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How Aberdeen offshore worker turned beer boffin to make queuing for a pint at events a thing of the past

Aberdeen businessman Nick Beeson describes himself as 'an accidental entrepreneur'. After spending nearly three decades in the oil and gas industry he decided it was time for a change. The 58-year-old embarked on a management course at Robert Gordon University not knowing what would lie ahead in his career. Fast forward nine years and Nick is now running faster drinks firm EBar, helping to reshape the UK's live event experience. His patented self-serve Beerwall technology — capable of pouring up to 200 pints an hour — is now installed at stadiums and racecourses across the country. His innovative dispensing technology has achieved more than £1 million turnover and £4m platform sales. Nick, who grew up in Barnet, North London, left school at the age of 17 with no real idea of what profession he'd like to go into. After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in natural sciences in 1989 he discovered engineering. He said: 'I would say the only work experience I had done was working in a bank, so I knew that's what I didn't want to do. 'I actually did a paper round for five years. But, I went to university and from that discovered engineering which took me to Aberdeen and I started working offshore.' Nick spent five years as a wireline field engineer for Atlas Wirelines Services, now known as Baker Hughes. He then spent a further 23 years working around the globe before returning to the Granite City in 2015. By then he had become disillusioned with oil and gas and decided it was time for a change. This led to him going to Robert Gordon University to do a master of business administration. It was there he met his fellow co-founder Sam Pettipher and the idea of EBar started to come to life. Nick said: 'My co-founder missed a vital try during an international rugby match because he was stuck waiting for a pint. We both thought — there has to be a better way… 'We pitched it to the university as part of the course and they said that's a really good idea. You should try it. So we did. And the rest is history. 'I really wasn't sure whether to get back into the oil field. I thought, you know what? Let's just give this a try. 'Let's see if this crazy idea in an industry that I know nothing about, can happen.' The pair first developed the mobile EBar with its first deployment to Perth Racecourse in August 2021. There are now 45 of the mobile kiosks across the country. A combination of the patented dispenser and rapid payment technologies allows beer to reach customers in less than 30 seconds, meaning people attending major events spend less time waiting in queues. Nick, who lives in Hatton of Fintray, said: 'It took us five years to have a commercial product. 'It wasn't helped by Covid, which probably knocked us back 18 months. But we find ourselves right now with a lot of the hospitality industry starting to think, oh, this would be a really good idea, automation.' EBar, based in Marischal Square, also created its built-in Beerwall, which is used by eight English Premier League clubs including Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United. The aim is to have more than 100 Beerwalls installed by the end of the year. Nick said: 'We operate cricket, stadia and racehorse racing meetings around the country. 'The core business really fits in around football, not just Premier League. 'We work in all the divisions down through the English Football League. 'We've got the mobile EBar, which is the ones that we, wheel into a stadium. 'What then happened was that several of our customers said, this is great, but we really don't want to be bringing them in, taking them out. 'We want to have them installed. We want them branded. Can we buy them from you? 'That was when we developed the Beerwall.' Nick highlighted queues at the recent Deacon Blue Tall Ships concert held in Aberdeen. He said: 'I estimate that queue would have been 300 metres long. And it's that kind of problem we looked at nine years ago and said there's got to be a better way of doing it. 'Now we're here and just starting to get traction with not just the earliest adopters, like Brighton, but also now some of the big Premier League clubs, whose fans are very engaged, and love what we do. 'How many people now choose to stand in line at the supermarket checkout? Most people choose to go to the self-service and that's what we're finding in these venues. 'It's because we're quicker and we give our customers a better pint. EBar has just extended its manufacturing partnership with PP Control & Automation (PP C&A) who took over the complete electronics and mechanical build earlier this year. A dedicated team of eight engineers at its West Midlands factory has created a specialist production cell that has the potential to build up to five units every week, a 200% increase on the previous capacity. Nick said: 'We built the very first EBar units in-house in Aberdeen. 'But we knew that wasn't sustainable. We're a tech company and don't want to be a manufacturing company. 'We wanted to source a manufacturing partner that offered us repeatable quality and, importantly, the ability to scale-up quickly and that's where PP C&A has really come into its own.' Looking back on his time as a business owner Nick said: 'I'm very proud of what we've achieved. It has been very challenging at times and rewarding. 'This is a very, very different business. And it's taken a while to establish, to really understand how the hospitality industry works. 'I spent a lot of my time in large oilfield service companies. And working in a startup is a very, very different life. 'You get involved in absolutely everything. That can be good and fun, and sometimes it can be tedious. That's just the way it is. 'But I think when you consider, only one in ten startups survive five years? I mean, by that metric, we've done well.'