A young Aberdeen company providing catering and facilities management support to the oil industry worldwide has landed a major new contract in Thailand worth £1million.
Celera Support Services won the long-term deal with Mermaid Offshore Services to work on diving support vessel Mermaid Commander from this month.
The contract is expected to lead to Celera nearly doubling its offshore workforce from the current 15 to 27.
The new work starts just after a long-term deal in the North Sea worth more than £1million to support another diving support vessel, the Mermaid Endurer, was signed in April.
Celera is also currently bidding for other projects with other potential clients, including a possible £1.5million, three-year deal across Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The north-east firm was set up at the end of 2011 and got off to a flying start, winning its first contract within a month.
Its teams have since worked in remote environments in a wide range of countries including China, Republic of the Congo, Cyprus, Israel, Singapore, South Africa and the UK.The two directors are John Wigglesworth and Paul Whittingham, who previously worked together at ESS Offshore before striking out on their own.
The businessmen decided to set up Celera as they felt they could provide a better service to customers than established firms in the market.
But the pair were not able to get any external financial support to get started.
Mr Wigglesworth said: “Neither the venture capitalists or the banks were interesting in backing us, due to the tight financial environment at the time.
“It was our own cash that went into creating this business and we still have no outside shareholders.
“It’s been a blessing in a way, as we have no venture capitalists or bankers to answer to, which allows us to be more patient and develop relationships with clients who see the benefit of our operational and commercial approach.
“I am pleased to say that, by being prudent, we have been profitable since we started.”
In the next five years, Mr Wigglesworth wants the worldwide workforce to expand to 150 and annual turnover reach £10million.
But Celera will still be careful about how it achieves growth.
He explained: “We will not chase turnover or market share just for the sake of it. We plan to build our business in managed stages, while delivering ‘best in class’ services to our existing clients and not to grow too big too soon.
“We already have the ability to follow clients across the world with the same team. That’s what our big rivals have problems doing within their corporate structures.
“We may be small, but we can move fast. For example, we managed to mobilise for one African contract in just two weeks.”
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