The company, Dawson Downie was originally founded in 1905 in a small facility, north of Glasgow by two families, Dawson and Downie. As manufacturers of reciprocating pumps they supplied predominantly the shipyards on the river Clyde. A few years later the company moved to larger premises in Elgin Street, Clydebank where it remained in operation until 1996 when the company relocated to Glenrothes on the east coast of Scotland. As part of the war effort the company manufactured munitions during World War I and II. In the early 1940s the company diversified into the design and manufacture of reciprocating pumps for the oil industry; a sector which now represents 90% of Dawson Downie Lamont turnover. In its heyday in the 1950s and 60s the company employed more than 300 in Clydebank and owned its own foundry. Dawson Downie also boasted its own patternshop which is still in existence today. The DDL Patternshop continues to make patterns for DDL pump spares and provides a sub-contracting service to other companies as well as diversifying into industrial case making. Ownership of the company Dawson Downie remained within the two families until the early 1980s when the company was bought by Warwick Engineering Investments. The company was amalgamated with another pump manufacturer - Thom Lamont from Paisley to form Dawson Downie Lamont Ltd. In 1985 the amalgamated company was sold to Bromsgrove Industries, now known as the BI Group. Dawson Downie Lamont became an operating company with BI Marine & Offshore Ltd and moved premises in 1996 to join its sister company Forth Tool & Valve in Glenrothes, Fife. Following a management buy out in 2001, DDL was returned to private ownership and now trades as a company of FTV Ltd. Exports have always played an important role in DDL and currently represent 90% of sales. The company has very strong links with export markets especially Indonesia, Venezuela and Iran, the three countries which boast the highest population of DDL pumps worldwide. Many of these pumps were originally installed in the 1940s and 50s and DDL continues to supply spare parts to these pumps and a reliable service to the end user. DDL pumps can be found in extreme places from ships to remote jungle oil fields in central Kalimantan in Borneo.