Tool-maker in £5m expansion

Nov 12 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

ASPECIALIST tool-making company is going through a period of rapid growth and has secured £5m of bank funding to allow it to develop the business further.

Northumberland-based Torque Tension Systems (TTS) will see turnover increase by 60% to £4m this year and has increased staff numbers from 11 to 17.

The company recently opened a new sales office in Malaysia to cater for the South East Asian oil and gas market and plans to open further offices in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Part of the reason for this year’s surge in sales was the securing of a contract with a US-based global tools supplier based in Illinois, which has an annual turnover of £4bn.

TTS managing director Gerald Vineberg said: “It took 11 months of hard graft to secure this contract, but it’s proved to be well worth it. It has opened up the Chinese and US markets and proved highly successful.”

TTS, which was established in 1998, supplies niche markets with hydraulic equipment such as torque wrenches and nut splitters. It designs the tools and has them made by three tool shops close to its head office in Ashington.

Mr Vineberg added: “Turnover has grown from £2.5m to £4m in the last year and we are anticipating further growth of 50% in the coming year.

“We will increase the workforce as we continue to develop. Our expansion is also benefiting our suppliers who are increasing the size of the factories and their workforces in line with our growth.”

Increasing activity in searching for oil and gas reserves across the globe has aided the company’s progress and now it is looking to move into other growth markets such as petro- chemcials and mining.

The company recently secured £5m of funding from the Bank of Scotland (part of HBOS) and Mr Vineberg narrowly missed out in a recent entrepreneurs challenge, run by the bank, which would have seen the company receive this money on a three-year interest-free basis.

Keith Hogg, of Bank of Scotland Corporate, said: “TTS is a unique company which has shown a real entrepreneurial flair in securing substantial growth in an international market.”