An Insight Into Prior Power Solutions

Rebranding during a global pandemic

This week, NAAME Project Manager, James, caught up with Stephanie Pimlott, Marketing and Business Manager at Prior Power Solutions.

The Great Yarmouth business celebrated its 40th year in business last year and took the bold decision to plough ahead with its rebrand, despite the global pandemic. Here’s what they had to say:

Prior Power Solutions Background

Established in 1980 as an extension to George Prior Engineering, Prior Diesel started out supporting the repair and maintenance of diesel engines and equipment on vessels operating in the North Sea. Over the decades, as gas exploration boomed in the Southern North Sea, the business grew and expanded, with complementary offshore and parts departments.

Expertise within the well service department quickly reached international reputation for high quality design, manufacture, and servicing of a wide range of hazardous area equipment, particularly well service equipment including nitrogen pumps, specialist skids, coil tubing and compressor units for the offshore industry.

In the company’s 40th year and to align ourselves with the direction of growth of energy supply, we became Prior Power Solutions in September 2020.

Owned by HitecVision, Norway’s largest private equity investor, Prior Power Solutions is part of the Moreld Group of companies with a collective ambition of embracing the energy transition.

Power Solutions for a Changing World

With the Paris Agreement committing to combat climate change, Prior Power Solutions is taking action and making investments needed to support a sustainable low carbon future.

Already adapting equipment to operate with cleaner Stage V diesel engines, now mandatory in many settings, we have undertaken considerable R&D into electrically driven equipment – launching what are thought to be world first electrically-driven nitrogen pumps and hydraulic power units in 2020.

It doesn’t stop there with engineers looking at hybrid and dual fuel power solutions too.

Ultimately, we see hydrogen as a key component of the future energy mix, and we are undertaking exciting research and development in the field of hydrogen-injected diesel engines and hydrogen fuel cells. As we collaborate with Manchester Metropolitan University and the Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre for this, we are visibly demonstrating our ability as a British manufacturer to adapt to and embrace change.

Rebrand

The decision to continue with our rename and complete rebrand despite the uncertainty and ongoing pandemic was a bold, but significant move.

It was important for us to secure our position in the global energy market going forward and for our name and brand to accurately represent the range of power solutions we now provided without delay.

As the country emerged from the first lockdown last summer, the logistics of the rebrand were not particularly impacted by Covid restrictions. One of the benefits of being located in Great Yarmouth is the full complement of service companies on your doorstep. It was important to us to support the local economy and we were proud of the fact that 97% of the rebrand spend was with the local supply chain.

The biggest impact of Covid on the rebrand was the launch, which, like most things for the last 18 months was ‘virtual’. However, the exponential growth of technology in the workplace and social media ensured that the message quickly spread and new name firmly established.

Our new logo builds on the original Prior Diesel logo which was in turn a take on the Detroit Diesel Logo – Prior Diesel’s original main product line. Everything we do involves rotating equipment which the logo represents.

The change in colours in our logo demonstrate the direction of growth of energy supply and a future sustainable world. Green represents hope, growth and prosperity and blue instilling trust, dependability, and security.

The whole workforce was engaged to help develop our strapline – ‘Power Solutions for a Changing World’. This speaks of our innovation and commitment to developing alternative, greener power solutions for all industries.

Diversification

Prior Power Solutions was selected for participation in the Fit for Offshore Renewables (F4OR) New Anglia Programme 2020, co-funded by the ORE Catapult and the New Anglia LEP.

Having identified that we were too reliant on the oil and gas sector, we were keen to address that by adapting our products and services into adjacent markets such as offshore renewables.

Being part of the F4OR Programme is allowing us to develop and gown our business further and learn from other companies in the cohort.

Looking ahead, our team is our strength and as a credible British manufacturer with 40 years industry-specific experience we are excited by the future and our ambition to secure our position as a leading global player in the field of sustainable power solutions.