Member Article

Stockton-based International Procurement Ltd targets sales growth

Stockton-on-Tees valve and process technology business International Procurement Ltd is targeting a growth in sales, following a move to new premises.

Celebrating its first 10 years in business, IPL, which moved from premises on the Portrack Industrial Estate in Stockton, to Orde Wingate Way, on the Primrose Hill Business Park, has appointed John Dady, 49, from Accrington, in Lancashire, as its new sales manager.

He will report to IPL sales director Dave Speight, and is targeting a substantial increase in sales in the UK valve sector.

No stranger to the valve industry, Mr. Dady spent the past 12 years as sales manager at Rotork Valve Kits, part of the Rotork Group of companies.

Prior to Rotork, he was an area sales manager for RGS Electro Pneumatics Ltd, which manufactures pneumatic valves and operating systems.

Mr Dady joins an expanding sales team, of seven, which has now increased still further, with the recent addition of modern apprentice Holly McLean.

His first target is to increase orders from the industrial valve sector in the UK, while sales director Dave Speight will remain responsible for maintaining current business and growing valve sales in the British nuclear industry. The company’s managing director, Colin Wilson, will continue to oversee IPL’s continuing growth in overseas markets.

Mr Dady said: “I’m currently visiting potential customers of IPL across the UK, and talking with them about their plans for the future. The next year looks like it could be a very good one for IPL’s UK business, as many potential customers are drawing up their own growth plans.”

IPL currently distributes customised valves and associated equipment for some of the biggest valve manufactures in the world. They include the multi-million turnover US-based Valvtechnologies – critical and severe service valves, Canadian firm Velan – manufacturers of steam traps and bonnet less valves, US based Vortex – dry and bulk solid handling valves, Swiss-based ABB Technologies, and the Japanese SMC Corporation.

Increased sales enquiries have developed following the relaunch of IPL’s website in August last year, which has shown a 55 per cent growth in enquiries.

Following recent visits to China and Germany, a trip to Egypt resulted in the signing of an agreement with a local agent in Cairo, who is currently working with a number of Egyptian, Government-owned businesses.

In addition, visits across Europe have resulted in the development of a large infrastructure of potential clients, with distribution deals established in many countries and orders growing.

Mr Wilson said: “Our investment in the development of a website, and a brochure to complement it, has most certainly accounted for a growth in the number of enquiries we have received.

“More recently, enquiries have come from Pakistan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Dubai, Brazil, Vietnam and Canada.”

Recent successes for IPL’s world-wide business include an agreement to distribute Igema’s range of level and boiler monitoring equipment. The business, based in Münster, near the German border with Holland, is a world-leader in the heat and steam monitoring sector.

IPL has also added to its growing and impressive range of products, by introducing those manufactured by HH Valves. Based in the UK, HH Valves is the only company manufacturing the genuine Hattersley Heaton design of cast steel gate globe and check valves to the requirements of BS EN ISO90001 and the European Pressure Equipment Directive 97/23/EC.

A further recent addition to its portfolio has been the Canadian based ‘Hughes’ Industrial Insulation Systems who design and manufacture removable and reusable valve insulation systems for all valve types and pressure ratings, across all major industrial applications.

Some of the sectors IPL work in include petrochemicals, food and drink, agriculture, utilities, nuclear generation, power, pharmaceuticals, mining, iron and steel.

IPL’s recent growth is testimony to the success it has enjoyed over the past three years, a period which has seen the company make significant progress in terms of sales, contacts, new customers, and a continued increase in annual turnover.

It’s a far cry from the recessionary years of 2010-2012, when the company, and its small permanent workforce, had to tighten their belts significantly, as turnover declined, in an increasingly gloomy global climate.

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