A COMPANY which develops tracking devices is using £250,000 worth of funding to break into the construction market and take advantage of a growing need for plant and equipment monitoring systems.
North Shields-based Succorfish provides tracking systems using GPS satellite technology for use on marine and military equipment that can then be monitored remotely from anywhere in the world.
It will use the pot of cash from regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers to bring in new market managers and support staff to help target the construction industry.
Founded five years ago by director Chad Hooper, Succorfish focused solely on the marine market, developing GPS, GSM and GPRS systems that offered more operational capacity than standard tracking equipment.
Its operations gradually spread into the onshore and defence sectors and it now employs more than 12 people, with further appointments set to follow in the next three months.
George Henricks, commercial director at Succorfish, said: “We’ve done an awful lot of work producing, developing and creating specific satellite solutions for the construction sector. It’s a competitive industry, but there are a lot of people simply shipping in GPS systems from the Far East and they’re not always fit for purpose.
“We develop and manufacture these systems which provide more detailed information and are able to operate in pretty much any environment.
“The differentiation that this creates has been the basis of our commercial success so far, and we knew that there were a great deal more opportunities out there for us once we put the service infrastructure required in place to capitalise on them.
“With around £165m of plant taken from building sites just last year, increasing our focus on the construction industry is a natural progression for the company, especially as our systems are already designed to operate in environments where their robustness will be severely tested.
“Our turnover has grown by 25% for the last two years and we’re now in a position to take on another three employees in the next three months.
“ We currently operate in Europe, UK, US, Africa and the Middle East and we’ve had enquiries from Australia. , So the next five years is about consolidating our recent growth into overseas markets.”
David Thomas, investment executive at NEL, said: “The Succorfish management team has a definite idea of both where they want to take the business in the future and how they want to get there.
“It was clear to everyone that the type of investment support the Growth Fund provides fits well with these requirements, and their plans offered a strong investment opportunity for us.”
