CTC Marine soars up the top firms list

Jul 20 2010 by Jez Davison, Evening Gazette

CTC Marine has been named as one of the region’s top companies after plotting a successful path through Britain’s worst post-war recession. Jez Davison reports.

ALTHOUGH Britain is struggling to emerge from the fiercest recession in decades, Daryl Lynch can't understand what all the fuss is about.

Last year, when many firms were drowning in a tidal wave downturn, the MD of Darlington offshore subsea construction firm CTC Marine engineered a 34.5% rise in revenues on the back of several lucrative contract wins.

The company’s progress has shown that tough trading conditions are not necessarily a barrier to corporate success.

CTC soared 82 places to 38th in this year’s list of Top 200 North-east companies, with turnover last year rising from £109.2m to £146.9m.

But the company is no one-hit wonder, having strengthened its hand in key markets over a number of years.

In the last 16 years, CTC has completed more than 110 trenching and cable installation projects ranging in scope, value and complexity.

The company’s track record of projects reaches around the globe covering Australia, South East Asia, China, Egypt, Brazil and the North Sea.

With offices in Singapore, Dubai, Egypt and Perth in Australia, CTC can justifiably claim to be a global operation driven by a 180-strong workforce - of which 140 are based in Tees Valley.

The company’s success can be attributed, in part, to its strategy of diversifying into several lucrative growth sectors including telecommunications, offshore renewables, electrical power transmission and subsea defence.

Mr Lynch says: “A couple of years ago we were over-reliant on oil and gas.

“We have taken a good, core skills set in oil and gas and applied it successfully to other markets.

“We’ve increased our geographical profile and broadened our sector spread.”

Although CTC’s outlook is global, Mr Lynch is careful not to overlook opportunities on his doorstep.

“People think the North Sea is a mature market and is coming to the end of its shelf life. It’s not.”

He claims that sophisticated new technologies made the North Sea a potential goldmine for oil, gas and renewable energy firms - including his own.

CTC has been quietly building up a portfolio in offshore wind and has kick-started work on the BARD Offshore Wind 1 project, installing 80 infield cables in the western North Sea.

“Renewables is a massive drive for us,” he adds. “The North-east could be to renewables what Aberdeen is to the oil and gas industry.

“[But] the Government needs to recognise that there is a North-east offshore sector. We need their support.”

That might not be guaranteed though in an era of high-profile public spending cuts.

Last week the Department of Energy and Climate Change announced it was cutting £34m from its low carbon technology budget as part of £6.25bn of savings to be made across Whitehall - pouring cold water on an earlier Government pledge to back green energy projects with hard cash.

The Carbon Trust, which receives funding to promote Britain’s transition to a low carbon economy, will see its budget cut by £12.6m.

Meanwhile £3m will be shaved off the offshore wind capital grants scheme, which supports offshore wind farm developments on which companies such as CTC rely.

DECC has made it clear that the success of these projects depends on leveraging more private sector investment.

Although that will be no easy task with economic output growing at under 1% per quarter, Mr Lynch - a naturally optimistic character - believes it can be done.

He gets irritated by doom-mongers who proclaim that the country is on the verge of a double-dip recession.

“I don’t think it was ever as bleak as people made out. I believe the North-east is more stabilised and protected than other areas of the country.

“We didn’t see the boom that London and the South-east did - and now we’re not seeing the bust.”

He won’t make predictions on CTC’s future revenues but claims he is “confident of continuous growth” after an excellent 2009 was marked by a double award win.

In December the company scooped the Innovation and Technology and Company of the Year awards at sector body NOF Energy’s Annual Dinner.

Earlier this year the company was crowned the Tees Valley’s top exporter.

CTC Marine picked up the Export Award at the Tees Valley sub regional final of the nebusiness awards 2009.

And now CTC is gearing up for further growth, having completed workscopes in several new markets including the Middle East, the Mediterranean and, most recently, Korea.

The firm has won a $40m (£26m) contract to carry out cable lay and ploughing activity on the Jeju Island submarine power grid project in one of Korea’s most popular holiday destinations.

CTC has also strengthened its muscle in the offshore renewables industry, currently working on the Bard Offshore Wind Farm and on a groundbreaking wave energy development with the South West Regional Development Agency off the coast of Cornwall.

Wave Hub will create the world’s biggest test site for marine energy with the installation of a giant electrical socket on the seabed.

Hartlepool-based JDR Cable Systems has manufactured the hub structure and the 25km subsea cable that will connect it to the National Grid on shore, while CTC is installing the cable and hub on the seabed.

This week the 1,300 tonne cable is being spooled onto the cable laying ship, Nordica, directly from JDR’s factory in Hartlepool - a major engineering exercise that takes around four days to complete.

The project is a lucrative source of revenue for CTC - part of the US-based Trico Marine Group which turned over $96m (£63m) in the first three months of this year.

In early May, the Nasdaq-listed firm had a work backlog worth more than $500m (£328m) - bolstered by CTC’s renewable energy contract wins under Mr Lynch’s stewardship.

He has spent 10 years at the Darlington firm and was promoted from finance director to MD two years ago - ironically, just as economies across the globe came screeching to a halt.

But even though Britain was struck by statistically the worst recession since the Second World War, he has proven that the best companies can still prosper.