Member Article

Express Engineering is one to watch

An expanding North East based manufacturer has been singled out as ‘one to watch’ in a league table of the country’s fastest growing firms.

Team Valley based Express Engineering is the region’s only representative on a 10 strong list of operations tipped to break into the UK’s top 100 private businesses demonstrating most rapid expansion.

Turnover grew by over 240% in 2012/13 to just under £30 million and trading during the first eight months of this financial year has already passed that milestone. As a result, the company has been highlighted in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 supplement as a future contender.

Said Finance Director, Mike Blakey: “This is great news which proves that our policy of investing for growth during the recession has really paid dividends.

“We are now equipped with the skills and capacity to take advantage of more confident markets and anticipate further significant expansion in the medium to long term. It would be fantastic to make the top 100 next year.”

The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 league table – published each December for the past 16 years - ranks companies on sales over three years. As well as listing the top 100 it earmarks 10 more as ‘ones to watch’ the best performing of which will be announced at an awards dinner at Richard Branson’s Oxfordshire home next May.

A typical Fast Track 100 company is owned and run by entrepreneurs, has between 20 and 500 staff, an average three-year sales growth of between 50% and 300% per annum and sales of between £5 million and £100 million. Around 20% have venture capital backing.

Mr. Blakey added: “It was back in 2007 that we launched our big investment initiative – before there was any incling of the banking crisis, monetary squeeze and recession that was to come. When it did and our markets fell away, we had to decide whether to continue, scale down or even call off the initiative.

“Although things were extremely tight, we opted for the former because we knew the businesses in the strongest position in terms of skills and capabilities would recover most quickly after the recession ended. So, over that period we have invested over £10 million in new facilities, recruitment, equipment and acquisitions. We also continued with a robust training programme, which includes an apprenticeship scheme that has just seen the arrival of its 100th member.

“This year we have bought out our Brazilian partner in the 50/50 Sao Paolo Petrotec venture we launched in 2009, acquired the assets of Burdon Limited in Stokesley and secured a fresh capital injection from private equity investor LDC, which will support further growth.”

Express Engineering now has 200,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space on the Team Valley, at Stokesley and in Brazil, from which a 375-strong workforce supplies precision engineering services to the aerospace, sub sea oil and gas exploration and production and power generation sectors.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Dobbie .