North east firm Survival Craft Inspectorate is to create more than 20 jobs and expand its production facility after a 25% rise in demand, the firm said yesterday.
The business, which provides emergency marine evacuation systems, said turnover could jump from £15million to £25 million in the next financial year and staff numbers increase from 140 to 162 in the next three months on the back of increasing work.
It said this was because new safety regulations were being imposed on companies in the energy and maritime sectors, requiring them to comply with new lifeboat release and retrieval systems rules by 2014.
This had lead to a rise in demand for its compliant hook systems, particularly in North America.
Angus Campbell, Survival Craft Inspectorate’s managing director, said a recent acquisition of a release system called RocLoc off Canadian-based Mad Rock Marine Solutions had already boosted its offering, adding to its own Safelaunch system, and had opened the firm up to the multi-million pound cruise ship safety market.
He said: “Acquiring RocLoc earlier this year is already paying dividends for the business. It has led to a 25% rise in orders compared to the same period last year, with strong growth in North America for RocLoc and Safelaunch.
“Our independently-approved hook systems fully comply with the new regulations.
“The fact we have 350 systems already fitted on cruise ships is an indication of the strong commercial advantage we enjoy in this area.”
The firm is now planning to spend more than £250,000 on expanding its operational base at Findon, which employs 90 people south of Aberdeen, from 2,521 sq ft to 4,000 sq ft.
This will lead to 10 engineering jobs there. Six jobs will also be created at its North America offices in Fort Lauderdale, USA, Houston, USA, and St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada.
A further six will be created at offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Western Australia.