A Resounding Scottish Engineering Success Story

Zappshelter has become one of Britain’s most distinctive engineering success stories in the field of industrial shelters. Founded in 2015 by Craig Michel in Perthshire, the company emerged from a simple yet ambitious idea: to design and build rapid-installation, heavy-duty shelters capable of withstanding the notoriously unpredictable British climate. At the time, the idea seemed optimistic. Conventional wisdom held that the UK’s wind and snow loads made such structures impractical.

Yet Michel and his small team set out to prove otherwise, developing a product that is now synonymous with protecting equipment, materials and operations across a wide range of sectors, from quarrying and construction to agriculture and plant hire, right across the globe.

Craig comes from an entrepreneurial background and was brought up with a father who was a builder, so his school holidays were spent with a shovel mixing concrete, shifting muck and helping out on building sites from a young age. As Craig explains, “Dad worked hard but after the 1980’s property slump looked for something else to do. He started a business supplying plastic products to the construction industry, and I soon joined him. We sold that business in 1994, and the family moved to Scotland where we started another similar business from scratch which my brother and I ran. With the next generation growing up fast, I was always looking for something else as well.”

In 2007, Craig and his wife took a trip to Australia where they saw an ingenious shelter suspended between two containers, and the idea for Zappshetler was born. An Australian unit was purchased for development purposes and shipped to the UK and the journey of discovery began.

As Craig continues, “Structural engineers told us that it would not work here because UK wind conditions were different to Australia, so we accepted that as a challenge, tested and strengthened the components and we eventually got sign-off from the engineers that the product that we know and love today was ready to go.”

The team were entrepreneurial and persistent, following up leads from their small office and determined to succeed against all odds. Craig and his wife had a dream. It started to unfold and has subsequently become the globally recognised brand that Zappshelter is today.

At the core of Zappshelter’s system lies a tough, Ferroten® galvanised steel frame, covered with a unique Taurinox® tensioned membrane skin. The combination delivers a shelter strong enough to meet permanent building standards, compliant with rigorous European design codes, while retaining the flexibility to be installed and relocated quickly.

The company’s design allows shelters to be mounted on shipping containers, precast concrete blocks or steel supports, often without the need for groundworks. This modularity and flexibility has made the product particularly appealing to industries that require speed, adaptability and reliability on challenging sites.

Sales began in August 2015 and as Craig explains, “We began selling a product that nobody knew to a market that did not know that it needed it. We generated huge interest from day one, because people were curious, which led us to securing some early wins with the likes of Balfour Beatty, Murphy, GAP Group and Sunbelt Rentals.”

Zappshelter’s rise has been driven by a reputation for durability and performance. Since its founding, the company has endured more than 70 named storms without a single structural failure. This track record has earned it credibility with clients operating in some of the harshest environments, where downtime or damage can be costly.

Its shelters now cover materials at quarrying sites, provide weather-proof workspaces in maintenance yards and offer storage and protection for machinery, feed and biomass on farms. In each of these contexts, the focus is on protecting assets, reducing waste and maintaining operational efficiency regardless of weather.

The business continued to grow and Craig has been joined in the business by his sons, Jake, Freddie and Calvin, all of whom have clearly defined roles that suit their skill set, and a team that has grown to 18 full time staff members and 20 installers.

Zappshelters can be found in a diverse range of sectors including construction, plant hire, waste and recycling, aggregate sites and farming as well as defence and broader civil engineering and infrastructure projects across the UK.

Over the past decade, Zappshelter has grown from a small engineering start-up into a company with a thousand installations across the world. Its growth has been marked not only by product innovation but also by a commitment to British manufacturing high engineering standards and support for small businesses in its supply chain. The firm’s tenth anniversary, celebrated recently, reflected both commercial success and an unblemished safety record, a rare achievement in its field.

Despite this progress, challenges remain. The market Craig’s team created has seen attempts to copy their success with low-cost Chinese imports and inferior lightweight alternatives becoming available. However, Zappshelter’s focus on engineering quality rather than cost-cutting has helped it maintain its position as the unrivalled leader and the company is looking forward to the task of further expanding its presence internationally. While its designs are export-ready, sales beyond the UK and Ireland remain a relatively small proportion of total business, “so there is still so much to go for,” says Craig.

What sets Zappshelter apart is its balance of flexibility and permanence. It offers the convenience and simplicity of a temporary structure with all the benefits of a permanent one. For operators working in exposed or unpredictable environments, that combination has proven invaluable. Whether protecting stockpiles from rain, keeping machinery operational through winter, or creating quick, compliant covered spaces on construction sites, Zappshelter’s solutions have become integral to how many businesses now think about site infrastructure.

As industries continue to prioritise efficiency, sustainability and risk management, Zappshelter’s approach to engineered shelter design is well positioned for the future. In a sector where “temporary” has often meant fragile or short-term, the company has redefined the category with structures built to last.

They are also a family in business that is looking to the future. As Craig continues, “We might be a young business, but our succession planning process has already begun. We have grown the leadership team, and the next generation are heavily involved in all of the day-to-day decisions and plans we have for the business going forward.”

“With my sons and others integral to the running of the business it now affords me the time to step back and give support to other businesses who are on a similar growth journey, using what we have learnt along the way to help others,” he adds.

Ten years on, Zappshelter stands not just as a manufacturer of shelters, but as a symbol of practical British innovation — proof that with the right engineering mindset, even the most volatile weather can be managed. As Craig concludes, “We have built a great business and I am delighted with the way it has evolved. We have worked hard to get to where we are today and remain as passionate as ever about our product."

"We love what we do and I am delighted to have guided the team on its journey to date. I’m really looking forward to seeing where the next chapter in the Zappshelter story takes us with the next generation at the helm.”