Group riding oil boom expects turnover to soar

Jul 3 2009 by Christopher Knox, The Journal

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

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 £16m to £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 £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.