OFFSHORE laboratory equipment specialist Hilton International has launched two new services and is eyeing growth opportunities outside the UK.
The firm has just launched a dangerous-goods packing service from its Aberdeen base on the back of expanding into hire work.
Managing director Kevin Norrie said the firm, turning over about £5million annually, with 50% of business outside the UK, was now looking to grow overseas.
Hilton was set up in 1989 to supply cement testing equipment to the North Sea oil industry, but has since expanded to mud testing gear, general laboratory equipment, consumables and servicing.
Mr Norrie said: “We are quite an ambitious company, trying not to stand still.
“We are always looking at new ways to get into the marketplace.”
Hilton was already geared up to handle hazardous material being shipped offshore by its clients, however, Mr Norrie saw the opportunity to broaden the work into a dangerous-goods service, for which it needed specifically qualified staff and an approved facility.
He added: “We see it as a potential growth area.”
The company, which employs about 25 people, had been looking to expand in Libya but has had its plans curtailed by the civil war in the country.
Despite this, the firm is still looking to other parts of North Africa and the Middle East for growth opportunities.
Mr Norrie, who bought the business about 10 years ago, said it now supplied most oil majors working out of Aberdeen.