sides and underground.
“We would have preferred to stay at OVIC, which played an important part in our evolution by enabling us to flex workspace to meet operational requirements, including during the national lockdowns, but Stephen, OVIC’s centre manager, couldn’t source me a field outside for product development!”
Nigel, who holds a masters in Information Engineering from the University of Southampton, added: “Having relocated in May to Upham, the team has already settled in, with development engineers and sales and marketing all under one roof, and we are already looking to recruit two more development engineers.
“It is very much all systems go – there are more than 16,000-plus excavators and other plant machines incorporating Prolec’s ‘virtual barriers’, and we will always be thankful to OVIC for its unwavering support and allowing us to outgrow its premises.”
Stephen Deller, OVIC’s centre manager, said: “Whilst we are sad to see Nigel and his team leave, it is for the best of reasons – expansion – and we were pleased to be a stepping stone for Prolec. Indeed, the relocation is a key measure of success for us; OVIC has done its job.”
Prolec recently launched an all-in-one screen for operators of plant machinery cabins, encompassing safety, with proximity sensors and automatic stop features for unsafe height, slew and loads, and productivity for guidance so optimal digging accuracy can be achieved without wastage.
Nigel said: “We hear construction staff saying to machine operatives ‘have you got your Prolec on?’ They refer to our name in everyday language like people do when they talk about Hoovers rather than vacuum cleaners.”
Prolec expanded from its base in Poole, Dorset, in 2018 in order to tap into the talented pool from Southampton’s two universities and a cluster of well-respected engineering firms.
Using virtual barriers, Prolec’s technology stops collisions with hazards, such as overhead power cables, ground obstacles and people or objects getting too close, by limiting machine movement.
With 67 serviced offices, and in-house business support and meeting rooms, OVIC, which turns 14 in December, is run by Oxford Innovation Space on behalf of the building’s private owner.
