Sandy Haig with the Caledonian Society dancers

April 2006 saw DOE SPORT LTD and DOE SPORT (NORTH) LTD coming together for a spectacular dinner at the Grade I Listed Layer Marney Tower near Colchester to celebrate 21 years of successful trading since the MBO in 1985 and to mark two further milestones in their history.

This event to mark the 21^st Anniversary provided the ideal opportunity to celebrate the 10 years since DOE opened another fully staffed office and separate trading company at Leven in Fife led by Les Maclean.   This new development in April 1996 was tasked with concentrating specifically on the growth of the DOE business in Northern UK and Scotland.   The success of this venture has been outstanding and the turnover of DOE business throughout the UK last year was well in excess of £6 million.   This has been an enormous achievement for all concerned following on from the MBO in 1985 and the significant recession of the early 1990s. 

The third milestone marked at the April "Triple Event" dinner was the retirement of Sandy Haig, himself a Scot, who stepped down from his position as Managing Director of DOE SPORT in the South at the end of 2005.   The gathering of the two DOE companies and all their staff made certain that Sandy was "sent off" in style during an evening which will long remain in the memories of everyone there.

A strong Scottish theme ran throughout the evening's celebrations led by Pipe Major Willie Cochrane, formerly of the Royal Scottish Fusiliers, together with a group of Scottish dancers from a local Caledonian Society in Essex.

The after dinner speeches followed a central theme - DOE's thanks to its customers, employees and suppliers for their notable contribution to the success of the business over the last 21 years which, in turn, has enabled DOE to make its own notable contribution to the world of Tennis.   A particular feature of this contribution has been DOE's grass roots sponsorship of some £110,000 since the MBO in 1985.

DOE confirmed its determination to build on this success through the continuing development of outstanding facilities for the game of Tennis, dedicated Football solutions for football club projects and demonstrably "best value" multi-use games solutions for Schools, Colleges and community based schemes.