Engineering firm’s £1m boost
STOCKTON engineering firm Francis Brown has bucked the economic gloom by winning contracts worth more than £1m - its biggest ever influx of orders.
The family-owned fabrication specialist will recruit up to 12 staff on the back the work, which is predicted to push turnover past £4m and follows a £300,000+ project to create a 47-metre stainless steel pressure vessel column for the Billingham arm of plastics giant Lucite.
The column will be used in the production of MMA (Methyl Methacrylate), a bonding agent used in artificial nail products.
Managing director Jamie Brown - who represents the fourth generation of his family at the helm of the firm - said high-value local skills and the boom in energy-related projects had helped to win the recent work.
He said: “This is the biggest influx of orders we’ve ever had. We have a highly-skilled, loyal workforce and a reputation for delivering a high quality product.
“A lot of what we do is energy-related.
“The oil, gas, offshore and wind industries are going to be buoyant for the next three years at least, and long term we will look at nuclear work.”
The vessel column project was one of the largest jobs undertaken by the company, which has moved to larger premises in Hill Street East, Stockton.
The new premises incorporates a segregated workshop, which is used to manufacture and weld stainless steels, nickel alloys, duplex and aluminium in a non-contaminated environment.
