‘Everything I’ve achieved has been through life experience – now I run a £2.9m Aberdeen firm’
The 57-year-old founded his Granite City business a decade ago and now has 16 staff.
Aberdeen businessman Graeme McGuire doesn’t fit the mould of a typical tech entrepreneur.
He was a self-confessed “distracted” pupil who never saw himself as academic.
At a career crossroads in 2016, the 57-year-old faced a choice, stay in a secure job or take a leap into the unknown.
The dad-of-five chose to do the latter and now heads well-known Bridge of Don based audiovisual company AV One Solutions.
He has a growing team of 16 people and a turnover of £2.9 million.
Retail and people skills
Graeme grew up in Torry until the age of five when he then moved to Dundee due to his dad’s work.
He left Whitfield High at the age of 16 and was still unsure what career path he wanted to take.
He said: “I was never entirely sure what I wanted to do.
“My dad’s an electronic engineer and I always thought I might want to do that, but I was a terrible studier.
“I left school with five O levels, but wasn’t really great at studying.
“Everything I’ve done has been through life experience and not higher education.”
Self-confessed technology geek
Graeme’s career began in 1985 at the Hydro Electric shop in Dundee, where he joined as a trainee salesperson.
He said: “I’ve always been a bit of a geek for technology. Back in the mid-80s, it was an opportunity to get into a job that wasn’t in the youth training scheme.”
What started as a sales position turned into a management opportunity, giving Graeme his first real grounding in business.
By 1992, aged 28, he had returned to Aberdeen to manage the Hydro Electric shop on Union Street.
Graeme said: “All the family was up in Aberdeen, so it was just a nice welcome home.
“We had a really great sales team in there and a great customer base, and we always beat targets as well, so that was good on the retail side.
“Through the years that I was there, they gave some fantastic training on dealing with people and sales training, on developing business and things, so that was the grounding for the rest of my life from there.”
In 1996, amid industry changes and privatisation within Hydro Electric, Graeme made the decision to move on, joining Aberdeen firm Don Mor as an exhibition coordinator.
He said: “At that time, Hydro Electric was going through privatisation.
“When you first started with Hydro Electric, it was a job for life but then everything changed and it wasn’t really a great place to be at the time.
“So I decided to take the move.”
Move into audiovisuals industry
After three years, he stepped into what would become his long-term industry, joining AVC Media Enterprises in Altens as a conference manager.
Graeme said: “I ran a little kind of conference centre and the event side as well.
“I would do the audiovisual hire for events, and that was my entry into the audiovisual industry.”
Graeme spent 17 years with the company, building extensive experience and strong client relationships. But a period of restructuring forced a pivotal decision.
He said: “The company were going through administration at the time but they were bought out, and restarted under new management.
“But at that point, we had 15 people working in the audiovisual team at that time and I was told I still had a job but it would just be me, and that’s it.
“We’d have to sub-hire people in which, to me, didn’t make sense.”
Taking the leap with AV One Solutions
With encouragement from his partner, Fiona McKay, Graeme made the decision to strike out on his own in 2016.
He said: “It was a big risk. We had a house, a young family, and I could have stayed in secure employment. But Fiona said, ‘you’ll never know if you don’t try – we’ll make it work.
“So yeah, it was a daunting task. But also exciting as well, the prospect of owning your own business.”
Backed by £130,000 investment from Jim Clark and Jim Wright, Graeme launched AV One Solutions in September that year.
AV One Solutions designs, installs, and supports AV systems for workplaces, events, cultural venues and specialist offshore environments across the UK and beyond.
He said: “We invested £90,000 into the audiovisual equipment alone and the rest was needed for the general start-up of the company.
“It was just me to start with but by the end of October I had four members of staff.”
Increasing turnover
The business quickly gained traction, driven largely by Graeme’s reputation.
Graeme said: “People buy from people.
“A lot of clients I’d worked with before got in touch because they trusted me to deliver.”
First year turnover for the firm was £700,000. By year two it had doubled.
A major early breakthrough came in 2017, when the company secured a contract for a six-metre interactive video wall at the Net Technology Centre on Queen’s Road.
Graeme said: “We were up against nine companies from across the UK.
“Winning that was a huge moment – our first major contract.”
Since then, AV One Solutions has built an impressive client base, including TotalEnergies, the James Hutton Institute and William Grant & Sons.
Today, the firm employs 16 people and generates turnover of around £2.9m.
However, like many in the events and AV sector, the business faced significant challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Graeme said: “For eight to 12 months, there were no events at all.
“That was a huge challenge. But we made the decision to retain all our staff through lockdown. We believed we’d come out stronger – and we did.”
Award win
AV One Solutions won the Customer First Awards at the recent Northern Star Business Awards.
Graeme said: “When you come up against an established name like The Marcliffe, who’ve invested a lot into the redevelopment of the fantastic venue, you know that’s a tough category.
“But you’ve always got to have some confidence, but it did come as a surprise.
“It’s fantastic for the team to get that recognition. If I go back to my Hydro Electric days, customer service is everything.”
Work hard and trust people
For Graeme, the journey from uncertain school leaver to business leader is proof that success doesn’t always follow a traditional path.
He said: “I pinch myself quite often.
“I would call me distracted when I was at school. I wasn’t really into studying and now running one of the most technically advanced companies in Aberdeen.”
“If you’ve got the desire, go for it.
“But you have to work hard. If it was easy, everyone would do it.
“So you’ve got to really apply yourself, but also don’t be too hard on yourself.
“I learned quite early in the business I was trying too much myself.
“You’ve got to trust people around you. And not get involved in absolutely everything.”
Evolving industry
Looking ahead, Graeme has ambitious plans for growth.
He said: “We have big plans for the next year and hopefully add more people into the team as well.
“We work in an industry that constantly evolves so we’ve got to keep moving with that as well to make sure we can support and deliver for our clients.
“Last year was a really good year for turnover. We expect this to increase by at least 10-15% this year.
“I think with the plans we can potentially grow the business by another 20% more than last year.
“Whether that’s through organic growth or we look at potential acquisition in the future as well.”
By Kelly Wilson, Press & Journal, 2 May 2026