‘Angel drones’ can protect children and elderly, says MD

Well, according to Yorkshire entrepreneur Nick Glynne, “an angel drone” could be the perfect way of keeping our loved ones safe when they leave the house.

He’s the managing director of Huddersfield-based buyitdirect.co.uk, a company that has just bought ProFlight, a company specialising in drones. Mr Glynne sees huge global potential in the market for drones because they can be use to monitor and protect children and elderly people.

Mr Glynne said: “The business designs and builds drones for a number of markets, including drone racers, hobbyists and professional aerial photographers and cinematographers.

“Our intention is to sell ProFlight products and pilot training to our customer base.”

Mr Glynne said he had “soft-launched” the new website - dronesdirect.co.uk as a vehicle for selling ProFlight products among the leading brands within the industry such as DJI, Parrot & 3DR.

He told The Yorkshire Post: “The business is run by a very smart chap called Tim Morley. It’s a classic tech start-up success story.

“Tim’s passion as a kid was building and flying radio controlled aircraft and in his teens he turned his hobby into a business.

“The business was initially run from his bedroom and quickly grew to accommodate a dedicated retail store; all this happened while he was studying business and management at university. “ProFlight was quickly built into a very successful company – one of the largest drone specialists in the UK, gaining industry wide recognition for high quality products and services provided.

“Tim decided to merge his business with mine so he could leverage our cash, infrastructure and two million customers.

“For us it makes sense as the global drone market is set to grow to £1 billion by 2020.”

Mr Glynne said that his strategy was to provide “great value drones” and related professional services such as custom building and pilot training.

For home hobbyists, the company will provide drones from £19 through to £999.

Mr Glynn added: “For drone racers we will have some of the fastest and nimblest racing products on the market; and for our professional photographers and surveyor-users we will have high-end customised drones with top of the range gimbals and cameras.

“We will sell these products online, through our call centre and from our in-house drone zone at our Huddersfield store.”

Mr Glynn said he had just returned from a trip to The Far East to look at the factories that Mr Morley has been using.

Mr Glynne said: “We have some very exciting product launches on the horizon.

“Product development will be the key to our success. This is a new step for us – instead of exclusively focusing on buying off the shelf products from the leading brands, we will also now be developing our own products and selling them direct to our customers.”

According to Mr Glynne, there are clubs for drone racers who run competitions in places such as disused warehouses.

Drones are also popular with photographers and can help to

survey farmers’ land.

Drones can also be used to check rust on buildings.

ProFlight, which has three full time staff and is based in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, was acquired earlier this month for an undisclosed sum.

Buyitdirect.co.uk, which employs 280 staff, is expected to record turnover of £120m this year, compared with £104m last year.