10 years after starting life in a spare room a Liverpool electrical engineering firm is celebrating a year of growth and another contract win. Tony McDonough reports

DefProc Engineering in Liverpool is announcing another contract win that will see it form a partnership as part of an Innovate UK project. 

Based at Liverpool Science Park, DefProc was launched in a spare room by husband and wife team Patrick and Jen Fenner 10 years ago with no equipment and no investment. Now it works with multiple clients and has a six-figure turnover.

In July LBN reported it had won a deal with Northern Gas Networks to develop a sensor that will reduce disruption in peoples’ homes if gas supply is lost. That contract was the eighth in 2023 with a total value of £236,000.

Its latest project win is with Bomac Electric, a prominent player in the heating element industry. Bomac has appointed DefProc to work with it as an innovation partner on a project for Innovate UK.

Partick Fenner, the firm’s head of engineering, said: “The adoption of the Internet of Things, sensors and making things smart is quite new to a lot of companies but we have been doing it for 10 years now, giving us a competitive advantage.

“Everything we made at the start of our journey was quite simple but has gradually evolved in complexity. We now have a deep understanding of how to scale things from small to large.

“In the future, we want to be at the forefront of helping people adopt technology on a large scale, commercialise some of our current products and continue to be involved in tech for good, inclusive innovation and tech for purpose.”

Other DefProc clients over the past decade include the Environment Agency, BBC R&D, FACT, The Science Museum Group, Culture Liverpool and Bruntwood.

Jen Fenner, who is managing director of the business, added: “We started by helping others turn their ideas into reality at concept stage, but large organisations, such as Northern Gas Networks and Bomac Electric, now use us to help improve innovation.

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“Our first national project with the Environment Agency was revolutionary for them and us, teaching 48 members of staff across the country how to create new devices for collecting data and gaining better insight into the environment.

“This latest partnership with Bomac Electric reflects our mission for the future – being able to offer bespoke solutions to long-term innovation partners that will make a real difference to the economy, environment and engineering industry.”

Julia McDonald, commercial and marketing director at Bomac Electric. Also said: “Despite being one of a few companies that we approached, Defproc quickly grasped our project requirements, delivering a proposal that perfectly aligned with our goals, and displaying flexibility.”