Our history

NDC's foundations were forged in 1987, when Fletcher Bickerton built a new 10,000 sq ft works in Manchester to service the Electro-Mechanical market in the North West. This was a substantial £1M+ investment and the new business was known as Fletcher Bickerton (Northern) Ltd.

1993

Fletcher Bickerton (Northern) was purchased as a management buy-in.

1997

Following rapid expansion, Northern Drives & Controls was formed as a division of FBNL in Manchester to service the emerging electronic and automation repair market.

1999

FBNL changed its name to CPM (Complete Plant Maintenance Engineering Ltd). This was part of the original buy-in agreement and the name better described the company's main activities which now included a range of plant maintenance capabilities from more traditional repairs work to on-site services, customer care programmes, condition based monitoring, stores management and asset management programmes. Northern Drives & Controls outgrew its facility at Barton Dock Road and was relocated to a dedicated 6,000 sq ft electronics laboratory facility in Trafford Park, Manchester. Over this short time the company had grown its customer base substantially and become known as a reliable repairer of industrial electronic equipment from a wide range of different manufacturers.

The company also acquired McCall's Electronics Company of Whitchurch Hampshire and renamed it NDC to service the electronics and automation market in the South East.

2004

Due to increased growth NDC South East relocated to a dedicated 3,000 sq ft site in Slough. This allowed the company to offer a greater range of services to customers including 24-hour rapid response and the ability through advanced new equipment, to fully functionally test more electronic equipment.

2007

Our South East Service Centre relocated to larger premises within the Slough Trading Estate, facilitating increased production and accommodating additional function testing cells.

2009

NDC developed its Test, Diagnose, Repair, Test philosophy which included R&D capability in order to fully functional test repaired drives and offer refurbished drives as an alternative to conventional repairs.

2010

In October 2010 our South East Service Centre, having again outgrown its existing facility in 3 years, relocated to larger 6,000 sq ft premises within the Slough Trading Estate. This investment was pivotal in supporting our customers in the South, South East and Greater London. It was ideally located as a repair, test and training facility, and as a hub to dispatch field engineers to undertake on-site fault finding. The new service centre had an increased production capacity and additional function testing facilities.

2011

CPM, our sister company, opened its CPM ServoLab in Manchester to support an increasing number of customers requiring complete support for their servo and spindle motors. CPM ServoLab provides OEM quality repair of all makes and models of Servo and permanent magnet motors.

NDC developed its Overdrive software platform controlling all aspects of the business including the use of Big Data, traceability and testing.

2012

NDC launched its export services designed to give our customers around the world the benefits of NDC's refurbished drives via its network of strategic partners.

2014

NDC's Manchester works was relocated to a purpose-built facility at Barton Dock Road. This new state-of-the-art building supports our customers in the North & Midlands, exports and housing our R&D facilities.

2016

NDC were named winners of the Queen's Award for Enterprise, the UK's most coveted and prestigious business award in recognition of our growth and commercial success in international trade.

2018

Yet further investment in our Manchester facilities. Brand new office and service centre areas mean we can share our knowledge with our customers with dedicated personalised training programmes.

2019

NDC España acquired ATN Electronics in Alicate, Spain in response to customer demand. This strategic move also extends NDC's coverage in Spain and supports the Southern European market.

Furthermore, responding to the surging demand in Germany, NDC GmbH was created and launched a dedicated Sales & Technical Support Centre in Gelsenkirchen.

2020

NDC expands its presence in the South East of the UK with a purpose-designed larger facility in London.

NDC develops Simulift, a platform which simulates site conditions and further develops our Test, Diagnose, Refurbish, Test philosophy. It allows all refurbished drives to be tested as they would operate in the field.

2022

In order to expand our operation in North America, NDC has made a strategic investment in a Service Centre located in Dallas, Texas with the acquisition of Specialized Electronics Services Group. This enabled us to better serve our clients in the region.

2023

As a component of our environmental initiatives, NDC collaborated with The University of Manchester to demonstrate the sustainability benefits of refurbishing, as opposed to purchasing new drives. Scientific research conducted by Dr Laurence Stamford and his team from The University of Manchester, was the first of its kind ever to be produced in the world and explained how our refurbished drives reduce the environmental impact of elevator installations by up to 91%.