“He’s doing Scotland proud” – An Article in the Sunday Mail August 15 1965

DAVID REEKIE is a name that doesn’t command immediate recognition. He’s not a television personality or an athletic star. But in Scotland in 1965 he’s right at the top of the Enterprise League. Ten years ago he invented a machine to do a job world engineering believed was impossible.

Now he has a world-wide reputation, an order book bursting at the seams and a Paisley factory where the space and manpower – at present 35 – are soon to be doubled. Most important of all he is among the industry’s leaders out to show the world that Scots industry is still the tops…

Consider the Reekie story…
Pre-war he was an engineering draughtsman kicking at the restraints of an everyday job. It was when he was a company commander in the Argylls that he saw the first glimmer of a new future.
On an enemy airfield his company captured he “looted” a complete set of aerial pictures the Luftwaffe had taken of Scottish industrial installations they considered worth a visit from a 250lb bomb.
Once he got home those interesting pictures were his passport to the boardrooms of Scotland’s biggest industries.

And it was the boardroom bosses who convinced him that he should set up an agency business to supply them with unusual tools.
Ten years ago, when the agency business was well on the way up, David Reekie was asked to supply a tool to a Scottish shipyard that would allow the shipbuilders to machine the flanges of massive pipes after they were installed. David searched the world market without success. So he got out his drawing board and designed the tool himself… That tool… and the other nine that have followed… were an overnight success.

David Reekie & Son, Ltd., have not looked back since. Pipe repairing work that used to cause massive dismantling of plant and take three months and more takes his operators THREE DAYS.
The saving in maintenance costs and loss of production in industry are fantastic.
At Hunterston atomic power station he saved a six-month delay in the building… and earned himself a £900 bonus for his speed and efficiency.

In short, he put precision into a suitcase. And all sorts of suitcases leave his factory piping problems in places as far as China and Venezuela.
Canadian and German engineering firms have tried to cut down the Reekie lead without success.

Said Mr. Reekie yesterday: “I don’t fear the competition – I am still well ahead. The big difference between my tools and those of the competitors is that mine are portable, theirs are transportable… they need lorries.”

Machining, boring and grinding steel pipe flanges maybe isn’t the most romantic of topics. But this particular enterprise is one Scotland can be proud of.

The Scottish Council (Development and Industry) are proud of it. In the current issue of their magazine Scotland, price 2s, they give the whole story behind the rise and success of David Reekie, a modest businessman.