Integrated subsea technology and services firm Ashtead Technology has launched a recruitment drive after completing the £1 million development of a new research and development and engineering facility in Aberdeenshire.
Yesterday the firm said the expansion would help support its aim of increasing its foothold in the renewables and decommissioning sectors.
Ashtead is initially looking to recruit 12 staff, in roles including project management, design and engineering.
They will be based at its headquarters in Westhill, and its other north-east site, on Inverurie’s Thainstone Business park, where it has developed its 15,000sqft technology centre.
Upgrading the firm’s existing operations there, the new facility features an engineering, research and development suite, a dedicated equipment trial and testing zone and a 10-tonne overhead crane for on-site fabrication. It also has one acre of yard and storage space.
Established around 35 years ago, Ashtead’s growth has accelerated over the past four years, following five strategic global acquisitions. The most recent of those was of Underwater Cuttings Solutions (UCS) in 2019, for an undisclosed sum.
Ashtead Technology chief executive, Allan Pirie, said: “We’ve grown rapidly over the past few years, and consolidating our team and technologies in a new purpose-designed facility to further integrate our service offering to better support our clients has always been the plan.
“The opening of our new advanced site supports our aim to increase our foothold in renewables and decommissioning and bring our teams closer together to offer a more efficient service.
“Our tech centre expansion has also created an opportunity to add to our multi-skilled team and we look forward to attracting new talent into the business.”
Fraser Collis, general manager of the company’s mechanical solutions division, said: “The UK currently has the largest and most dynamic offshore-wind market in the world and decommissioning projects are also back on the agenda following a slowdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We now have double the capacity of our previous site to house our vast range of equipment such as diamond wire saws, dredging systems, shear cutters and ROV tooling, as well as the facilities to now develop more bespoke technologies to support our clients’ operations.
“We are well-positioned to capitalise on our combined in-house, multi-disciplined expertise to deliver in these areas as well as offering an enhanced working environment for our staff.”
Specialising in asset integrity, mechanical solutions and survey and robotics services, Ashtead employs a workforce of around 180 in key offshore energy locations across the UK, the Americas the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
In addition to UCS, its acquisitions since 2017 have included TES Survey Equipment Services, Forum Subsea Rentals, Welaptega, and Aqua-Tech Solutions.
Last month, Ashtead announced the appointment of Ingrid Stewart, who had previously been corporate development director at EnerMech Group, to the new role of chief financial officer.
Ms Stewart’s was one of five new senior appointments by the firm.
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