Celebrations are underway this week at Tees Components in East Cleveland, as the team secured several large contracts and hit an all-time record order book of £3m. It’s an historic high for the family business, which will reach its 60th year of operation next year.
The last two years saw challenges for the facility, specialising in manufacturing prototypes and new product development for clients, as projects were put on hold. However, showing long-term confidence in its services, colleagues and clients, the company made no redundancies and invested in new plant and a significant new extension to its facilities.
The contracts include £1.75m in new orders in the second quarter alone, and almost 50% of its work will be exported. The company was this year nominated to be a Department for International Trade (DIT) Northern Powerhouse (NPH) Export Champion, in recognition of its consistent direct export sales and promotion of British engineering excellence overseas. Already well-established in the United States, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and throughout Europe, the company has recently expanded into Iceland as a new market.
MD Sharon Lane said, “I’m delighted to see the hard work pay off for our team, and to see our clients show this confidence in us. More than anything we are excited to embark on these contracts – they are a brilliant blend of projects. We have fascinating new products which we’re excited about, we have critical British infrastructure projects, and also we’re involved in essential climate research work. We are so fortunate to be able to play our part – what we do genuinely matters- and that is why we enjoy what we do”.
The new contracts have resulted in the creation of 8 jobs, from machine shop engineers to admin roles, at apprentice and trainee level through to experienced and qualified people, and the recruitment campaign will be launched in the coming weeks. The orders have also given confidence for further investment – having already made a £750k outlay in new machinery, office space, welfare facilities and landscaped outdoor space to accommodate growth, the board has now committed to a further £1.7m in machine tool upgrades and new plant and equipment, leading to further jobs being created in 2023. The bespoke on-site training facility, commissioned in 2019, has already been put to good use, with two new apprentices joining the existing cohort last month. This maintains the company’s commitment of an apprenticeship proportion of 10% of its staff.
The recent contract wins include £750k in marine defence, £500k in new nuclear installations, in addition to large contracts for renewable energy including wind and hydro. The company will assist its UK-wide and overseas clients with prototype development, helping to manufacture new products, and giving design for manufacture expertise. Following on from its notable contract in 2020 to supply ship’s thrusters to the RRS Sir David Attenborough, the company’s Tees White Gill division has also been successful in its bid to provide its 360° pumpjet models to a pair of oceanographic vessels operated by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The new ships, Oceanographer and Discoverer, will support a wide variety of missions, ranging from general oceanographic research and exploration to marine life, climate and ocean ecosystem studies. The missions include shallow coastal, continental shelf, and worldwide ocean survey and data collection. Each vessel will operate with a crew of 20 and will accommodate up to 28 scientists.
“There is huge variety in the work we are undertaking. We will be heavily involved in manufacturing for the new small modular reactors (SMRs), the rapid build of which is essential for our national power resilience. We will also continue to manufacture for offshore wind, hydro, and tidal power installations and play our part in strengthening the UK’s supplies”.
