As we’re celebrating our 25th anniversary, we wanted to share our story and show how far we’ve come, how much we’ve grown and how we’ve got so much more to give!

In April 1993, Allan Dolby made the decision to leave his long-term employer to start a new business with Allan Senior, to provide a service to Midlands engineering by combining their mutual skillsets of compressed air and pipework

Direct Air provides a complete system solution that includes the design, supply, installation and servicing for companies of all sizes throughout the UK.

The company is truly a family affair with 3 generations now having worked in the company across various departments. Although the company acts as an extended family with many long serving members of staff, such as Service Manager, Will Farrell, who has been with the company since day one.

Starting out from humble beginnings based in Allan Senior’s garage and without even a service engineer, the company moved to its first official premise within the first 12 months of operations.

As the company grew, Direct Air purchased a premise in Coventry in 1996 with more room for the increasing service support team and fleet vehicles.

 

The business further expanded in 2004 when it acquired Airco Pneumatics in Cheltenham improving the ability to work alongside businesses based in the South West.

 

To support the growth of the company to 40 employees, a larger 15,000 sq ft unit was purchased on Binley Industrial Estate, Coventry in 2014. The sizeable warehouse allows for increased stock of machinery and genuine parts, while the in-house generator permits for the testing of compressor performance and flow rates onsite.

 
 
 

The business prides itself on not being manufacturer driven but achieving the best solution for the customer; which is why Direct Air is an authorised distributor for leading brands including CompAir, Hydrovane, Teseo, BEKO TECHNOLOGIES and Boge.

“It seems a very long time since I started Direct Air based from my parent’s house. Their support and belief in my idea of combining my compressed air training with Dad’s pipework skills enabled the company to evolve and develop,” says Allan Dolby, Managing Director.

“Over that time a lot has changed but our principles remain the same. I take pride in the fact that a high number of our staff have been with us for many years and they are the strength of our business. Our levels of experience and skillsets I believe are amongst the best in the industry, and today we still invest in new engineers and apprentices for the future.”

“For the future we will continue to stay true to our values of offering an engineered solution for all systems based upon first class technical advice, whilst continuing to provide the best levels of after sales service available.”