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Scanbio Scotland took over Norfab Products Ltd, established in June 1986 to serve the needs of the growing Scottish and Irish salmon farming industries. The founder of Norfab, Chris Jones still runs the business. We employ four people with an exceptionally wide range of skills and design our own products in-house, using the most modern CAD system available. Dealing with Scanbio Scotland means that our customers deal directly with the people who make the equipment they buy.
The company is dedicated to developing its staff. We acknowledge that they are vital to the quality of the products and service we provide. Our aim is to continuously develop the skills of everyone in the business.
We have in-house capabilities to do welding,
fabrication, machining, sheet metal work, hydraulics, electrics
and electronics. We use all common engineering materials,
including metals, plastics and even wood. Our speciality is
high class stainless steel work.
Click
here for a gallery of Photos of Scanbio Scotland at work
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Background
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Managing Director Chris Jones is a qualified mechanical engineer, with over thirty years' experience in a wide range of engineering disciplines. He originally trained as a machinist and progressed to become a toolmaker during his years in employment in companies producing motor parts, packaging machinery, aircraft and nuclear power components. He migrated to Norway in the early eighties, to work as a toolmaker in a small company producing animal feed silos, where he gained his first introduction to salmon farming and aquaculture equipment
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Celebrating ten years of product quality
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|  We have always been very conscious of the importance of good quality management systems, even for a small company like ours. Without them, it is extremely difficult to ensure the customer gets what he expects or to monitor individual projects as they pass through production. We’ve always striven to document and control the smallest details of what we do, so that we can ensure fitness for purpose, or on the rare occasions when things go wrong, we can trace what happened and rectify matters.?
In 1992, we won the McDermott Scotland Quality Award for ‘Outstanding product and manufacturing quality’. It was a startling achievement looking back at it, given that in 1993, the award was won by a major multi-national, multi-million business. We’ve never stood still on quality and we remain very proud of our achievement. Scanbio Scotland carries on the tradition and we continue to push ahead to constantly improve our systems. |
Three generations
of private enterprise
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Chris is the third generation in his family to have struck out
on his own in business, following his father Len and Grandfather
William (Bill). Not much is known about Bill's life before he
met and married, having come from a family of travelling entertainers.
However, he somehow trained as a cobbler, and established his
own shop, in Polesworth, Staffs in the early 1900s. A capable
craftsman, Bill made boots for his eight sons, including Len,
the second youngest. The soles would be peppered with dozens
of iron studs, a delight to the boys, who would slide their
way to school amid showers of sparks. A stiff belting from dad
would be meted out though, should a single stud be missing on
inspection. |
Bill, a 'bit of a lad' in his time, is on the right of the three
men in the photograph, taken it is thought, around 1910. If
anyone recognises the other two from their own family photo
archive, Chris would dearly love to know who they are.
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Chris's father Len was also colourful
man. A highly skilled Master Butcher, a raconteur, talented
singer and amateur operatic performer, and a skillful hobby
gardener. He began his full-time career in the meat trade
in 1928, at the tender age of fourteen, when horse drawn transport
was still the norm. He established his shop in Hinckley, Leics
in 1958 after working for the Co-op for many years.
Chris's own working life began part-time
aged eight, making local deliveries on a Sunday morning, when
few people had fridges of their own to store their fresh meat.
The photo shows the shop sometime in the early 1960s.
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Location
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Our home town of Fort William is the centre of Scottish aquaculture. Geographically, the town is approximately 160 km north west of Glasgow, at the head of Loch Linnhe and the western end of the Great Glen. Served by sea, rail and road, Fort William has a state of the art digital telephone exchange, giving us access to Broadband internet technology.
Putting the town at the heart of fin fish farming is the main operational base of Marine Harvest Scotland, one of the world's largest salmon producers, just a mile from our front door.
For a closer view of Scanbio Scotland®'s location
click here |
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