Aberdeenshire engineering boss Ray Milne left school at just 15 with no grand plan, only a curious mind and a knack for taking things apart to see how they worked.
A natural problem-solver from a young age, Ray would spend hours dismantling gadgets and building computers in his teens.
Now, nearly three decades later, he runs Legasea, a subsea engineering firm turning over close to £5 million and operating in 25 countries.
The dad-of-two is targeting £15m turnover and having a team of 50 staff before the end of the decade.
Teen years ‘set foundation’ for future
Ray, 43, left Harlaw Academy at the end of fourth year and chose to go to Aberdeen’s Nescol to do his Highers.
A year later, after seeing a job advert in the Evening Express, Ray applied for an engineering apprenticeship at Wood and was successful.
He said: “It was fantastic, and a great introduction to the industry and exposing me to a lot of different areas.
“When I was a school there was things I was keen on, like building things, taking things apart, figuring out how they work, putting them back together.
“I used to build computers as a bit of a side hustle when I was in my late teens, early 20s.
“Back when you could buy up all the components and build a computer a lot cheaper than buying one in the shops.
“So I had an inkling I wanted to do something like engineering.”
He spent seven years at Wood and tried his hand at other skills including sales.
He said: “I worked in the quality department, sales, and doing a little bit of customer support and helping with quotations.
“It helped me to be of multi-disciplined and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Ray, who is married to Natalie, 45, believes his time there “set a foundation” for the next steps in his career.
Travels around the world
He moved to Dril-Quip where he spent 14 years, with a brief six months hiatus in he middle where he travelled the world for six months with Natalie.
The couple visited Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, USA and Canada.
Ray, who has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for charity, said: “Whilst I was halfway around the world, my boss got in touch asking if I would like a promotion into more of a senior sales role
“I moved to Cairo and worked there throughout the second revolution that took place. It was a bit tricky and a challenging place to do business as there was a lot of protests and tanks in the streets.
“But I probably learned a lot more than I might have ever done if I hadn’t gone anywhere.”
Start of Legasea
It was during his time in Egypt that Ray started a masters degree in business administration with a speciality in oil and gas management through Robert Gordon University distance learning.
He said: “I’ve never actually had any formal education in business itself. It was all life experience.
“After I graduated, I spent quite a lot of time thinking about opportunities to potentially start a business.
“It’s something I’ve always had aspirations of.
“I probably mulled over half a dozen different options. But then I ended up meeting up with a friend and former colleague, Lewis Sim, and we got chatting.
“He was of the same mindset, wanted to start a business. So we decided to go for it.”
‘It’s all about reuse’
In April 2019 the duo pulled together their own personal savings and investment from friends to raise £100,000 and launch Echt-based Legasea.
The subsea engineering business specialises in mechanical, hydraulic and electrical engineering.
Ray, dad to Ashlyn, 12 and nine-year-old Leoni, said: “The thing that kind of sets us apart from similar companies is, it’s all about reuse, taking parts that have been in service in the industry and turning them around, reusing the parts, re-certifying them to create new equipment.
“Initially the biggest hurdle was trying to convince the industry that reuse was a viable option.
“Very much industry tend to buy new and throw out old equipment. And there was a lot of wastage in terms of the whole fields of equipment.
“If they haven’t moved for a while, they potentially just be scrapped only for somebody to need that equipment a few months down the line.
“There was a bit of pessimism surrounding the potential for basically the appetite in the industry. But I think we crossed that hurdle fairly early on by getting our first projects over the line.
“Once we had case studies to demonstrate to people how it all worked, it was a lot easier to convince them.”
£15m turnover target for Legasea
Turnover in the first year of business was £74,000. Now Ray & Lewis, who also previously worked at Dril-Quip, are on track to reach £5m by the end of this year.
Legasea has carried out work in 25 different countries so far and there’s hopes of expansion around the globe, including West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico.
Ray said: “There’s a lot of areas where there’s a big demand for our services. It makes sense for us to have a presence.
“And in order to do that, we need to vastly increase our headcount and our geographical spread across the world.
“At the moment we’re looking to be on target for maybe a headcount of around 35 by the end of next year. And a target of perhaps 50 people three years from now.
“Our projections are hitting about £15m revenue by the end of this decade.
“There’s been challenges along the way, such as the oil and gas downturn and Covid.
“But if we keep on going at the same rate we have been, just organic growth and building slowly but surely, those are the kind of targets we’re expecting to be at.”
‘It’s not just all about me’
Ray, who went to Loirston Primary, is very proud of his achievements but is also keen to point out it’s been a team effort.
He said: “I think it’s fantastic. And I’m sure my 15-year-old self probably would have been astounded. But it’s not just all about me.
“It’s about the people within the business that have helped us along the way. We have a fairly open-door policy.
“Everybody works together. We’re all kind of mucking in together.
“We don’t tend to have any big egos and the success of the business isn’t just down to the people at the top.”
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