An Aberdeenshire-based hydraulic equipment firm has invested over £1million to establish a new workshop in order to meet growing demand in the energy sector, both renewables and oil and gas.
ITC Hydraulics has expanded its business and acquired premises at Barra Business Park near Oldmeldrum.
The new facility is now the home of the company’s hydraulic division, which grew out of its existing location also near the Aberdeenshire town, where the company still operates it’s fabrication and machining division.
The family- owned firm plans to continue its investment in the new hydraulics facility adding clean rooms and pressure testing, and is currently recruiting more staff across a number of roles
It currently employs 24 over both premises.
Tracy Clark, who co-founded the company with her husband Ian in 1999, said the move was well in hand a few years ago after they realised their current workshop was getting too crowded. The company said it invests 8-9% of gross turnover into research and development which resulted in increased demand for bespoke hydraulics.
“We just couldn’t move, we couldn’t employ any more people, we couldn’t take on any more work – so we decided let’s move – then covid hit,” she said.
As Scotland went into lockdown, the business was faced with a 60% drop in revenue, putting the move at risk.
She said: “The renewable sector didn’t slow down very much but the oil and gas sector did.
“Our revenue stream became so erratic, you didn’t know what was coming down the tube. It took a lot of hard planning just to make sure you had sufficient cash flow.”
With the support of advisers at Business Gateway, the company was able to secure £100,000 through the (PERF), which was set up at the height of the pandemic to provide grants to SMEs that were deemed vital to Scotland’s local economy.
The company also took advantage of downtime production to sharpen its focus on the renewables sector, signing up to the 12-month (ORE) Catapult’s Fit 4 Offshore Renewables (F4OR) business improvement and supply chain growth programme.
Erlend Corrigall, ITC’s business development lead who is one of the company’s employees taking part, said: “There is a lot of excitement going on about how much renewables are going to do.
“These wind farms are coming up but we are at a very early stage of the development in a lot of them. Over the next ten years it is going to be frantic. They are talking about another 30GW going up – that is a lot. Someone has got to do it.”
Rewarding business
The company is currently nominated for the Family Business category at the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce (AGCC) Northern Star Business Awards which are planned to take place April 22 at P&J Live.
Two of the couple’s daughters work at the company including Emma, who has also landed a nomination for a rising star award at the event.
Also close to Ms Clark’s heart is the company’s staff. The firm is shortlisted in the outstanding skills development award at the Offshore Achievement awards, which take place March 17, also at the P&J Live.
Ms Clark said: “My aim is to keep my staff. I don’t want to lose them, I have a great bunch of people. If we can invest in them we can.”
This article was corrected 10 February so that the company’s new facility is at Barra Business Park.
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