BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Servos And Services—How An Outdoor Advertising Company Became A Player In U.K. Robotics

Following
This article is more than 2 years old.

Around five years ago I was lucky enough to accompany a group of U.K. robotics entrepreneurs on a government-sponsored trade mission to California. In reality, it was more of a fact-finding exercise. From San Diego up to the Bay Area, the British founders visited factories and research labs, met VCs, and talked to analysts about the outlook for an industry that appeared to require large helpings of equity funding.   

I was left with the impression that Britain’s robotics pioneers had something of a mountain to climb in terms of bringing their products to the market. Yes, there was a huge amount of U.K. entrepreneurial activity in this sector—much of it centred around Oxford, Cambridge and the Bristol/Bath region—but the funding and support ecosystem that would help take a business from the lab to a viable niche in the marketplace wasn’t really in place.   

Things have improved since then, but while A.I. and Machine Learning are high on the list of investor priorities, robotics per se is rarely mentioned as a “hot sector” for equity investment. So five years on, has anything changed. Can U.K. robotics companies access the VC cash they need to grow and thrive?   

Well, perhaps there is more than one route to the market.

Based in Blyth in the North East of England, Tharsus Group manufactures bespoke robotics system for a range of clients that includes online supermarket/delivery service, Ocado, British Telecom and 3M. According to its own legend, the company began life as a sheet metal business before evolving into something much more sophisticated and technology led. To date, Tharsus has not needed to access VC cash.

So, when I caught up with CEO and sole shareholder, Brian Palmer I was keen to find out how the company had gone from metal bashing to designing advanced robotics systems.  

Diversification

As it turns out, the company followed a fairly convoluted route into robotics after diversifying from sheet metal. “We set up a company called Tharsus Vision,” says Palmer. “It focused on outside advertising.” 

After initial success, it proved to be a tough market and one that was adversely affected by the great financial crisis and the rise of the internet. “We decided to reinvent ourselves and become a consultancy,” says Palmer.   

It was a consultancy that combined design and manufacturing skills. Perhaps surprisingly, the expertise built up in the outdoor advertising industry proved remarkably transferable to the creation of what the company calls “strategic machines."  “If you break a robotic system down, you have motors, controls and sensors. We were working with these things in the outdoor advertising market,” says Palmer. 

There has been considerable evolution though. Systems that were once electrical at the core are now software-driven and experts in fields such as math and A.I. have been drafted into the team. The company philosophy, however, is relatively simple. “Our approach is to create machines that will drive commercial success,” he says. “That aligns with our customers.”  

Without drawing , Tharsus has effectively bootstrapped its way, financing  its own development. “We are in an expanding market,” he says. “We invest quite a lot in building for the future.” 

The Next Wave

As he sees it, the next wave of robotics will be focused on service delivery. “I started out in Nissan and Ford,” says Palmer. “The robots then - and they’re still there - were welding and painting. But the real change in robotics is in the service proposition. We are helping companies develop new services and levels of service.”  

He cites the example of Ocado. The company uses a swarm of robots - developed for manufacture in partnership with Tharsus to speed up the movement of goods around warehouses and thus deliver faster to customers. Thus, the aim is to offer better service rather than simply automating tasks and replacing humans. As Palmer sees it, robotics will underpin the company's deliveries end-to-end. Palmer stresses that the goal of such robots is not to replace jobs. 

Industrial Britain

Blyth - where the company is based - is in the heart of North Eastern England, an area probably best known for traditional industries such as coal mining and shipbuilding. Is this a good location for robotics company?

Well, it’s a case of swings and roundabouts. As Palmer sees it, there isn’t really a local market. Most of Tharsus’ customers are located hundreds of miles away. But there is one big advantage. “We’ve had Nissan in the area for many years, 30 years ago the Nissan plant was a green field. Now a huge ecosystem has built up around it.” For a company like Tharsus, that means skills are available locally. 

With a reported turnover of £80 million last year, Tharsus has proved that it’s possible to build a thriving robotics company - albeit over ten years or so—without VC backing. There has however, non-equity support from Tech Nation's Future Fifty, an initiative to accelerate tech company growth. By working with a range of businesses on systems to enhance their services, Tharsus aims to maintain its growth momentum. 

The emphasis on enabling better service is perhaps a pointer to the future for startups and early stage businesses working in this field. The deployment of robots is often seen purely in terms of productivity—for instance, production line machines painting faster than humans or autonomous trolleys freeing up staff in care homes and hospitals. But from software-based systems offering financial service advice online through to autonomous delivery vehicles, technologies ranging from A.I. to advanced control systems, robotics can deliver services that weren't available before.

Follow me on Twitter