Whether building the fast-growing Teesside engineering group Wilton from scratch or giving up his time for charity, Bill Scott maintains a remorseless pace, as Tom Rowley discovers.

SWEATING as he charged round in the latest school basketball game, a 16-year-old Middlesbrough lad came in for a shot. Bill Scott got the ball and ran past his coach into an attacking position. His thoroughly competitive coach flew into a rage at this and chopped him in the neck.

But he hadn’t counted on Scott’s determination. He may have been rolling around on the floor, but he had not lost sight of the game’s object. He kept bouncing the ball, got up, made a pass and carried on with the game. “I didn’t say anything and carried on because I was just focused on winning,” he says.

Unknown to him at the time, this heated exchange in a school hall would not only win him his first job, but set him up for life. The next day, the coach asked Scott’s dad what his son’s work plans were and asked if he would want to come to work for him.

“My dad said ‘I’ll send him for interview’. He said ‘no, he’s already had his interview and he’s passed with flying colours.’”

So impressed had his future employer been by his determination at basketball, he felt sure his newest employee would show such steel at work.

For all the offhand way in which Scott jokingly tells this anecdote, it sums up much about his character. At 16, he was ferociously ambitious and competitive but also sportsmanlike and a believer in fair play.

Not much has changed today when he is on the tennis courts.

“I’m pretty competitive...very competitive, actually. I’m very competitive whilst I’m doing it, but the minute it’s finished – whether I’ve won or lost – it doesn’t matter.”

What he applies to tennis, he also applies to every other aspect of his life – especially work. Aged just 18, he used to make metal frames.

“It was a repetitive job,” he remembers. “To get through the day I used to time myself. There was no pressure to do them quickly, but I used to time myself to see how many I could do in a week.

“After so many weeks, I’d mastered the art and I don’t think anybody could do it any faster. And still maintain the quality, by the way.”

Still an apprentice, he requested a meeting with his managing director and told him he needed to spruce up the company’s image.

The MD tasked him with rebranding and he is still proud of the changes he made to the staff overalls more than 30 years later.

After his success in this enterprise, the boss told him he thought he would one day run the business.

But he was a year too late. Scott had vowed when he was 17 that he would eventually set up his own firm.

“I thought about it and I thought to do it I was better off waiting until I had experience in all different levels – production, quality, offshore installation, the writing of manuals and all of that kind of thing.”

Over the next decade, he set about doing just that in a number of increasingly senior roles until he set up his Middlesbrough-based firm, the Wilton Group, with his business partner Steve Glenn in 1994. His approach to Glenn was typical of a man determined not to lose a single second.

“He initially was unsure. I said ‘you’ve got til Friday’. This was the Monday. On the Wednesday, he came back and said ‘yes, count me in’.”

It was a partnership that proved extremely successful, with Glenn’s sharp questions often acting as an effective foil to Scott’s unfettered enthusiasm.

They founded what is now The Wilton Group in 1994, with Wilton Engineering Services (WES) providing fabrication and site support for offshore and petrochemicals.

In 1999 shotblasting and coatings were introduced to the firm’s portfolio with the creation of Universal Coatings, in 2000 the group formed Wilton Marine Services and in 2006 one of the UK’s largest fabrication sites was bought.

In 2008 the group acquired PD&MS in Aberdeen, with the company going on to open offices on Teesside, and today the business offers a wide range of services from project management, design, procurement, fabrication, painting, offshore labour, commissioning and testing through to loadout, delivery and installation.

With turnover of around £85m, Scott envisages further acquisitions in the future, as well as developing the company’s presence in the renewable and nuclear sectors.

The group employs more than 600 people and in December announced the creation of 250 jobs after winning a multi-million pound fabrication contract with global energy giant ConocoPhillips.

Its highlights of the past 12 months have included the opening of a new fabrication facility in Dundee, the launch of a new company called PD&MS Energy do Brasil and the development of new base in Great Yarmouth.

Scott and Glenn are still at the helm of the company, which has been one of the fastest-growing firms in the North East in recent years, and now turns over tens of millions of pounds supplying engineering services.

But there is no question of Scott taking it easy. He is as ambitious as ever, setting his alarm for 5.30 each morning.

“I’m lying awake waiting for it to go off. Every single day, 365 days of the year, I wake up and you just flick the switch and I’m up, ready.

“I’ve never, ever, ever thought ‘oh, I could have a lie in’ or not go to work.”

He often works until 2am, sleeps for four hours and gets back to the job. But, unlike many in positions of responsibility, he is not blighted by sleepless nights. Instead, he keeps some chalk next to his bed so that if he mulls over his problems in a dream, he can jot down the solution in the middle of the night in case he forgets it.

But although he has found a way to eke the last drop of productivity out of himself even when he is sleeping, he promises that he is capable of having the occasional holiday.

In fact, he throws himself into holidays with much the same determination he applies to work.

He works through the night for days beforehand to clear his desk so that he can completely switch off once the plane takes off.

“I would sit on the flight and when the cabin crew came round they would say ‘would you like a drink, Sir?’ ‘Yes, please, can I have a beer...and a gin and tonic?’ And that was it. The minute I cracked that open, that was me switched off.”