Airbourne Colours’ chairman Steve Darbyshire reflects on the firm's first decade and a journey that has taken the company from South Coast start-up to East Midlands-based market leader

It is ten years since Airbourne Colours set up shop in one of the old BAC One-Eleven hangars at Bournemouth Airport – the company’s first job, a Boeing 737-300, painted for next door neighbours European Aviation Group. In the following decade, the firm has grown from what chairman Steve Darbyshire described as “the new kid on the block” to the UK’s market leader.