EF News
Richard Bradley took over Dyer Engineering with a vision for sustainable growth. Now more than ten years on, he talks to Forum about resilience, leadership and how the newly formed SST Group is laying the groundwork for the next generation of engineering success…
In 2013, Richard Bradley swapped spreadsheets for steel, taking a bold leap from the world of finance to engineering when he led a management buyout (MBO) of Dyer Engineering with business partner, Graeme Parkins. Over a decade later, the national award-winning firm is almost unrecognisable – not only in terms of scale and ambition, but in the culture, capability and clarity of purpose that now shapes every decision.
That evolution took another step forward in 2025 when a £1.625 million equity investment enabled the acquisition of Washington based Q-Laser and the formation of SST Group – a new parent company created to drive strategic, long-term growth across the engineering sector. Having initially stepped into the role of chair, Richard returned as Group CEO to lead the County Durham-based business through its next chapter – one defined by smart investment, strong leadership and a collaborative, people-first approach. “I always knew I wanted to be part of an MBO – I just didn’t know what that looked like until Dyer came onto my radar,” says Richard. “It was manufacturing, it was up for an MBO, and the timing was right.”
Engineering, he admits, came about more by chance than design. What mattered more was the opportunity to take ownership of something with real potential. “I was in my late thirties, early forties, firmly embedded in finance, and I knew I needed to make that leap. So, I reached out to my network and said, ‘This is what I’m looking for.’ and Dyer was the opportunity that came along.”
Making the leap was one thing, building momentum was another. In the early years after the MBO, growth was slower than anticipated – and far harder to achieve. “With hindsight, it was a blur,” he says. “We knew we wanted to grow, but we were starting from a £7.5 million business with limited customer diversity. Sustainable profitability was always the goal – but we didn’t grow at all for at least the first four years.”
Instead, the focus was on rebuilding from the inside out – strengthening systems, building networks and laying the foundations for growth that would eventually come. “At the time, it felt like we weren’t getting anywhere,” says Richard. “But in reality, we were, it just took time to see.”
Today, the picture is quite different. Richard continues to champion the industry as chair of the Engineering and Manufacturing Network (North East) and as a sought-after business mentor, leading to his recognition as a Caroline Theobald Award finalist at the 2025 Entrepreneurial Awards. Dyer, meanwhile, has more than doubled in size, with headcount to match and is backed by a leadership team that Richard believes is its greatest asset. “That’s the thing I’m most proud of – the team. They’re running the business and that was always the plan. If you want to build something scalable, it has to be about the people. Smaller businesses can survive with a single leader wearing every hat, but that only gets you so far.”
People have always been central to Richard’s vision – something that became even more apparent around 2016 when the business codified its core values. In a bid to reset the culture and bring the team together, Richard and his colleagues began exploring what made them tick. “We were reading a lot,” he recalls. “Jim Collins’ Good to Great gave us a framework with three simple questions: what can you be the best in the world at, what drives your economic engine, and what are you passionate about?”
For Dyer, those answers became clear. The business could be the best in the world at making metal componentry. Its economic engine was time – time on machines, time spent welding, time assembling. And its passion? “That was the hardest to define,” Richard admits. “But we landed on a simple, powerful statement: impressing everyone we meet. And we meant everyone – not just customers. That starts with the person next to you.” The values that followed – Smarter, Stronger, Together – became a filter for decision-making and would later become the acronym for Dyer’s parent company, SST Group.
“A simple question emerged: does this make us smarter, stronger, together? If the answer was yes, we would pursue it fully. If not, we’d let it go. “It gave us real clarity,” he adds. “And while it took time to embed, it still touches my heart when I talk about it now. The team has since adapted the language to suit their own way of working, but the essence is the same and that's what matters.”
That clarity was essential during difficult times. Between 2019 and 2021, Richard faced the toughest years of his career. “Not a lot of people know this, but we came pretty close to losing Dyer Engineering,” he says. “Those years were extremely difficult. The thing I’m most proud of is the fact that we’re still here – and that we’re in a really strong place.” He doesn’t sugar-coat the reality. “Resilience is everything,” he says. “If I had to give one piece of advice to any business owner, it’s that: keep going. Sometimes, just surviving is the biggest win.”
Ironically, the pandemic – which for many businesses was a major setback – helped Dyer refocus. “We went into the pandemic in a bad place, but the experience forced us to clarify what mattered. It was one of the most stressful periods of my life, but also, weirdly, one of the most helpful. It gave us the momentum we needed.”
Ask Richard what’s shaped him most as a leader and he points to a book he read years ago: The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma. The message, he explains, is all about taking ownership – of your actions, your behaviour and how you respond to challenges. One of its central ideas is the difference between a leader mindset and a victim mindset.
While Richard isn’t keen on the terminology, the concept stays with him. “The idea is simple: take ownership of everything you do. You might not always be in control of a situation, but you’re always in control of your response. “It’s about perspective,” he explains. “You can trip over a paving stone and blame the path, or you can ask yourself, ‘Was I paying attention? What can I learn from this?’ I always try to bring it back to one question: What are we going to do? That forward-thinking mindset is critical.” It’s something he encourages across the team at SST Group. “We all have emotional responses – that’s natural. But the best, most rational thinking happens once the emotion has passed. In business, logic matters. If you lose a contract, for example, don’t beat yourself up. Ask: What did we learn? What are we doing about it? The faster you can get to that point, the stronger your business will be.”
Today, SST Group is setting its sights on the future. The acquisition of Q-Laser marks the first step on a wider journey to build a group of engineering-led companies that are financially robust, culturally aligned and strategically positioned for growth. “We’ll continue to grow organically, but we’re now actively pursuing acquisitions too,” says Richard. “The goal is to build a group that offers real opportunity – for customers and for the people who work within it. When you grow, you create chances for people to develop, progress and stay. That’s what we’re building.”
He also believes the North East is exceptionally well placed to lead in advanced manufacturing, particularly as sectors like rail, defence, renewables and marine continue to scale. “All of them rely on complex metal components and assemblies,” he says. “And the North East is perfectly positioned to supply them. We’ve got the talent, the ambition and the capability – now it’s about pulling it all together.”
That same sense of purpose runs through everything Richard does. For him, success isn’t about growth – it's about culture, people and pride. “We set out to build a company we’d be proud to work for, a place you’d want your kids to work one day,” he says. “That’s still the ambition, that’s what drives us.”
Now, as Group CEO, Richard’s focus is on firmly steering that vision. With a strong senior team managing day-to-day operations, his role is about strategy and guidance. “I get asked a lot what I actually do,” he laughs. “The truth is, I spend my days talking to people – thinking, listening, guiding – and I love it, it's much better than finance!”
