Joining forces to bring deals to Tees
JOINT BIDDING for major manufacturing and construction projects is likely to become a familiar feature of the business landscape on Teesside.
As Mech-Tool cut the first steel on its £3m contract to fit the SeaDragon oil rig on Friday, Phil Bullock, operations director for the Darlington-based firm, said joint tendering with the Tees Alliance Group had brought huge rewards for the firm, but it was also a cultural challenge. “It was new to us,” he said, “particularly the ‘risk and rewards’ nature of the contract, but I’d recommend it.”
The firm, which will see its turnover boosted by more than 25%, worked with Billingham’s McGills Services - a leading member of the Tees Alliance Group - to fabricate the rig’s living quarters. Overall, SeaDragon will bring £150m and hundreds of jobs to Tees.
“This project gives MTE the opportunity of sustaining and developing their capacity for larger projects in the oil and gas market and comes at a time when MTE were naturally looking to extend their market penetration as well as bringing much needed work to the area,” said Mr Bullock.
“We are confident the success of this project and the development of working relationships with the client and co-contractors will develop greater opportunities in the future”
Business Link and One NorthEast are aggressively promoting joint tendering to secure millions of pounds worth of work for Tees on the London Olympics project, while a consultant with Middlesbrough-based TWI revealed last week that he had approached the regional development authority with a similar plan to secure work for local firms on decommissioning nuclear plants, worth millions every year.
Stan Higgins, chief executive of the North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC), said increasing numbers of small firms were likely to be bidding for work as part of consortium.
“The Olympics, the large scale projects under way in our region, plus the nuclear agenda are providing lots of opportunities,” he said.
“For some smaller companies the bidding process can seem an arduous one. But there are great opportunities for them.
“We are currently running our own project at NEPIC to help businesses become more professional to enable them to bid for work. It’s about improving companies in the supply chain. We work with them to identify business opportunities and up-skilling needs.
Mech-Tool’s steel for the modules will be crafted at Darlington, but assembly will take place at the firm’s Middlesbrough base of AV Dawson.
Tees Alliance Group, members include Cleveland Bridge, McGill Services and K-Home Engineering. Together, they have brought contracts worth more than £150m to the Tees Valley and hundreds of new jobs, breathing life into the Haverton Hill shipyard where the SeaDragon rig will be assembled.
