Manager Jack Barclay founded Unst Inshore Services during 1996, as a result of a demand for a versatile light engineering company which could satisfy the heavy demands of the Aquaculture industry.

We started building and repairing salmon cages for Polar Cirkel and soon built a good reputation in the Industry. This allowed us to demonstrate our other skills and new work was soon forthcoming. Based on the good reputation and market potential at the time it was decided that we would become independent and part company from Polar Cirkel.

The need for under water lighting in fish farm cages also brought us an order for a generator lighting pontoon. The requirements were that the unit had to be designed so that the sea could wash over the equipment and it had to be as compact as possible. We built the first unit with 2 Lister 6Kva generators in aluminium housings with plastic flotation and fuel tank. The fuel capacity of 1200 litres gives one month running without refuelling. The generator pontoon has stood the extreme winter weather off the coast of Shetland with ease, proving that the design is both robust and reliable. There are now six in operation around Shetland.

We attended the Aqua 2000 Exhibition in Glasgow, Scotland, and that allowed us to demonstrate beyond the confines of Shetland what Unst Inshore Services could produce. The response was favourable and there was great interest from as far a field as Australia, Chile, Canada, Turkey and from within the UK itself. This did not come as a surprise as at Unst Inshore Services we build what the customer wants, not what we think they should have.

Fish Farmers are rarely allowed sufficient input into the design process. At Unst Inshore Services we believe in talking with the farmers and listening to them to find the simplest possible solution. In our opinion, it is a mistake to try to copy other ideas. Nothing is learnt from this, as problems are often inherited from previous designs. We design, prototype and build all our own equipment. This makes us our own worst critics, so if we are satisfied with a design then our customers almost certainly will be, and they are the people who count.