Case Study

Underwater Contracting (UCO), a specialist ROV and subsea equipment company based in Aberdeen, Scotland, was struggling to reach the right people in a traditional industry where generic contact emails and in-person events were the norm. After trying Findymail, they quickly found it was the simplest, most effective way to get directly to the people they needed - and it has since helped them open up pipeline work in Australia and New Zealand.

Meet Underwater Contracting

Underwater Contracting (UCO) is a specialist ROV and subsea equipment rental company based in Aberdeen, Scotland. Their main line of work is in the aquaculture industry - fish farming - where they operate their patented device called the Foover (short for Fish Hoover), which removes waste from fish farming sites. They also work in the offshore energy sector, covering oil and gas and offshore wind.

In nine years of operation, UCO has grown from a Scottish startup to a company with active operations across Scotland, Ireland, Europe, the Mediterranean, and Canada - with pipeline work underway in Australia and New Zealand. Charles Bain started at UCO as an Operator and Technician and worked his way up to General Manager, where he has been focused on building out the sales and business development side of the company.

The challenge

Reaching the right people in niche, traditional industries is hard. Aquaculture and offshore energy are both sectors where business has historically been done through in-person events, word of mouth, and personal networks. Email addresses are rarely shared directly, and the ones that are publicly available - the generic info@ addresses on company websites - almost never lead anywhere.

UCO's outreach before Findymail was a mix of scraping emails from websites, collecting contacts at events, and trying to reach people through connections. But the hit rate was low, and a lot of time was going into outreach that simply wasn't reaching anyone.

"We were using generic email addresses that we could find on website pages which 99% of the time are just a bust. We had the people but not the contact details - it was joining those dots." - Charles Bain, General Manager at UCO

Firing emails into the ether

The frustration wasn't just about the numbers. When you don't know if your emails are reaching anyone, it's demoralising for the whole sales team. Charles describes it as sending things out and not even knowing if they're getting through - no feedback, no replies, no way to build on the effort.

"It's just time wasted. We were firing emails out into the ether. Regardless of how much you follow up, you don't even know if it's getting to anyone." - Charles Bain

The solution

Charles came across Findymail and tried the free trial. The simplicity of it was what sold him - name plus website URL, and you have an email. For a team that's not particularly technical, that mattered a lot.

"I am not the most technological person and there's some people in my workplace even worse than me. So it had to be as simple as possible. The single email finder - putting in a name and a website URL - it doesn't get any easier than that. I used my 10 free goes and thought: yeah, we need to get this." - Charles Bain

How UCO uses Findymail

UCO mainly uses the single email finder rather than bulk tools, which fits how they work - they're targeting specific individuals rather than sending large-scale campaigns. The use cases come from both sides of the business.

On the client side, Charles often gets given a name and a company - someone says "you should speak to this person" - but no contact details. With Findymail, that's enough to get an email address. On the supplier side, it lets them get straight to the right account manager rather than going through a generic contact form or waiting for a response from a general inbox.

"With suppliers it's really good - we can cut out the middleman. Rather than going through generic emails or online forms, we can get straight to the people that need to be contacted. It's a real time saver." - Charles Bain

The results

Breaking into new markets

One of the clearest outcomes has been UCO's ability to reach people in markets they hadn't previously been able to penetrate. Australia and New Zealand are a good example - operating across significant time differences makes email the most practical way to start a conversation. Using Findymail to get to the right people directly, UCO has been able to send quotes and plan trials in what for them is a completely new region.

"We've got quotes sent out and trials planned in a totally new area, and that can be directly related to Findymail and how we've managed to get through to the right people." - Charles Bain

Real responses instead of silence

The shift from generic outreach to direct contact has changed what UCO gets back. Instead of messages disappearing into a generic inbox, they're now having real conversations - even when the answer isn't immediately yes. Charles points out that in the fish farming industry, conditions are seasonal, so sometimes the response is "not right now, check back in the summer" - but that's still a useful outcome compared to nothing.

Even getting a "not for us" is progress - it means the message got to someone, and the team can move on with better information.

Team confidence

One of the less obvious but meaningful outcomes has been the effect on the sales team. UCO's MD is old school - he likes proof of contact and tangible results. Before Findymail, impatience was building as emails went nowhere. Now that responses are coming in, there's more structure to the sales process and more motivation across the team.

"There's a definite morale improvement right from the top down. Everyone's starting to see results. And even if that result is just feedback of 'not now' or 'later' - that's good. We can work with that." - Charles Bain

Why Charles recommends Findymail

"It feels like we're one step ahead of the competition with Findymail. That's what it feels like in the field we operate in - it's giving us a real advantage."

- Charles Bain, General Manager, Underwater Contracting