Company History

Wood Group Industrial Services Limited was originally founded in 1973 as Pyeroy. The objective was to establish a business to apply industrial protective coatings to ships and industrial structures in the North East of England.

By 1994 Pyeroy had grown to a business generating sales of over £8.0million per annum. In 1994, after 20 years of managing the business on a day to day basis, Mr Thompson appointed a managing director and became the Group's non-executive chairman.

In 1995, Pyeroy established a presence at the Rosyth Naval Dockyard in Scotland and expanded its service range to include a number of services complementary to surface preparation and the application of protective coatings including scaffolding, insulation, asbestos removal, industrial cleaning and fire sentry provision.

As a result of this strategy, Pyeroy secured the majority of naval refit work at Rosyth. This culminated with the Group securing the multi-discipline contract for painting, scaffolding, cleaning and insulation work on the Navy's aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal in 1999.

Also in 1999 a specialist civil engineering division was established and the Group established a business to undertake work in the infrastructure sector - in particular - working on the refurbishment of rail and road bridges. The marine business continued to expand with the award of major multi-discipline contracts on HMS Invincible in 2001.

In 2002, Hugh Pelham was recruited and appointed as Group Managing Director. In the same year, the Group secured the prestigious £20m ten year contract to carry out service preparation and application of protective coatings on the Forth Rail Bridge and also secured a three year £25m contract to provide multi-discipline services during the re-fit of HMS Illustrious in Rosyth Dockyard. The two contracts established Pyeroy's reputation as the market leading applicator of protective coatings in the UK.

In 2005, the Group acquired the trade and assets of Palmer's industrial coating business in Scotland and Uprite Services in Ireland. The two acquisitions, alongside the recruitment of a number of key individuals in 2008, enabled the Group to enter into the process and energy markets in the UK and Eire.  

In 2007, Pyeroy established a joint venture company Ship Support Services with Cape Industrial Services Limited. In 2009, the joint venture company was awarded a £120m contract over nine years to provide access and specialist coatings services for the Royal Navy's new generation of aircraft carriers. As part of this contract award, Pyeroy established specialist project teams in all the UK dockyards and shipyards involved in the fabrication of the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers (QEC).

In 2008, Pyeroy secured three key refurbishment contracts in London - Tower Bridge, Southwark Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge.

In 2010, Pyeroy acquired a specialist electrical contracting company in Cork (CEI) to extend the range of services provided to GSK. CEI had previously acted as a sub-contractor to Pyeroy in Ireland delivering services on complex pipebridge refurbishment projects.

In 2011, Pyeroy established a joint venture arrangement with OCS Group Limited to provide industrial support services to Babcock Marine at its Devonport Dockyard. The joint venture was subsequently awarded the term contract to provide industrial support services for warship refits in the Devonport dockyard over a three year period. The Group also secured an additional six year contract for £18m on the QEC Aircraft Carrier project to provide composite support services.

In 2012, Pyeroy entered the offshore energy market and increased its penetration of the oil and gas fabrication market. 

In July 2013 Pyeroy Group Ltd was acquired by Wood Group plc and became a division of Wood Group PSN.