Business is booming for Ashington hose maker

Posted by The Journal on Jul 3, 09 09:40 AM in News

A company that makes giant hoses for the offshore oil and gas industry expects to see its turnover more than double from ÃÂ£28m to about ÃÂ£60m by 2016 with the help of a booming market and a leaner business model.

Andrew Esson, MD of ContiTech Beattie, Ashington

Andrew Esson, MD of ContiTech Beattie

Ashington's ContiTech Beattie believes it is on track to achieve what it has termed its Olympic target, as it has seen its sales rocket from ÃÂ£16m to ÃÂ£28m since the business was taken over in 2004.

Formed in 1960 as Beattie Hydraulics Ltd and focusing on the North East's coal mining sector, the firm now manufactures carbon steel hydraulic hose fittings and employs 97 people, including 82 in Ashington, 14 in Aberdeen and one in Singapore.

The firm, which also makes large reels for the hoses to sit on, is now hoping to add about 20 new jobs in the next three years as it looks to set up offices in Singapore as well as explore markets in the Middle East to strengthen its export sales, which have grown from 60% to 80% of its activities.

It has also recently invested ÃÂ£600,000 in new equipment, which it said had already speeded up production and allowed it to increase the manufacture of hose couplings and adapters.

Although the firm is looking forward to a promising future, managing director Andrew Esson says the business could well have fallen on hard times had it not been for a management shake-up which appointed him in 2004 after he had spent 18 years at Glasgow engineering company Weir Group.

The firm was originally run by the Beattie family before being sold to German group Phoenix AG in 2000, which was then acquired by Continental AG in 2004 and that led to the appointment of Mr Esson.

He said: "The new team spent a lot of time looking at how we could build a leaner business model as well as assessing a number of new markets.

"We are now living up to our potential and closing in on our 'Olympic challenge' of hitting a turnover of ÃÂ£42m in 2012 and then on to ÃÂ£60m as part of the next four-year programme.

"We are lucky that we are directly involved with one of the world's few remaining booming industries and are confident of future growth."

The firm's success was recently acknowledged at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Manufacturing Awards, where its ability to grow during the recession earned it the Financial Management prize.

Last year, ContiTech Beattie won the Business Development and Change Management award, was highly commended in the People Development category and also won two Northumberland Business Awards and the employer of the year title in the Wansbeck Business Awards.

Mr Esson said: "The finance department has been at the heart of the transition of ContiTech Beattie from a business with no sophisticated systems to its place now as a subsidiary of a major international corporation, Continental AG.

"This award recognises the development and improvements that have taken place along the way and builds upon the recognition that has been given to ContiTech Beattie during the last two years as the business sees genuine rewards, internally and externally, as a result of the changes."

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