CEO INTERVIEW

FerrisRob

“We find ways of delivering the impossible”. As Falmouth-based marine tech company Feritech Global prepares to move into brand new £3M state-of-the-art premises, managing director Rob Ferris outlines ambitious plans for the future.

What is the company’s background?

We set up Feritech in 2012. My wife and I were working in the offshore marine survey industry and we could see that many of the products on the market could be improved. So, we set up Feritech with an ambition to create and deliver products that would shake up the market. That desire to innovate is still at the heart of our approach.

Now we are established players in the marine tech sector. We make, sell and rent a wide range of technical equipment and we export around the world, with customers in over 40 countries.

We also undertake large scale projects overseas, including recent projects off West Africa, in the USA and off Australia. We provide marine engineering services to a range of sectors, including oil and gas, renewables, geophysical surveying, cables, dredging operations, pipelines, ports and harbours.

Over 95% of the company’s products and services are exported and now we want to grow our UK manufacturing business too.

What are your expansion plans?

We are an ambitious company with big plans for the future. To help enable this, we are moving to a new state of the art 3.5 acre facility near Falmouth, opening this September. This £3 million development will give us wider capabilities, allowing us to diversify into new markets. We also want to help other businesses in Cornwall grow through offering our services as a sub-contractor and working on projects in collaboration with others in other market sectors.

A wealth of new high-tech manufacturing opportunities exist in Cornwall over the next few years and we intend the new facility to become a hub for all types of multidisciplinary manufacturing in the region.

What do you see as the growth opportunities in Cornwall manufacturing?

Cornwall will be a centre for the fast-growing industry of floating offshore wind power, with the Celtic Sea one of the best resources in Europe. This will create huge opportunities in the local supply chain in the next ten years. In fact, there is already significant innovation happening in Cornwall as businesses gear up to supply the new industry and meet its engineering challenges.

Meanwhile, aerospace is taking-off with development of Spaceport Cornwall along with a satellite technology cluster and the development of other high-tech manufacturing sectors.

What will your new facility offer?

Technologies such as autonomous vehicles, AI and embedded software are transforming engineering and manufacturing. This is the new frontier where we operate. R&D within the offshore renewable energy sector will remain a primary operation of the company and this facility will allow the company to undertake new challenges within this sector such as floating offshore wind, providing solutions for customers quickly, while also tightly controlling the quality of the process from start to finish – and all under one roof.

Our brand new design and manufacturing facility will offer everything from fabrication and machining to electronics, embedded software and 3D printing. It will handle fabricated assemblies from a few kilos up We are first to 100 tons plus and include a brand-new machining hall and foremost which can produce all manner of precision machined parts right innovators up to large diameter turning. There are two separate workshops. The ferrous workshop handles fabrication projects in mild steel, and in the clean workshop, stainless steel, super duplex and aluminium, but also working with other specialist materials as required.

But we also want to broaden out and help innovators in any sector. With our broad range of design and manufacturing capabilities all on one site, we can turn their ideas into reality, including providing a production service for start-ups and new product developers. We can deliver small batches or even one-off units for testing.

In addition, we will provide single discipline sub-contract work, such as machining or fabrication, using our state-of-the-art equipment and we expect this to be a large part of our future work. We already work in collaboration with other local businesses and we look forward to this increasing, now we can offer an even wider range of design and engineering services in one facility.

Collaboration is becoming more and more important right across industry and we see this as essential to growth.

Our design, electrical, electronic and hydraulic capabilities are also being expanded. So we can offer a comprehensive design and production engineering solution.

The facility will be the largest of its kind in the south west and one of the largest in the UK to provide both design and manufacturing services on one site. This means projects can be delivered faster and in a way that is more efficient and streamlined, ensuring quality is high. We are fully ISO14001 and 9001 certified.

So, will you be creating new jobs?

Yes. We are currently hiring and we expect our workforce to grow to three times its current size. We are also committed to bringing on the next generation of engineers and we plan to develop a strong apprenticeship programme. A business is only ever as good as its people and we want our people to be the best. device. Different equipment can communicate with each other through the HUB and all work seamlessly together.

Looking to the future, we expect that the opportunities for embedded AI will continue to grow. We can handle complex projects that require the use of embedded software for the control and management of all manner of engineering systems.

This puts us at the forefront of the trend towards greater automation and autonomous operation.

What do you see as the next big engineering challenge?

For ten years, we have been developing bespoke ocean tools and subsea sensors for controlling equipment and collecting data within the marine environment. Sensor technology is increasingly in demand from other sectors. We can offer sensors and control systems as separate items for use in equipment or can provide a turnkey bespoke solution. Products include multiplexers, lights, cameras, hydraulic control, pressure monitoring, actuation and more. Our self-developed Feritech HUB allows users to seamlessly operate and control the range of the firm’s equipment from a single

Desire to innovate is still at What scale of projects do you the heart of our expect to deliver? On the machining side, there is approach nowhere in Cornwall or the south west that handles really large turning. Most of that work goes off to the Midlands and the north. So we will be able to handle that, retaining more of the business in Cornwall and we hope that this will be a catalyst for new growth in the local area. This facility will allow innovative ideas created in our region to be produced here. This will allow more high-value jobs to be retained within the region and will increase Cornwall’s capabilities for fulfilling important new opportunities, especially for floating offshore wind installations in the Celtic Sea. Meanwhile, we are a specialist in small batch projects. For a multi-disciplinary project in which you have a need for electrical, electronic, machining, fabrication, assembly and hydraulics, in one piece of kit – we can deliver everything and all on one site, enabling faster turnaround.

Are you seeing new approaches within the industry?

Yes, increasingly businesses are working in collaboration. Technology is enabling a more

collaborative approach and this is something that is being experienced in many sectors, as growth is fuelled through more outsourcing and partnership working. We welcome this trend as we really enjoy working closely with other businesses. We have an open approach and aim to build trust and mutual respect. Sometimes we are the lead in a partnership, sometimes we are the sub-contractor. In either case, we bring the same energy, proactivity and professionalism. For us, it is not about egos. It is about delivering great results.

So, we want to work more in collaboration with other tech businesses in Cornwall, helping turn their innovative, market-leading ideas into reality.

We believe our new design and production facility could become a powerful collaboration hub, for designers and SMEs to work together to bring important engineering innovations to market.

Our aim is to establish a reputation as a world class design and manufacturing hub for innovative businesses of all kinds.

Do you plan to continue to develop your own innovative products?

A business is only ever as good as its people

Yes, we are first and foremost innovators. We are currently working on an exciting project to develop the world’s first autonomous subsea geotechnical vehicle.

This product has attracted support from Marine-i, which is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. It is a ground-breaking project which has already received worldwide media coverage and we expect to start prototype trials in 2022.

How important is sustainability to you?

Sustainability is central to our approach. Developing an environmentally-friendly, carbonneutral facility was a vital part of the new development project. In the new facility, we will use our own resources, including ground water, which will be collected and used with heat exchanges to warm the building. All electricity will be powered through wind and solar. Hawthorn bushes are being used rather than high security fencing, so the new build blends with its environment.

This will reduce our carbon footprint and cut our overheads whilst making an attractive place to work, surrounded by nature.

We expect that the new building can become a blueprint for a new kind of production facility which is at the cutting edge of environmental design.

So how do you see the future for Feritech?

The future looks incredibly exciting. We are so happy to be based in Cornwall at a time when it is on the cusp of so many new opportunities and new sectors are emerging. We hope that Feritech can be a catalyst for growth and work in collaboration with others to make the most of all the emerging opportunities, making Cornwall a leader on the world stage.