After a hiatus of more than 20 years, West Sussex manufacturing firm, Dando Drilling International ltd. is proud to have resumed an engineering presence in Penryn.

Dando Drilling have been involved supplying water well drilling equipment to the developing world since sinking tubewells in Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia) in 1868.

While the technology has moved on since then, the philosophy of Dando equipment remains steadfast: Uncompromising design for the most suitable and effective machines for their environment. The almost legendary toughness of the Dando range of water well drilling machines sees service lives up to 30 years, and machines currently active in nearly 50 countries on five continents.

Engineering company Metal Surgery on Kernick Industrial estate, Penryn has recently completed and shipped their first Dando rigs. These water well drilling machines have been supplied by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF to aid projects in Sri Lanka that are providing communities resettled by the devastating tsunami of December 2004 with access to essential resources, in this case clean, safe water.

Martin Fitch-Roy, Managing Director of Dando Drilling said:
“We see re-establishing our relationship with Cornwall as an important part of Dando’s recent growth in manufacturing activity. The team at Metal Surgery has the right skills and facilities to do a first class job making these highly specialized, bespoke machines. Cornwall has always been a centre of engineering excellence and we have every hope that we will be investing in production in the county into the future.”

For several years in the 1970s and 1980s, Dando produced a range of its large waterwell drilling machines bound for export - primarily to Iran – also on Kernick Industrial estate.

In the past, Dando has worked closely with Compair-Holman who supplied bespoke air compressors for their drilling rigs in Cambourne. Compair moved this part of its manufacturing to Germany in 2003 and, according to Kingsley Rickard, Operations Director of Metal Surgery and previously of Compair-Holman: “the relocation of the Compair’s manufacturing to Germany was a great loss to the area both in jobs and engineering, and it is extremely important to us that Dando has provided us with the opportunity to produce these drilling rigs in Penryn.”