Member Article

Record profits fund expansion drive

By more than doubling profits in each of the last three financial years a North East engineering business has become one of the most successful private companies in the UK.

With an average 111% improvement year-on-year Tyneside based Express Engineering has rocketed to eighth place in the Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 league table.

This puts the company ahead of well known national brands such as Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italian, biscuit manufacturer Tunnocks and Pret A Manger. It is also by far the highest ranked North East operation to make the list – the other two being in 83rd and 98th positions.

Profits at the 2013 year end reached £7 million, boosting the business’ big expansion initiative which, with a capital injection from mid-market private equity investor LDC, is expected to produce even more spectacular results in the years ahead.

Said Finance Director, Mike Blakey: “This 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 was back in 2007 that Express embarked on what has so far been a £10 million investment in new facilities, recruitment, equipment and acquisitions. Alongside this a robust training programme includes an apprenticeship scheme that recently welcomed its 100th member.

The business has already been singled out as ‘one to watch’ in a league table of the country’s fastest growing firms. With a 240% growth in turnover during 2012/13 it was the North East’s only representative on a 10 strong list of operations tipped to break into the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 – the UK’s top 100 private businesses demonstrating the most rapid expansion.

Express is now a globally recognised contract manufacturing company. From its 150,000 square feet of specialist facilities in Gateshead, Stokesley and in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the 400 strong workforce supplies precision engineering services to the aerospace, sub sea oil and gas exploration and production and power generation sectors.

The customer base includes FMC Technologies, Aker Solutions, GE (Vetco), Cameron, National Oilwell Varco, Rolls Royce and Messier Dowty.

The Profit Track 100 is sponsored by BDO, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking and UBS Wealth Management. It is compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events company.

Terry Jones, partner at BDO, commented: “Britain endured the longest recession within the G7, yet entrepreneurial businesses in the North East and across the UK are bouncing back more strongly than their international counterparts. The most profitable companies have remained focused, positioning their businesses for - and helping to create - the economic recovery we are now witnessing.”

The 100 companies on this year’s league table grew their profits over the last three years by an average of 66% a year to combined profits of £1.6bn in their latest available accounts.

Together they employed 93,800 people, having added 31,200 employees to their workforce during this time, some as a result of acquisitions.

The majority of the companies on the league table are headquartered in London (33) and the South East (17). Of the remainder, 14 are based in the North West, seven in the West Midlands and in Scotland, six in Yorkshire, five in the South West, four in the East of England, three in the North East and two in the East Midlands and Wales.

The full league table was published in a six-page broadsheet supplement with the business section of The Sunday Times on 13 April, both in print and on the digital edition, and on www.fasttrack.co.uk

To find out more about Express Engineering visit www.express-engineering.co.uk

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