Beyond the Net: Why HV & ATEX Demand Expert Partnerships
Published 17 Feb 2026
In an era of click-based procurement and AI-driven recommendations, a critical question is amplifying across energy and process industries. When lives and multi-million-pound assets hang in the balance, are your buying processes safe and robust?
For Thorne & Derrick International, the answer today is “probably not”. Thorne & Derrick has deliberately and clearly positioned itself not as a catalogue supplier, but as a solutions-based consultative partner adding high value expertise to energy supply chains globally.
What Thorne & Derrick Deliver
The Thorne & Derrick team of highly trained Technical Sales Engineers provides correct product specification and supply supplemented by value-added services. This includes supporting customers with system design, site survey, field training, product demonstration and CPD-accredited courses. In hazardous areas and high-voltage industries, where a single mis-specified component can trigger catastrophic system failure, this distinction isn’t commercial nuance — it’s a safety imperative.
The Risk in Digital-Only Procurement
The rise of online B2B marketplaces and impersonal web-based stores has transformed industrial purchasing, bringing speed and transparency to many categories but dumbing down decision-making and introducing error into customer carts. Beyond doubt in HV, ATEX, IECEx and DSEAR-regulated environments, digitisation carries some serious risks. Whilst products may appear dimensionally identical across three suppliers online, subtle yet critical differences in product specification can dangerously go unnoticed.
Never mind mis-selection — counterfeit is common; product faking is rife.
Quote
“Customers aren’t buying a commodity,” explains Chris Dodds, Sales & Marketing Manager at Thorne & Derrick International. “They’re investing in a service that assures delivered products will comply and ensure optimum performance with built-in safety and reliability. This requires deeper intelligence beyond the datasheet to include the operating context; understanding explosion protection concepts, T Class, Gas Group, bushing interfaces and complex high-voltage cable specifications and configurations. No dropdown menu captures that.”
Product Compliance & Installer Competence
The Thorne & Derrick philosophy underpins their business model: Sales Engineers undergo continuous professional development training in hazardous area and high voltage standards, product technology, selection, installation and application engineering. The investment upholds a core belief: Product Compliance & Installer Competence must exist alongside industry regulation and technology.
From 600V to 66kV, from Zone 1 to Zone 21, they are committed across the business to supporting the delivery of safe projects. The common thread isn’t product breadth alone; it’s the application of contextual intelligence to match equipment specification with site reality to deliver that safety.
Safety as a Shared Outcome
Thorne & Derrick support a sharpened commitment: Certified Products, Installed Competently. Certification validates the product’s design integrity and assurance emerges from the correct selection. Competency is assured by training and ongoing development to ensure the highest levels of installation workmanship. One without the other creates vulnerability.
The Human Layer in an Automated World
As the energy mix accelerates through renewables, decarbonisation, hydrogen, battery energy storage and innovation in hazardous area processes, the complexity of Certification and Compliance intensifies. Legacy knowledge alone no longer suffices. In this dynamic landscape, Thorne & Derrick International positions its Sales Engineers not as checkout order-takers, but as active participants in clients’ safety ecosystems.
Technology will continue reshaping procurement. But in environments where error tolerance is zero, the human layer of expertise remains irreplaceable. Thorne & Derrick International’s value proposition rests on a simple, sobering premise: the cheapest or fastest option isn’t always the safest. And safety, ultimately, isn’t purchased—it’s engineered through partnership.
For engineers specifying critical infrastructure, that expert partnership may be the most important component in the bill of materials.
Partner with Thorne & Derrick
In HV and hazardous area environments where error tolerance is zero, our Technical Sales Engineers help ensure correct selection, compliance and safe performance in the real world.
Certified product selection support  • Application engineering guidance  • Project-ready documentation
