Finalist Spotlight 2025: Export of the Year Award - AJ Engineering

AJ ENGINEERING: EXPORTING EXPERTISE AROUND THE GLOBE

From its beginnings in 1999, providing steel fabrication and maintenance across Moray and the East Highlands, AJ Engineering has grown into a company exporting not just high-quality products but also unparalleled expertise worldwide. Their remarkable global reach has earned them a place as a finalist in the Export of the Year Award at the 2025 Moray Chamber Annual Business Awards.

Since 2020, AJ Engineering has been undertaking the construction of the British Antarctic Survey’s Discovery Building in Rothera, Antarctica. Unlike most parts of the world there is no regular transport to and from Antarctica, an item, left accidentally behind in the back of the workshop, can’t just be wrapped and handed to a courier. Every piece needed must be fabricated, coated, and securely stacked into a 20’ shipping container and transported to the dock ready to be loaded onto the one shipment from the UK that year.

This critical coordination doesn’t only apply to materials, the operatives also need to be prepared and ‘packaged’ ready for up to 6 months away from friends, family and many of the modern conveniences we take for granted. The team needs to go through medical and dental examinations and treatment ahead of deployment to lessen the risk of treatment being needed during deployment. In addition, they undergo refresher training and assessments to ensure they are mentally prepared for the trip. As Robert Burns famously put it, ‘the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley,’. Sometimes, despite all the planning, the unexpected happens, or a client changes their mind on something. This is where the experience of AJ Engineering comes to the fore. Between the team on site, and engineers back in Forres, solutions are found that prevent a problem becoming a disaster and things are kept moving forward on the project.

This year the company have manufactured, and performance tested an access platform system for inspecting the suspension cables on the new Pattullo Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia. This was again a unique solution which had to be transportable in 20’ shipping containers. The customer’s feedback at the end of the project sums up things well:

‘I am extremely satisfied with the performance of AJ’s. AJ’s have a dedicated and passionate team who all contributed to the success of the project. The Fabrication Manager particularly, lives and breathes his job and his commitment to delivery and quality is unquestionable.’

It is this experience and expertise that are the valuable commodity which AJ Engineering export so successfully.

Find out more about AJ Engineering at Steel Fabrication Erection & Cladding, AJ Engineering, Scotland