John Mee founded John Mee Construction Limited in 1993 to carry out civil engineering work including deep drainage and tunnelling work. In 2005 the company won an award for a Sheffield city centre contract, which specified hand-dig only, due to the site being heavily congested with underground services. John Mee decided to invest in his first vacuum excavator, the UKs first, to complete this job successfully, without any strikes' on services.