How it all started, and how we got our name

Panton McLeod 1st Tank

September 14th marks 21 years since the formation of Panton McLeod and we thought we would give a little insight into the birth of the company, and how we got our name.

Back in 1994, Jim Panton (Snr) visited the Aquatech trade show in Amsterdam, during the trip he was offered a number of opportunities to represent suppliers to the UK water market.

Upon returning home Jim attended an Institute of Water event in Newcastle and bumped into an East of Scotland Water employee named John Jack.

Discussing the water quality issues being faced by East of Scotland Water, namely Iron and Manganese biofouling, Jim saw an opportunity for one of the products shown at Aquatech.

That meeting lead to further discussions in the Fairmilehead depot and before long a demonstration of chemical cleaning was set up at a small service reservoir in Denholm.

The tank in question was small in volume but causing a number of water quality issues and showing extremely high levels of biofouling. Jim happily admits that the first project was a very steep learning curve for him, and he wasn’t even sure if the new cleaning method had been a success.

He didn’t need to worry, East of Scotland Water immediately found a huge reduction in taste and odour complaints and embraced chemical cleaning.

Unfortunately, after a few months Jim’s partners decided to withdraw from the UK market, but just then serendipity played its part.

During the same week that the venture was going to be wrapped up a client (Biwater) called to place the largest single order to date, taking the initiative Jim explained the situation and asked if he could take on the project himself.

Biwater were more than happy to proceed but needed a new company name to add to the order, Jim thought for a while and came up with the ‘temporary‘ name, Panton McLeod (McLeod being the name of a close friend). The company was registered that day and the order placed.

As is the case in many small businesses there was always something more important to do than changing the name, and today 21 years on we remain Panton McLeod.

So as we enter our 22nd year we thank Jim, John Jack, Biwater and everyone else who has played a part in shaping the business.

For more information, contact the team on 01896 663 330 or email info@pantonmcleod.co.uk

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