Draper Tools: celebrating 100 years in business

Using drone photography to document and celebrate special milestones in a business’ life is always a pleasure — especially when that business is a family-run firm like Draper Tools, whose centenary birthday we captured from above in June 2019!

That included 360º drone photography, of course!

Draper Tools wasn’t the only business commemorating being in business for 100 years at this event — Care For Veterans were too! Draper Tools donated £10,000 to the cause on the day.

Care For Veterans was established in 1919 to care for soldiers who returned from World War One with life-changing disabilities. They’ve been providing long-term nursing care, rehabilitation, respite, and award-winning end-of-life care to disabled ex-servicemen and -servicewomen from the RAF, Army, Royal Navy, and auxiliary services for 100 years!

Here’s a drone shot for the history books:

We’ve had a good look through Draper Tools’ achievements and sponsorships over the years, discovering that the national tools distributor sponsored Southampton Football Club for nine years! Many famous footballing legends wore the Draper Tools name on their shirts, including Alan Shearer, Peter Shilton, and Matthew Le Tissier.

In recent years, they’ve continued to advertise and sponsor several sporting arenas, such as (at the time of writing) Exceler8 Motorsport (by providing tools and equipment to help maintain their cars) and Caterham Motorsports (for whom Draper Tools are the official tooling partner).

Here are the highlights we shot from overhead, using a dual-operator set-up (Mike on piloting duties and Jan taking control of cinematography):

Draper Tools also sponsor the ‘Warp Speed Racing’ Suzuki 1755cc drag bike, which travels from 0–100mph in just one second! Mike, being a keen gearhead, couldn’t resist having his photo taken with this beut!

And, how could we resist entering the ‘Draper 100 Selfie Competition’?