EIC Survive and Thrive VII 2023

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For over 80 years, the EIC, a not-for-profit organisation has devoted it’s time to working closely with energy industries around the world. With over 900 members worldwide, we help companies, large and small, to maximise business opportunities – sourcing or supplying goods and services across the globe.

We are experts in tracking global projects, energy assets, and supply chain capability, across multiple sectors and producing quality market intelligence. This means companies operating in the competitive energy marketplace can rely on our invaluable resources to develop their businesses.

We build relationships with buyers and suppliers worldwide, bring them together to discuss projects and capabilities, and help them to make contacts that will generate new business. Beyond this, we also build powerful networks across all stakeholders, including governments.

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Executive SUMMARY

This year the EIC Survive & Thrive 2023 Insight Report is our biggest yet with 96 energy supply companies participating in the analysis, 50% up on last year. Truly representing the global nature of our membership, we showcase inspiring success stories from an amazingly diverse range of companies, ranging from the largest engineering companies, manufacturers and EPCs, to the smallest SMEs, and everything in between, and from more regions of the world than ever.

We finished last year’s Survive & Thrive process confirming the return of oil and gas after the multiple supply chain restrictions generated by the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was clear in 2022 that, although business was still recovering from these events, our members were beginning to find new ways of operating.

Fast forward a year to 2023 and we have no more talk of COVID; that seems to be a distant memory to our interviewees, and indeed business before COVID

seems to be from a different era entirely. The business world has certainly opened up again.

We now see a strong preference for face-to-face interactions and the talk of restricted travel and a desire to operate on Teams or Zoom has fallen away significantly, although still has its place, replaced by a strong desire for formal and informal relationship building, networking and real contact, and we seem to be enjoying it much more too.

Leadership hardens

We always ask our business leaders to share their nuggets of wisdom, their leadership lessons learnt over the past year, and this year’s feedback is much more hard-hitting. Previous years have had a more collaborative tone with messages such as staying client-focused and devel-

EIC Survive and Thrive 2023 - Volume VII

oping a long-term strategy. This year, it is much more about “do it”, “deliver” and “get it done”.

Perhaps the years of COVID and values of promising to help each other more are nearly gone? In a business environment where markets are booming with unprecedented levels of activity and opportunity, execution of this bounty is not so easy. Consequently, margins matter, place matters, recession and high costs matter, and we are back to head down and deliver the work. No matter what sector or which region, the order books are full. There is no time for niceties, this is business.

Boom times

Have you ever seen a market like this?

regions, all energy sectors, all at the same time, booming? We haven’t!

After a decade of underinvestment in global energy infrastructure, and a series of market shocks, now is the time to make hay. Behaviours are changing quickly. Less collaboration, optimisation and resilience stories are evident, and businesses are switching to investing in boots on the ground service and solutions to take the fastest action to win and convert the market.

The market is reverting back to oil and gas, driven mainly by post-COVID bounce back and energy security concerns, allowing businesses to take advantage of the higher margins in that sector versus low margins in renewables and the well-documented unclear pipeline of green-tech opportunities. Many of our members confirm that they are seeing high levels of work, even the highest levels of inquiries they’ve ever seen, but at continued high costs and tight pricing levels, so they are having to be more selective in the bids they pursue, not having the financial or human bandwidth to take on all opportunities.

In this market it is no surprise that the supply chain is starting to wrestle control away from the customers, starting to decline low margin work in favour of higher margin work, declining long term lump sum work in favour of cost-plus work, reducing their green

ambitions in favour of more reliable, profitable and consistent markets like oil and gas. They are reverting to what they know.

People and Skills

We have been hearing a lot this year about widespread concerns of a skills shortage. If you believe the hype, then we are already in a skills crisis, with businesses unable to find the skilled people they need and hence being unable to execute the work they have, hampering growth and investment, meaning the boom market is passing them by. But what are we really seeing? Is this the next big “conference topic”, when thought leaders predict a skills crisis and industry grabs onto it and assumes it is real already?

Certainly, these interviews seem to confirm that most companies are concerned about a possible skills shortage, and many are having to work harder and more

All

Stuart Broadley, CEO of the EIC

creatively to execute the work they have, but importantly, almost none of the companies interviewed have had to turn away work due to skills shortages, so far. This discussion has led to the inauguration of the People & Competency category in this Survive & Thrive edition, which, when combined with Culture, is already one of the main strategies featured this year (38%).

Apathy for Net Zero

Over the last few months, when running and moderating events I have asked audiences to give a show of hands on the subject, and now further highlighted in this year’s Survive & Thrive interviews, we are definitely seeing apathy creep in for net zero targets and ambitions. If we look to our stats, the Energy Transition strategy has not grown since its first implementation in 2021, and yet to meet net zero 2050 ambitions, surely it should be expanding every year? In 2021, we had 30% of member companies involved in energy transition-related stories. Now this figure has dropped to just 22%.

So, what is going on? It isn’t that our members don’t believe in the concept of net zero, and the consequent targets which are, of course, legally binding; it’s more that they simply don’t believe that they are achievable. This is the issue with having something repeatedly as a headline but with no concrete action.

Eventually it seems to be all talk and the gloss falls off. There are now just too many reasons why net zero targets are at risk, not least of which planning delays, lack of port infrastructure, lack of grid flexibility and capacity, low profit margins with growing inflation and interest rates, supply chain constraints, skill shortage concerns and so on.

Even internally the discussions are changing. Responses to whether companies are implementing net zero strategies in these interviews typically ranged from ‘Yes, we are looking at net zero targets, but we are still in the early days of drawing up a policy’ to ‘No, we are talking about it, but no actions are being taken yet’. There are exceptions, with a few companies interviewed fully committed to net zero leadership, but these are in the minority.

The problem with policy headlines? They don’t provide substance and can be anything you want them to be. Until they fail to deliver. But who is brave enough at the policy level, and in which country, to put their hand up first and admit that these net zero ambitions are just that, ambitions, and the reality is that the 2050 deadlines will be missed?

Exporting –a global fail

Every year, it seems, since we started Survive & Thrive research in 2017, we highlight that the development of new export and international markets is the least used, or hardest growth strategy. New exporting is still the lowest used growth strategy, now for the seventh year in a row, unfortu -

nately reaching new lows of just 6% this year.

But there is some unexpectedly good news, if one is creative with the idea of good and bad. This failure to prioritise the development of new export markets is a global issue, not simply one country, like the UK, falling behind others.

All countries seem to prefer to export to their direct neighbours, those closest to them, and each region has their favourite places to do business. All countries seem to struggle to be able to kick start a new exports revolution, at least from the point of view of energy markets. Why is this? Undoubtedly, there are many extra risks, delays and costs that come with new market development, but the rewards are also significant. With so many market shocks, and now so much lucrative business on one’s doorstep, is it simply that companies are shy of taking the biggest risks, knowingly sacrificing the biggest rewards?

Imagine if a country’s government realised this, that their supply chain could leapfrog their competition if their exports policy was more honed and aggressive. Imagine that.

Barriers to trade

This year we have a lot more talk from the UK contingent of interviewees around the negative role of Brexit in their exporting journey. It seems that it is becoming clearer which issues are down

to Brexit, and which are not, and many talk of the extra man hours they are spending to deal with these new trade barriers. Previously it hadn’t been so clear which barriers were down to the hangover of COVID, and which were caused by Brexit.

How this will play out over the next year should be watched carefully, as mainland Europe remains the #1 export market for UK companies in this study. If doing business with our neighbours does not simplify and speed up again, this may well further reduce the appetite for developing new export markets across Europe as well.

Innovation

As to be expected with a strong return to oil and gas in the UK, innovation as a preferred growth strategy is continuing to grow in the UK.

new innovation is much narrower, with focus on the service and solutions growth strategy seemingly being preferred, being more attuned to support existing assets rather than innovating for new projects.

High levels of activity highlights that it is indeed the supply chain that leads the way with innovation, taking risks, investing for the long term, acting entrepreneurially, believing in our energy market and targeting expansion. And it is this optimism which can and should drive market share growth domestically and internationally.

Collaboration

Innovation is up. And yet collaboration is down. Again, is this another hangover of COVID where we all talked about the “good sense” of working together? We were all aware of the global ramifications, we all spoke about getting to net zero together.

Those days seem to be gone. Collaboration is increasingly deemed not necessary in times where the market is booming, and the order books are full.

Diversification down, valuation up

This year we have a continued reduction in diversification as a primary growth strategy, for a third year after its peak in 2019. From 29% last year, it decreased to 23% in 2023.

Companies have tried moving from oil and gas into renewables, but found that it generated low or no margins, being highly commoditised, standardised and a mature sector. Renewable opportunities also only come along sporadically, making investments and budgeting more challenging. This scenario is even worse for energy transition technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture.

About 55% of our UK members surveyed preferred this approach over others and yet this does not appear to be a strategy which our international members are using. Outside the UK, the application of

Collaboration is still considered just an enabler for other strategies, and only 15% of companies considered it their joint-main approach to achieve success and overcome challenges (down from 18% in 2022).

With diversification down, renewable and transition margins being low, and the pipeline of opportunities being so lumpy, why would businesses continue to pursue these green sectors? The biggest reason seems to be to boost a company’s valuation. There is still a stark difference in value terms between a renewable dollar and a hydrocarbon dollar. In M&A terms, and this is only a guide as valuations clearly differ from one company to the next, but a renewable dollar of profit may attract a multiple of 15, whereas a hydrocarbon dollar attracts only a multiple of 5.

The consequence of this is a bit counter-intuitive – it drives business owners to want hydrocarbon work for pure profitability, needed to fund new investment, repay legacy debts and to pay competitive

If a country can crack how to help companies export, including reducing trade barriers, they really could become the global leader.

salaries and bonuses. But business owners also want renewable work, perhaps no longer expecting high profits, but still knowing that being able to say to financial markets that a company has, say 20% revenues in renewables, will boost company valuation significantly. Strange times and this multiplier conundrum is one to watch. Economists may even feel a market valuation adjustment is needed, to address this growing gap between cash profits and paper valuations.

Recession-proof?

Each interviewee was asked to share their views about the growing threat of a serious local or global recession, and whether they felt worried by this pending macro-risk?

Perhaps surprisingly, the feedback was quite clear and optimistically so. Those members who felt most resilient, to the recession and indeed many said they felt recession-proof, were those with their main focus on oil and gas. With oil and gas commodity prices expected to stay relatively high, even in a recession due to the continued need for energy security, then the oil and gas supply chain is somewhat protected from recessionary effects.

Those with more focus on larger scale, frontier projects requiring government support, like nuclear and energy transition technologies like floating offshore wind, hydrogen and CCUS, all felt a recession would have an immediate and negative impact, with governments having to divert net zero money to

other departments, like paying for the higher unemployment and benefits payments that typically accompany a recession.

Seemingly, the advice is clear. The damaging effects of a recession on your energy business can be fully, or partially, offset, by investing in the oil and gas sector. Perhaps, more sage advice is still the traditional advice: Hedge your bets and invest in multiple sectors and regions to help you weather the predicted storm. But clearly, oil and gas is now the key market to help you weather that storm.

Resilience varies by region

During the times of COVID, resilience was seen by interviewees as a key survival strategy, but this focus has quickly changed as we have emerged from those dark days. But interestingly, the pace of recovery seems to vary by region. The reliance on resilience in 2023 as a key strategy was very low in the UK (at just 12%) but remains much higher in other international members (31%, compared to 16% in 2022).

Resilience seems to be a consistently important strategy in many regions, perhaps reflecting lower levels of diversification and legacy export success in some countries compared to others like the UK.

Resilience therefore could be seen as an early warning signal of healthy supply chains and economies.

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major international contractors, operators and manufacturers through to more specialised product and service companies.

Our Objective is to provide our members with a powerful, global network of energy company customers, suppliers and partners, by building the world’s largest energy supply chain membership.

We will add value to each of our member companies by supporting their business development activities, to facilitate trade and export, to diversify across all energy sectors, and to accelerate their growth. How? The provision of the highest quality EIC market intelligence, data, publications, events, networking and promotional services.

Further, EIC’s objective is to be the voice of the energy supply chain globally, working closely with key energy stakeholders and governments to encourage policies that meet energy supply chain needs.

Picture 1: January 2023, planting an oak tree in Aberdeen as a testament to EIC’s deep-rooted history.

E

IC is one of the world’s largest energy trade associations for companies that supply goods and services to the energy industries worldwide. Established in 1943, the EIC is a not-for-profit organisation with a membership of over 900 companies worldwide. Its members range in size fromIn 2023, the Energy Industries Council celebrates its 80th anniversary. It’s been an incredible journey for the council and its members, starting in London in 1943 with a meeting of leaders from 13 engineering businesses. We are proud of our achievements and significant contributions to the energy sector, and most of all we are excited about the future. In order to celebrate with our members, staff, partners and stakeholders, we have organised a series of jubilee events throughout 2023.

Celebrating 80 years

The King’s AWARDS 2023

Energy Industries Council receives the King’s Awards for Enterprise in International Trade

Standfirst: This renowned accolade is testament to the work that the EIC continues to deliver for its members as the go-to energy supply chain trade association. In this article, we’ll look back at the organisation’s rich history and understand exactly what it hopes to achieve moving forward as it targets another 80 years of success.

Written by: Jonathan Dyble

The Energy Industries Council’s (EIC)’s 80th anniversary year has prompted some significant reflection on its history and achievements.

Founded in 1943 by 13 British petroleum equipment manufacturers, the organisation’s mandate was to increase the UK market share in oil and gas projects domestically and internationally. Having achieved this in the first decade, the EIC’s purpose has gradually expanded over time.

Today, its purpose is to help its members export, diversify and grow through an innovative mix of services and activities. Indeed, the EIC is currently the only trade association in the world to offer data, insights, events, awards, country pavilions, delega-

tions and influencing, across all energy sectors, on a truly global basis, and all exclusively in-house.

Its market intelligence and consulting services help its members make informed strategic decisions; it works with government globally to ensure the energy industry is regulated in a fair and supportive manner; and it hosts 130 annual events and networking opportunities that help to build key industry relationships between decision-makers and policymakers.

These contributions have been transformative for the energy industry globally – as a result, the organisation has achieved the King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade.

Understanding the King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade

The King’s Awards for Enterprise is a series of accolades which recognise outstanding achievements by UK businesses in the categories of innovation, sustainable development, promoting opportunity through social mobility, and – in the case of EIC – international trade.

“The Kings Award has taken over a huge mantle of prestige and honour from the Queen’s Award which was established in 1965,” explains Lesley Batchelor OBE – a champion for international trade, board advisor, CEO of Export Bootcamps, and a judge of the award for 14 years. “It represents the achievements of a business, in our case, in terms of international trade which aligns with the criteria that is set by the Kings Awards office.”

Indeed, this highly respected and reputed award provides many immediate and long-term business benefits, as outlined by fellow award judge Karim Fatehi MBE – Managing Director at United Corporation and a Board

Member at the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“The use of the prestigious King’s Awards Emblem is a recognised Royal endorsement that will get your business noticed, above and beyond the competition, both at home and overseas,” he explains. “Successful businesses are permitted to fly a King’s Awards flag at their main office and use the esteemed King’s Awards for Enterprise emblem on their products for the next five years.

“Feedback from previous recipients suggest that an award can benefit

businesses in a variety of ways, from excellent marketing opportunities and press coverage to worldwide recognition as an outstanding British company, increased turnover and international trade, and a boost to staff morale, and to partners and stakeholders.”

Why did the EIC win?

With this being the first award of its kind that the EIC had put itself forward for, the judges highlighted that the accolade was awarded, in large part, to its continued support of the energy supply market through hard times on a global scale.

“Its work, now in 56 countries of the world, bears testament to the EIC and its ability to be flexible and change with the times as it now embraces many green technologies,” Batchelor affirms. “It is rare that a trade association achieves the exacting standards of the Kings Award, and we hope this will shine a light on the sometimes-unsung work that they do.

I always feel it’s important that we say thank you to great organisations like the EIC for extending the reach of the UK, and doing it to such a high standard that our international reputation and commitment to being part of the global economy remains high.”

Participating in the award process has also been a valuable experience for the EIC itself, its members and stakeholders taking the time to recognise the accomplishments of the organisation over the course of the past 80 years.

“It’s made us realise that how sometimes you need to take the time to stop, reflect and celebrate,” states

“Over the past three years, the EIC has progressed on the global stage like never before.”

Picture 2: June 2023, the King’s Awards reception with His Majesty, King Charles III at Buckingham Palace

EIC CEO Stuart Broadley. “It gives you confidence to go into the future, and a vision of what success should look like for us. And it allows you to take the time to appreciate the people involved.

“We are nothing without the people, relationships and the friendships across this industry. So, it’s important to celebrate those things, and this award has given us the space to do that.”

Targeting another 80 years of success

Over the past three years, the EIC has progressed on the global stage like never before.

The number of international members has increased 680%, while international membership revenue has also risen from £151,000 in 2018/19 to £1.177 million in 2021/22. From a proportions perspective, while international membership accounted for just 4% of the overall membership in 2018/19, this has since expanded to 26% in 2021/22.

With its international members now holding headquarters in 54 countries across the globe, the EIC is beginning to truly consolidate its reputation on the international stage –an ambition that will remain front and centre moving forward.

“We are growing quickly,” Broadley adds.

“Today, the EIC has over 900 members working in diverse markets, including renewables, nuclear, hydrogen, carbon capture, power, and oil and gas, so 1,000 mem-

bers is a clear target for the next two years. If we can grow faster, our members will benefit faster.”

Growth only paints part of the picture, however. Indeed, such ambitions are ultimately underpinned by a desire to impart genuine change and positive impact moving forward, with Broadley outlining how the organisation aims to do this.

“At present, we are extremely concerned about the growing gap between energy transition ambition and reality,” he begins. “In talking to thousands of business leaders, policy makers and thought leaders around the world, we see that there is wide awareness that the likelihood of achieving net zero by 2050 is reducing quickly. And yet, we’ve not yet heard a single energy minister from any country of the world raise the flag about this.

“It’s time for the adult discussion about what would it take to achieve this, and incorporate that into a formal process – continued denial or delaying of that can only be harmful to investment, to growth and ultimately our ability to achieve a successful transition.

“Our mission is to be the go-to energy supply chain trade association, globally, and we will continue to invest heavily in high-quality people, data, events and networks to achieve this, step by step, around the world.”

“However, now more than ever it’s vital that we amplify the voice of our members on these key issues and be the voice of the supply chain to have those most difficult of conversations. There is no more important a role for me now, as Chief Executive, than to ensure that the EIC continues to prosper for the next 80 years and beyond.”

“Our mission is to be the goto energy supply chain trade association, globally, and we will continue to invest heavily

With 96 participating companies, this is the largest edition of Survive & Thrive over its seven year existence , 50% up on 2022. When you scan the overall trends across the years it is evident that companies are searching

for ever more diverse strategies to deliver growth and one of the consequences of this is that any single strategy is typically either flat or reducing in overall popularity as a percentage.

2020 2021 2022 2023

* Categories not previously measured

Net Zero JEOPARDY

The urgent need to achieve net zero emissions has become a global priority in the fight against climate change. However, our analysis of current, widespread delays in project funding strongly signposts that the UK is not going to meet its legally binding 2050 net zero target, and neither will Scotland meet its 2045 target.

This reality calls for immediate action and a candid discussion about the challenges hindering our progress. It is time for pol-

icymakers to acknowledge the jeopardy facing net zero targets. We speak of the UK, but we expect this to be the case in many other countries too.

The lack of conviction surrounding the UK’s net zero target is increasingly evident in conversations with diverse audiences, including Survive & Thrive interviews, where the use by companies of the Energy Transition growth strategy has shrunk in the last three years, from 30% in 2021, to 22% in 2022 and 2023. Panel discussions and dozens of interviews conducted this year reveal that not a single person in the supply chain believes UK net zero targets will be achieved. Those interviewed may caveat this statement of peril by then saying that it would need some magical intervention to address this issue, some form of massive and currently unfunded capacity scale up in the entire value chain. But no one believes these rescue plans are going to happen either.

This growing scepticism highlights the urgent need for open dialogue and exploration of potential solutions. The UK government’s admission that its policies will only achieve 92% of the necessary emissions cuts further reinforces the doubts about attaining even that level.

We have a worrying and growing gap between policy ambition and industry reality. The renewable energy sector faces various hurdles, in-

cluding grid limitations, financing challenges, planning complications, and licensing issues. Insufficient funding often leaves renewable projects unable to engage the supply chain effectively, which are left idle waiting for projects. Funding problems and project viability will only worsen with the current higher interest rates.

Policymakers must lead the way in acknowledging the challenges and providing clear, actionable policies that prioritise renewable and transition investments. By fostering an enabling framework that supports partnerships, research and development, and sustainable practices, governments can propel the energy industry, including oil and gas companies, towards a greener and more sustainable future. It’s this inclusive approach that will help us go through the transition successfully, because oil and gas companies are important funders of renewable projects and major innovators in new technologies, particularly hydrogen and carbon capture.

The upcoming COP28 is perhaps the best platform for this adult discussion, to acknowledge the challenges and promote decisive action on the back of accountability and transparency that will hopefully come out of the planned ‘stock-taking’ process, which will shed light on the progress being made by each country towards their net zero commitments. As we all know, if you measure something, it’s more likely to get done. So far, net zero progress is not being measured.

Oil and gas = RECESSION-PROOF

At the start of 2023, a majority of World Economic Forum’s community of chief economists stated that they expected a global recession by the end of 2023. While the global energy conversation of the last couple years has predominantly focused on achieving net zero, it is also increasingly recognised that oil and gas remains the primary source of power, heat, and by-products for various industries. Countries need security of fuel and power supply, including oil and gas, after the wake-up call of the Russian invasion into Ukraine. Stopping oil and gas production in one’s country does not stop domestic demand for oil and gas, and simply switches energy strategy from producing to

importing, and policy makers are now having to accept that imported oil and gas normally attracts much higher emissions than locally produced.

Rising interest rates, inflation, energy costs and general costs of living, accompanied by supply chain constraints, have resulted in a slowdown in energy infrastructure investment, and this is on the back of the post-COVID shortages and delays in logistics, goods and services.

Renewable energy projects are not progressing as quickly as they should, and their margins are tight. New projects take several years, even a decade, to materialise, and the flow of renewable work into the supply chain is often ‘lumpy’.

Many respondents to our Survive & Thrive survey made it clear that, with this backdrop of challenging financial conditions and net zero delays, they see an oil and gas market that is now, for the first time in ten years, booming. And this seems set to continue.

More than two thirds of those interviewed say that they are not really worried about the effect of a recession on their businesses, at least for the short to medium term, even though they agree that one is likely. In effect, these companies feel recession-proof. Why is this?

After the severe oil crash of 2014, companies in the energy sector vowed never to over-rely on the oil and gas market again, having become too used to a booming oil and gas market for several years, and feeling they could rely on that continuing. Then the oil crash happened, and the oil industry, including the supply chain, was caught off guard and it took years for the industry to adjust, to cut costs and capacity enough to be profitable again, and to adjust to the new, lower levels of demand and investment in the sector around the world.

Now roll forward to 2023. On the back of under-investment in new oil and gas projects supply, and now the global spike in demand for oil and gas, the market has switched from low to high activity quickly.

The drivers are long term, especially energy security, and now the nature of the development of oil and gas projects is also long term. It takes years to develop mega-energy projects, especially oil and gas projects, and once the market starts growing, that spurns years of subsequent, predictable high activity across the whole value chain. At some point, the oil and gas boom will end, of course, and a major bust is likely, history says, but most interviewees feel we are years away from that down cycle.

Whereas 67% of companies feel recession-proof, there are of course others that feel differently. What is the reason? Whereas oil and gas, and the funding thereof, is expected to be strong through the period of a recession, companies feel strongly that other sectors are much more vulnerable to recession hitting investment. Interviewees from companies in sectors like nuclear, hydrogen, and floating offshore wind, all stated a major concern that a recession would more quickly impact funding from governments, that is still needed to stimulate demand and kick start projects in early-stage technology development and scale up development. Recessions lead to high unemployment, and this means government money, earmarked for infrastructure and net zero projects, will likely be rerouted to prop up a recessionary country budget.

In summary, oil and gas seems to provide a long-term profitable business opportunity, that is also recession proof over the short to medium term, and this combination of market strengths is unique. Companies are trying to make the most of this upcycle while they can, remembering well the pain of a bust cycle, trying to invest and grow as quickly as possible now while not over-relying on oil and gas once again.

Shock News! New Markets ARE TOO HARD

The development of new export and international markets has been the least used growth strategy employed by UK businesses since we started carrying out Survive & Thrive research in 2017. Sadly, 2023 marks the seventh year in a row when new exporting is the least used strategy.

We have the people, and the people are willing to move internationally. We know this from the legacy global success of oil and gas historically, where you will meet thousands of Brits living and working in all the oil and gas hubs of the world, perhaps the ultimate definition of a country exporting successfully and globally. But we now seem to have a complete disconnect between energy supply chain businesses today and the need to invest in international growth into new markets for the future.

However, one new fact that our research has unearthed this year is that this is not a UK-specific concern: the Export category was the least used growth strategy in

the UK for sure but was also the least used by international supply chain businesses too.

This is reassuring to some degree. It means the UK is not necessarily falling behind, and that all companies in all countries, as a general rule, find the development of new export and international markets to be the hardest, the riskiest, the most costly, takes the longest time to mature to profit, and therefore is the least attractive when compared to faster and more lucrative options for growth in today’s booming world market. In theory, therefore, the UK and indeed any country could choose to support its supply chain with stimulated export growth which could steal a march on others.

The issues around “reasons not to invest in new export markets” arise where the differences are most pronounced. Something company executives mentioned in these interviews frequently was the increasing costs of doing business. This encompasses establishing a presence in the region, employing law-

yers and tax advisers, and ensuring being on the right side of employment legislation. Doing this in a country that you don’t understand adds to the stress of breaking into a new region.

There are also other constraints. The language and knowing ‘how’ to do business are big factors. Crossing cultural norms, not understanding the nuances of living and working there, and not knowing who to speak to, were all raised as issues.

Furthermore, with talk of skills shortages, it is harder than ever to recruit and retain the right people to lead your new country campaign.

Local content regulations were also seen as a much greater factor than in previous years, as countries after COVID ramped up in-country demands. With more countries calling for local content requirements to bolster their local supply chain, if a supply chain business does not already have established facilities there, investing in these multiple country-specific facilities is seen by many as a step too far.

The law of unintended consequences also plays a part, as countries with policies aimed at ending support for oil and gas companies exporting, such as the UK, have unfortunately also further hit competitiveness of those businesses abroad.

Only 6% of companies interviewed chose the growth strategy of developing new export and international markets, which creates huge potential for governments trying to crack the ex-

port conundrum. We know that most countries are in the race to be the leader in clean technology, and whoever finds a successful export strategy could, quite literally, rule the world.

Having an on-theground presence, handholding, having ambassadors – not necessarily governmental – reducing barriers in the way, all of these will help to inform and educate the businesses as to how to effectively do business in new countries.

Fundamentally, people will try to overcome any barrier to export if the prize is valuable enough. Therefore, the country that manages to create the correct business environment at home with numerous guaranteed energy transition projects will seed and root the supply chain in their home nation. This will then allow that same supply chain to reach out and deliver in other countries as they move to deliver energy technology projects.

We already have an active global network of energy supply chain companies; we should nurture and encourage them to move, and to do that, we need to listen to what they need.

Everybody is Talking About People BUT WHY?

Rewind three years, to the height of the pandemic, and the movement of people had more or less ground to a halt. Lockdowns and restrictions created an enormous labour crunch which impacted supply chains the world over, especially in countries such as China where measures were more prolonged and rigorous.

Today, although people are freely on the move again, discussions about the supply of labour continue. Large volumes of workers have not returned to the job market since the pandemic, instead choosing to pursue alternative priorities, while the need to reskill and upskill workforces to align with energy transition strategies and trends is ever intensifying.

This has stirred up significant chatter on skills shortages and the challenge of recruiting and retaining human assets. If you believe what

you read about this, then companies are already turning away work for lack of skilled workers. Is this true? Interviewees shared that they are largely not at that point yet, normally able to find creative ways to still execute their contractual commitments and get the job done. Some mentioned that they saw EPC contractors struggling to recruit staff, outsourcing more scopes of work into the supply chain than they have seen for ten years.

It seems that companies are preparing themselves for what might be a skills crunch to come, particularly if FID rates grow in renewable and transition markets, or if mega-projects in oil and gas go forward. But that’s a lot of ‘ifs’. Either way, when combined with Culture, 38% of this year’s Survive & Thrive stories are linked to ‘People and Competency’ strategies, the only new category of growth strategy this year.

Many firms have sought to share how they are attracting, training and motivating employees to promote a positive workplace culture that maximises performance and supports personal development.

While EIC data shows the labour crisis is not yet being universally felt on the ground, it is clear from this year’s Survive & Thrive survey that many firms are taking proactive steps now, be it to fulfil their current needs or in anticipation of a potential skills squeeze in the future.

10 Oil & Gas for Profit and Renewables for BUSINESS VALUE

Close to 70% of the world’s announced 13,500 energy projects tracked in EICDataStream, in quantity terms, are for green developments such as wind and hydrogen, but this in value terms is only worth about 30% of the $13.5 trillion market. Conversely, oil and gas claims about 30% of project quantity for nearly 70% of the value.

Investors have long tended to value businesses with green technology and revenues, in ‘multiple’ terms, more highly than hydrocarbon businesses. For demonstration purposes, but clearly oversimplifying, oil and gas companies may attract an EBITDA multiple of 5 whereas green companies may attract

a multiple of 15. For like for like profitability, this would clearly value green companies three times higher than hydrocarbon companies.

Spurred on by COP26, companies in the energy supply chain tried to diversify their activities beyond oil and gas, into other sectors, for two reasons: to reduce reliance on oil and gas, and to try to take advantage of the higher green valuation. Indeed, diversification was the most used growth strategy in 2020 and 2021 peaking at 49%. However, after two years of trying, company bosses learnt that the renewables sector was not as profitable as they had hoped, differentiation was harder, and demand was too lumpy for them to plan and invest in. Diversification then slowed, down to just 23% of companies seeing it as an attractive growth strategy this year.

Companies interviewed this year were very frank, more so than in previous years, about the quandary they face. How should they most effectively invest in all energy sectors, including oil and gas? Today, the volumes, profits and consistency of oil and gas contracts trump all other sectors. This provides a once-in-a-generation chance for companies to do well enough to repay their legacy debts from the tough times of the last ten years, and to raise enough cash, develop enough new skills and build enough new capacity to then deliver a net zero future, which everyone wants. But only when that market comes to life, stimulated by policy makers, with real evidence of cascading orders, not just because policy makers demand it as if by magic.

So today, we have a situation where company owners need oil and gas to generate higher profit margins, which every business needs, to pay salaries, bonuses, repay debts, to invest in new capacity and new R&D ideas, and so on, even though they know this will not be truly reflected in the highest business valuation.

Those same business leaders are keen to maximise the valuation of their businesses, in the event they choose to exit, and this means needing other forms of activities

and revenues that attract higher multiples. That is today where renewables and energy transition technologies like hydrogen and CCUS come in. Many in the energy supply chain now believe that there is little to no money in the green sector, but involvement in renewables is critically needed anyway, to meet ESG commitments, to satisfy staff and other stakeholders that a company’s values are aligned with their own, and most importantly to increase the company’s valuation.

But for profit, which pays the bills, oil and gas is king. This feels inconsistent, inauthentic, doesn’t it? Perhaps it signals a market valuation adjustment is to come, to address the undervaluation of oil and gas and the over valuation of renewables? Just a thought.

Beyond the HOPE AND HYPE

How often have you heard policy makers and journalists express opinions on domestic and global energy strategy and net zero, and whether we are on track, need to accelerate, whether the supply chain is the problem or the solution, and so on? What is missing is real data, to bring to life the topic. Data and evidence would surely better

inform policies and their related media coverage? So, here goes. The data we will use to provide clarity is Financial Investment Decision (FID) data, provided from EICDataStream. When a project reaches FID, it has met all the criteria to be 100% funded, as declared by the project owner, and as such will cascade down into the supply chain.

INVESTMENT DECISIONS

- GLOBAL (2023 - 2028)

As you will see, analysis of 2023 ‘FID rates’ raises serious concerns about the feasibility of net zero 2050. In the table, you will see the energy segments with the highest FID rates are related to oil and gas, namely upstream, midstream, and downstream, averaging around 20%. Upstream sees the best FID rate at 23% of US$1.2trn of announced projects. These projects are due for completion between now and 2028. Similarly, midstream, which includes LNG projects, has reached an FID rate of 21% of nearly US$1.0tn of announced projects.

In contrast, renewables and energy transition technologies face comparatively much lower FID rates, with offshore wind being only 8% of US$624bn, hydrogen at 3% of US$490bn, carbon capture at 2% of US$144bn, and floating offshore wind at just 1% of US$92bn. Considering how much we read in the press and hear on the news about the quantity of green projects being

(FID)

announced, this is a disappointingly low quantity and value of projects that are actually getting the green light to go ahead.

It is also worth noting that most hydrogen and CCUS projects are pilot scale, and hence have a relatively low amount of CAPEX, not the commercial scale projects that are needed to reach net zero.

that the quantity of companies trying to participate in newer transition technologies like hydrogen and CCUS has bounced up to 30% this year, which sounds good. Remember though, this chart does not reflect the level of revenues achieved, only the simple fact that a company is active in that sector.

The same chart shows mature renewable revenues

One of the simplest acid tests of whether net zero is real is to ask supply chain companies if they are busy with renewable and energy transition work. If they are seeing it, it must be real. Are their order books full of green projects? The FID data clearly shows that they can’t be, and our interviews with company leaders back this up.

The net zero 2050 growth targets heavily rely on redirecting investments away from hydrocarbons and towards low-carbon and renewable technologies, but FID rates say otherwise.

For more perspective, interviewees were asked if they have any revenues in renewables and energy transition (such as hydrogen and CCUS), and the data is interesting there too – see table above. It shows

reducing, reflecting the inconsistent and low margin nature, and worsening delays, of wind and solar. Power is up as countries in Europe urgently develop alternative thermal power capacity after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and oil and gas is down slightly too.

If this data is converted to the % of total company revenues that relates to each sector, the data tells a different story again (see table below). Of the 96 companies participating, 83 provided detailed data. Of those, look at the % of revenues in mature renewables and hydrogen and capture. It’s a direct match with the FID rates for those sectors. A bit more evidence to confirm then that the transition is not yet real, as the supply chain sees very little of the ambition cascading into orders and profits, yet.

Good Times Ahead. WE HOPE

This is a once-in-a-generation market. All energy sectors, in all regions of the world, all booming at the same time. Exciting, intimidating, exhausting for business owners, but wow, what a chance for companies to repay their debts from the past ten years of tough times and to see real scale up growth, fast return on investment, and positive business change beyond their wildest dreams.

The industry is now buoyant and fun again, with leaders confident that this level of optimism can continue for years to come. Why? There has just

been too much underinvestment in energy infrastructure for too many years, and a correction in capacity and supply is now underway. This correction in CAPEX takes years and will have a lasting upwards impact on OPEX for decades to come.

For businesses, things could become even better than they already are, if they approach this situation smartly. Every technology is in play, be it CCUS in Canada, hydrogen in UK and Germany, manufacturing and R&D in the US, offshore wind in Europe and China, and even nuclear in many places, and so on. And

if all these projects come to fruition, plus all the oil and gas mega-projects that are close to reaching FID, then there will be plenty of work, indeed too much work, for a decade of more.

But there are two elephants in the room. We’ve known for a while the question about whether we have the supply chain capacity to deliver all these projects, across all sectors and all regions,

if they all happen? Although a few companies interviewed are already reporting being at capacity, this is not a major concern yet according to our research, and our EICSupplyMap data further confirms the scalable nature of our existing supply chain when opportunity knocks. This theoretical scale up could be only a year or two away, particularly if the log jam of mega projects breaks. Something to watch out for.

A second newer elephant is industry arrogance. I don’t mean to offend with this word, but we all remember past booms when companies and their leaders have refused to register warning signs in the markets and plough on regardless with their pre-budgeted and upwardly promised growth and investment plans, only to be hit with a violent bust cycle that they did not see coming, or worse still saw coming but hoped would hurt others, not them. Tales then follow of regrets, of promises to never over-commit again.

History tells us a bust is coming, sooner or later, and this author strongly recommends that leaders have their eyes firmly in the rearview mirror while they accelerate hard to take advantage of this lucrative growth market. As my old boss used to say, “Run your business with one foot on the accelerator and one foot on the brake”.

Leadership Lessons for A BOOMING MARKET

Since the 2014 oil crisis, the energy sector has been rocked by uncertainty, with companies having had to stay alert in the face of unexpected events around every corner. The pandemic, for example, forced many enterprises to put the brakes on visionary strategies and showed the importance of resilience, in-country capability, diversification, digital adoption, and flexibility, while the immediate impacts of the Russian invasion in Ukraine sent out more shockwaves triggering strategies around energy security, maximising of production, and fact- not policy-based investments.

After all the uncertainty of the last ten years, companies now believe we are in a period of sustained growth and high activity. All markets, all sectors, all regions, all are booming, all at the same time. This is truly a once-in-a-generation, even a once-in-alifetime, market opportunity. We have never seen a market like this. It’s not easy, but it is exciting. Commentators have described this time as the new industrial revolution; certainly, it needs to be an energy revolution.

Findings around leadership behaviours from this year’s survey, reflecting this new reality of a booming market, show a much more straightforward mindset than we heard last year, when advice centred on having a clear strategy, staying close to your customers, and nurturing your people and culture. With COVID barely a footnote and now a seemingly distant memory, attention among business leaders has turned back to the job in hand.

Lesson 1 – Adopt a ‘get it done’ mentality

Most of the barriers to getting things done which have defined the past few years have now disappeared. The business world has opened up once more, with people free to travel to where they need to be. This has coincided with a return to preferring face-to-face interactions as a

means of building relationships and driving action. Indeed, a key shift in sentiment has occurred in the advice given by business leaders. Previous years were about collaboration, building bridges and developing a long-term strategy. Now, the emphasis is on delivering immediate-term objectives. The reality of inflation, squeezed margins and the pressure to deliver for customers means it is time to get heads down and crack on.

Lesson 2 – Keep an open mind and take risks

Although there is an emphasis among business leaders to get things done, this comes hand in hand with the need to operate with an open mindset and an appetite to take calculated risks. Yes, many firms are reverting to what they know amid a return to the boom times, but this is not cause for complacency to set in.

Indeed, as we have seen, the sector is constantly changing and innovating, with new approaches, technologies and ideas coming on stream. Those which take risks and embrace the right ideas stand to thrive.

Lesson 3 – Be resilient and confident in your abilities

Businesses have also had to demonstrate a remarkable amount of resilience to navigate turbulence in recent years, and with much-craved certainty still lacking somewhat, high levels of doggedness and determination will need to remain.

At the same time, it has never been more important to express confidence in one’s strategies, products and services. This confidence should be backed up by thorough market research which highlights a demand for clear differentiation, and said USPs need to be effectively communicated to current and prospective customers. At the same time, it is important that firms recognise their limits.

Strategies AT A GLANCE

Collaboration

Working with partners to bring your strategy to life.

Culture

Where business success is largely due to the beliefs and behaviours that determine how employees and management interact internally and with stakeholders.

Digital

The application of digital and data systems, analytics and technology to innovate.

Diversification

Expanding existing capabilities into other sectors, such as from oil and gas to offshore wind.

Energy Transition

The next wave of technologies, beyond mature renewables, that will deliver the 2050 net zero carbon goals of the UK.

Export

The development of new business growth by focusing on exporting and internationalisation in new countries/ regions.

Innovation

Enhanced products, services and strategies to meet specific client needs and build differentiation.

Optimisation

The focus on improving internal decision making, costs, processes, agility, structures and enhancing competitiveness.

People and Competency

The development, recruitment, training, retention and competency of skilled people, regarded as the key enabler of company growth, and also the biggest challenge to address.

Resilience

The capacity to adapt and recover quickly from challenging market pressures and events.

Scale Up

To increase a business’ production, size or capacity in a marked and rapid way, above normal growth rates.

Service & solutions

The focus on adding value to customers in their OPEX and O&M value chain, and the specific broadening of scope of work to provide a one-stop-shop or customercentric approach.

Sustainability

Taking responsibility, as part of your business strategy, to conserve natural resources and protect global ecosystems.

Technology

Refers to the specific development and use of technology to solve clients’ problems.

Transformation

Company-wide step change actions, taken as part of a strategic approach to re-position. Motivating and directing employees to optimise workplace productivity and promote professional growth.

Success STORIES

MYRCAT R

Marine & Cargo Solutions

AAL Shipping (AAL)

A multipurpose heavy lift carrier that continues to serve an evolving global energy sector

dry bulk and general cargoes to any compass point with the utmost efficiency, frequency and safety.

Director

How is AAL Shipping thriving?

The onset of the global shipping crisis in 2008, combined with the crash in oil price in the middle of the last decade, presented a complex picture in front of AAL Shipping regarding the direction of its growth strategy.

Determined to expand from a predominantly AsiaAustralia serving business, the company has spent much of the last decade carefully expanding its fleet, building global trade lanes and responding to changing market conditions. Today, thanks to its decentralised approach and young and highly flexible fleet of heavy lift vessels, it is able to serve a huge array of dynamic industries, including energy and in particular renewables.

The challenge

Singapore-based AAL Shipping has been supporting the industrial shipping needs of multiple sectors since 1995.

Energy is one of those industries. Today, it is one of the top five multipurpose operators in the world catering to large renewables, oil and gas, and other energy project transport needs. Indeed, the company houses the capability to transport its customers’ project heavy lift, breakbulk, steel,

In 2010, AAL set on a course of expansion. Typically trading between Asia and Australia, the firm set about building a global network served by fleet which was on the cusp of doubling from 14 to 30 vessels.

However, getting to this point has not been straightforward, not least because of the prolonged global shipping crisis and oil price crunch that arrived in the middle part of the last decade. As a result, AAL needed to rethink its strategy and come up with a new approach to better serve its markets and customers.

The solution

In response, the company, under the leadership of CEO Kyriacos Panayides, decided to decentralise its operations and built localised hubs in its core markets to be closer to its clients.

In terms of its fleet, AAL has also tested different growth models and has been actively involved in the design and build phase of its new vessels, a series of next generation, multipurpose heavy lift ships fit for the needs of modern industry. Indeed, one positive to emerge from the oil price crash of the mid-2010s was that it triggered a more urgent shift towards the development of renewable energy infrastructure around the world – this has proven to strongly benefit AAL as its fleet is suited to the transportation needs of the renewables sector.

Felix Schoeller,

Key to the success of AAL’s growth and pivot over the past decade has been the formidable base of knowledge that exists within the company, which today employs around 110 people around the world. These are individuals that know the world of shipping inside out, as well as the cargo needs and make-up of numerous industries, reflected in the superior design of its vessels that are integral in its ability to meet the demands of the market.

Today, AAL’s fleet is one of the largest and youngest on the market, comprising multiple vessel sizes with the flexibility in design, configuration and equipment to allow them to carry any cargo type and combination, including breakbulk, project heavy lift, dry bulk commodities, containers and general cargo.

It therefore is no coincidence that, despite global market challenges and upheavals witnessed over recent years, AAL has won more global awards for customer service than any other multipurpose heavy lift carrier – accolades bestowed by the same people with whom the company works every day.

As the global shipping market continues to experience unprecedented change, AAL’s ethics and brand essence remain unwavering. The company’s approach to business is underpinned by the slogan ‘powered by partnerships’, the future very much being defined by the building of long-term relationships with stakeholders in the market which are based on respect, service and mutual benefit.

About AAL Shipping

AAL Shipping (AAL) is a multiple award-winning breakbulk, project heavy lift, steel and dry bulk commodity carrier which has since 1995 delivered competitive solutions for the world’s most dynamic industry sectors including oil and gas, mining, energy, construction and agriculture. It is one of the multipurpose shipping sector’s top five carriers by total fleet DWT and has built a reputation for dependability and going the extra mile for its customers.

Story type

#service & solutions (main category)

#collaboration, #culture, #optimisation

Benefits

• AAL Shipping has won many global awards for customer service.

• AAL’s fleet is one of the largest and youngest on the market.

Key findings

For industry

• Be agile and follow your vision understanding your business environment, capabilities, and clients’ needs.

AAL Shipping at a glance:

Key products and services: maritime transport.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 20%

• Conventional power – 20%

• Renewables – 30%

• Others (infrastructure and construction) – 30%

Headquarters: Singapore

Year established: 1995

Number of employees: 110

ABB

Supporting the energy transition market with a collaborative approach

The solution

Collaboration has been front and centre of ABB’s strategy for several reasons.

How is ABB thriving?

Realising the opportunity to support energy transition journeys in the UK and Europe, ABB has pooled together critical expertise that has previously been confined to their own national markets. Its UK and Norway teams have led the way, introducing a range of formal measures designed to normalise collaboration and therefore enhance the value it can bring to various industrial projects and challenges geared towards net zero.

The challenge

ABB has long supported the energy sector around the world by pushing the boundaries of technological innovation to support smarter, automated processes.

In the UK, the company sees a wealth of opportunities to contribute to not only the country’s energy transition journey, but also a range of existing and newly emerging subcategories that are on the verge of scaling up rapidly.

But how can this potential be unlocked, and how can ABB position itself to play a key role?

For the company’s UK and regional leadership, collaboration both internally and externally is critical to maximising the potential of its own expertise and the wider value chain.

First, European governments have differing aspirations and goals around energy transition and net zero, and their strategies are complex due to in-country nuances and local market dynamics. This results in different types of projects emerging from country to country, meaning ABB’s businesses in these markets are having to build up skillsets to match. For instance, Denmark is already home to advanced district heating infrastructure that ABB has been influential in developing – when the time comes in the UK, the Danish team’s expertise will prove invaluable.

The UK market is also full of industrial clusters where competition for funding threatens to stifle collaboration. ABB sees that it is in a prime position to bring continuity and share innovative solutions across clusters and is already steering conversations in areas such as the North West Hydrogen Alliance – when the time comes to ramp up activity and make progress, having the volume and spread of expertise to draw upon will be a competitive advantage.

ABB has been working on how to bring its combined capabilities to the table in the UK since the government cemented its net zero plans in 2020.

Since then, the company has been identifying its strengths across national borders and defining the potential benefits to be reaped in sharing expertise between divisions.

Collaboration between the UK and Norway teams has been a particular focus. After face-to-face meetings were held in both countries, the two teams began together

Matthew Capstick, Head of Sales Simon Wynne, Local Division Manager

a formalised model designed to maximise their shared interests and build trust. The core guiding principles have been defined along with the benefits expected to yield for each stakeholder, while a continuous follow-up and feedback loop has also been established with buy-in, crucially, coming from the top.

Perhaps the most important developments have been the introduction of combined targets, re-aligned sales structure, amended job titles for those working between the two countries, and appointment of a new programme manager to oversee the collaboration.

The efforts invested so far are already starting to pay dividends. Two years ago, ABB had no joint pursuits in the UK and Norway in the fields of carbon capture, hydrogen and offshore wind – today, the standard approach is cross-country with multiple large-scale pursuits currently ongoing. In the UK market, this will involve adopting the already successful delivery model the ABB Norway team has established in its home market, which includes for example an EPC partnership with Aker. Conversely, learning from the UK market is benefiting opportunities in Norway.

External collaborations have also picked up. For example, earlier this year ABB and UK-based Pace CCS joined forces to deliver a digital twin-based solution that reduces the cost of integrating carbon capture and storage (CCS) into new and existing industrial operations. Together, the two companies will apply their respective expertise to make it easier for industrial companies to implement CCS infrastructure by lowering the CAPEX and operational investment required to enter this market.

Indeed, although a formidable global player in its own right, ABB recognises that solving the energy transition puzzle is a pursuit it cannot make headway in alone. By bringing together expertise, both internally and through external partnerships, the company is far better placed to support the UK and European markets on their net zero journeys.

About ABB

ABB is a technology leader in electrification and automation, enabling a more sustainable and resource-efficient future. The company’s solutions connect engineering know-how and software to optimize how things are manufactured, moved, powered and operated. Building on more than 130 years of excellence, ABB’s 105,000 employees are committed to driving innovations that accelerate industrial transformation.

Story type

#collaboration (main category)

#energy transition

Benefits

• Profits from UK and Norway’s team collaboration.

• ABB and Pace CCS are collaborating to improve CCS infrastructure implementation by industrial companies.

Key findings

For industry

• Collaborate transparently and openly, (Internally and externally). Consider what the different parties can bring early on. Evaluate where parties can work together rather than compete. The winners will be those that are willing to collaborate.

For government

• Faster decision making linked to regulatory and financial funding decisions. Risk of projects commencing if unknown or delayed.

ABB at a glance:

Key products and services: Robotics and discreet automation, electrification, motion and process automation.

Main industries served:

• Industrial – 50%

• Transport and Infrastructure – 33%

• Utilities – 17%

Headquarters: Zurich, Switzerland

Year established: 1988

Number of employees: 1,800 (UK)

Revenue: £500m (UK)

Revenue from exports: 4% (UK)

ABL Group

Scaling up to transition energy and oceans to net zero

on things, forcing Segal and the firm to cutback to a team of around 200.

How is ABL Group thriving?

Over the last 10 years, ABL Group has morphed into a global enterprise with the largest footprint of any independent energy consultancy.

Starting out as one of the firm’s first employees, co-founder and CEO Reuben Segal has built the business to a point where it now has 1,150 full-time equivalent staff on its books, this workforce spread across 62 offices in 39 countries. Much of this growth has been down to making savvy acquisitions to broaden its capabilities and capacity, a key component of this story being ABL Group’s bringing together of disciplines under one company culture in which everyone is pulling in the same direction.

The journey has been far from plain sailing, the company encountering many challenges along the decade-long path it has trod – an ongoing journey which Segal wants to lead to a billion-dollar organisation in the future.

The challenge

Transforming a mid-sized company into a corporate giant is no easy task, especially for an energy sector consultancy firm which only sells billable hours to clients.

For ABL Group, the growth journey in its first two years was rapid. By 2015, it compromised of 350 employees, a trajectory that looked like continuing until the oil market crash that occurred between 2014-2016 put the brakes

Come 2017, the company was able to recalibrate and set out on a course towards growth once again. The challenge was laid out – to double in size every three years (through organic and inorganic growth) while increasing the share of revenue derived through work in renewables to 50%.

The solution

While expansion in the renewables segment has been largely organic (expanding at a rate of around 40% per year in line with its objective), a major driver of top line expansion has been a series of acquisitions made over the past five years.

In 2019, the company acquired Braemar Technical Services, a move which immediately doubled its revenue base and headcount. The following year, amid the covid pandemic, ABL completed the purchase of LOC, another oil & gas and renewables consultancy business which brought an additional 300 employees onto the books. By this time, and thanks to organic growth adding another 100 staff, the firm reached a point of being 800-strong.

2021 represented a critical transition year, a period in which Segal and his leadership worked to bring all entities within the organisation together under a ‘one ABL’ umbrella.

Segal himself moved into the position of CEO, part of a wider restructure which has seen tremendous strides made in key areas such as shared services and people development, the company’s leadership training services going on to prove themselves as industry leading. Today, for instance, ABL operates a shadow board made up of under 30s to promote integration between the oil & gas and renewables parts of the business, and provide a bridge for younger recruits to

Ruben Segal, Chief Executive

advance their careers within the organisation.

In June 2022, another acquisition (Add Energy) was made, expanding the firm’s expertise in well engineering and asset integrity management, while also enabling it to move into carbon capture.

By the end of last year, ABL Group had grown into a US$168 million business with a globally distributed team of 1,150 people. Crucially, it is supporting its mission to help energy and oceans decarbonise by obtaining 50% of its income from renewable and energy transition-related sectors by 2025 – a goal which it’s on target to achieve, largely through organic growth, that has been driven by a team which enjoys a near 100% retention rate.

Meanwhile, ABL Group’s margins are also improving alongside its expanding revenue base. Hovering around 3% EBITA a few short years ago, profitability is now in the double digits. This is feeding into a share price which stands at a record high.

Indeed, momentum is clearly building, and Segal and his team are showing no signs of slowing down. In April this year, ABL Group closed the acquisition of AGR, a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy and software company. The acquisition brings additional 400 headcount and a further US$75m of revenues.

By the end of 2024, the company wants to be 1,700-strong with an annual turnover of $300m, in line with its objective to be doubling in size every three years. If it carries on scaling at this rate, the ultimate ambition of becoming a billion-dollar organisation will soon be within touching distance.

About ABL Group

ABL Group is a leading global independent energy and marine consultant working in energy and oceans to derisk and drive the energy transition across the renewables, maritime and oil & gas sectors, offering its clients the deepest pool of world-class expertise across marine and engineering disciplines from more than 300 locations worldwide.

Story type

#scale up (main category)

#people & competency

Benefits

• Targeting 50% of income coming from renewables and energy transition-related activities.

• Profits achieved double digits, share prices at a record high.

Key findings

For industry

• Take all learning opportunities with an open mind.

• Deliver what you say – people lose faith quickly.

For government

• Be honest and balanced. It’s impossible to flick a switch: have a real story of how to get to net zero.

ABL Group at a glance:

Key products and services: Energy consultancy in all energy and maritime/shipping sectors, with new mission statement – Working in energy and oceans to de-risk and drive the energy transition.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 49%

• Renewables – 31%

• Others (maritime/shipping) – 20%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 2012 (AqualisBraemar LOC formed in 2020)

Number of employees: 1,500

Revenue: £216m

Revenue from exports: 42%

Affinity Test Services

Breaking ground in Malaysia with a pioneering real-time X-ray inspection technique

How is Affinity Test Services thriving?

Affinity Test Services has managed to break the mould in the field of inspecting for corrosion under insulation (CUI) in Malaysia. Up against a well-established method which oil and gas operators had relied upon for decades, the company is starting to reap the rewards of a persistent marketing and demonstration campaign that has seen it win over the minds of many. Today, it still stands as the only non-destructive testing (NDT) company in Malaysia that has acquired real-time Xray inspection capabilities.

The challenge

Malaysian firm Affinity Test Services first entered the country’s oil and gas market a decade ago. A provider of asset integrity management services, including routine plant online inspection, turnaround inspection, fitness for service assessment and non-destructive testing, the company stands as an important partner for operators seeking to remain compliant with health and safety regulations in a range of important areas.

Central to its offering has been sustained investment in real time Xray, a pioneering and new method to inspect the problem of corrosion under insulation across oil and gas assets.

However, as with many incumbent techniques and ways of doing things, especially in traditionally conversative markets such as this, transitioning to new methods is not always an easy sell. If an existing method isn’t broken, why fix it?

The solution

To establish itself in the market and make inroads, Affinity has been engaged in a prolonged awareness generating exercise ever since it acquired this technological capability around five years ago.

An immediate point in the company’s favour is that the problem it is helping to solve is a common one faced by oil and gas asset operators. Indeed, corrosion under insulation is typically caused when insulation becomes wet. This can happen for several reasons – water ingress beneath the weather barrier (jacketing), moisture condensation from steam tracing leaks, cooling tower drift or ambient air in humid and windy climates.

Traditionally, the most common way to inspect for CUI is to cut plugs in the insulation that can be removed to allow for ultrasonic testing. However, where Affinity differentiates from conventional methods lies in the fact that radiography (Xrays) can be applied to detect corrosion without requiring the removal of insulation.

Although the benefits of utilising this technology are clear, especially in regard to cutting asset downtime, achieving buy-in during the early years was extremely challenging. Not only did operators generally prefer to open the insulation cladding and perform visual inspection with their own eyes, but the Xray technique Affinity was bringing to market was also untested and unproven in Malaysia, with no track record to help lure prospective customers.

There was only one viable solution to this problem. In order to convince operators to place their faith in a new CUI inspection technique, the company needed to put its solution in front of as many decision-makers as possible.

This has required a full-scale programme of marketing and demonstrations. Affinity has also performed site trials for pilot projects and, slowly but surely, it began to develop an all-important track record for performing this inspection technique in Malaysia. And such is the confidence the company has in the Xray solution, it committed to a significant initial investment to carry out the initial trial process without charging the end user.

This persistence has started to pay off. After several years of proving the concept and generating awareness, the technology is now being embedded into several operators’ processes across Malaysia, with Affinity’s first contract for CUI inspection services being landed with PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd.

A growing orderbook has also contributed to stronger revenues, with revenue for 2022 recorded at almost RM 15m (£2.6m) compared to around RM 8.4m (£1.5m) in 2018. Indeed, as more and more success stories and real-world deployments are undertaken, Affinity will only see momentum around its real-time Xray solution gather strength.

About Affinity Test Services

Affinity Test Services, established in 2012 and previously known as NDT Advances, is an organisation based in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia. The company provides non-destructive testing services and consultation in accordance with international and national standards for quality and integrity assurance. Affinity Test Services contributes solutions to oil and gas industries, civil or advanced construction industries, plantation and agricultural, mining, powerplant or, essentially, any organisation within any industries which requires quality assurance and integrity check via non-destructive test.

Story type

#technology (main category)

#resilience

Benefits

• Almost RM 15m in revenue in 2022.

• Affinity Test Services’ technology under use by operators across Malaysia.

Key findings

For industry

• Always be open minded to look for solutions.

• Expand your networking to have access to knowledge and information.

For government

• Companies need incentives in terms of reduction in tax and more simplified administrative procedure.

Affinity Test Services at a glance:

Key products and services: Asset integrity management services including routine plant online inspection, turnaround inspection, fitness for service assessment & non-destructive testing.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 100%

Headquarters: Miri, Malaysia

Year established: 2012

Number of employees: 70

Revenue: £2.6m

AIS (Brazil)

Improving global group resilience thanks to locally driven Brazilian excellence

The solution

Before AIS placed greater emphasis on Brazil, the company was selling just one thermal insulation product in the region – its ContraTherm® C55 solution, a phenolic compound designed for use in high temperature and high-pressure environments.

How is AIS Brazil thriving?

A leader in the engineering, manufacture and application of insulation and passive fire protection systems, buoyancy, and SURF (subsea, umbilical, riser and flowline) products, AIS Brazil has helped the wider AIS Group futureproof with diversified interests in new markets.

Thanks to an effective, locally-driven operation, strong local client relations and a 100% Brazilian team driving innovation and automated manufacturing process development, AIS Brazil now accounts for a fifth of the wider organisation’s global revenue.

The challenge

In 2018, due to the oil price changes, AIS had to further diversify in order to keep its revenue and profits while project opportunities shrank as the market equally became increasingly competitive. With ambitions to expand its scope and capitalise on new opportunities in the export market, having the AIS subsidiary in Brazil is key to supporting and achieving the group’s objectives.

The fortunes of the entire group became largely dependent upon the success of the regional entity. Specifically, the firm needed to successfully roll out new thermal insulation solutions for subsea solutions in the Brazilian market in order to diversify the firm’s interests and futureproof effectively in the face of tough global market conditions.

With C55, AIS Brazil had successfully established sales to several major clients. However, the group subsequently identified opportunities to introduce ContraTherm® C25 into the market – a flexible, silicone compound insulation injection moulded solution for dynamic structures subject to flexure.

Critically, C25 has a thermal performance that is superior to many alternative solutions offered in the market. However, convincing the Brazilian market of its qualities was no easy task.

In Brazil, Polyethene and Polyurethane had been used almost universally. It was well-known and proven, making it difficult for many prospects to consider adopting alternative solutions. To bridge this gap and improve awareness and understanding of C25, the firm opted to market and deliver it in a localised manner to better fit the specific needs and context of the country.

This was a long road, the company pursuing its localised strategy over the years before receiving its first contract that involved C25 in Brazil in 2020. However, through its qualification work to fit Petrobras’s requirements, AIS Brazil found the case study to showcase the value of investing in a more suitable product to the rest of the country.

Indeed, this provided the confidence for AIS to continue investing in the Brazilian market, the group transferring all its skills and technologies from the UK to the localised facility in Jaguariuna that is operated by 100% Brazilian employees.

João Volpato, General Manager

With that said, the regional subsidiary has also served to drive significant group-wide innovation on several fronts.

Critically, local engineers at the factory successfully began to automate their manufacturing processes, for another product line known as flexible jackets for thermal and passive fire protection applications. This was made possible when a control system using QR codes that automates the product conception process, with a 3D scanner used to transfer design information automatically was developed. Through each step of the production process, employees can scan a QR code and check what’s required next. This can be done anywhere in the world, making it possible to check production information across any AIS factory.

Developed at AIS Brazil, this technology is now used in Canada, with AIS planning to implement it within its factories in the UK. Not only does it help to optimise processes, control stock and production, and reduce waste, but equally it ensures clients receive (with the product) a scheme detailing assembly processes and maintenance procedures through scanning the QR code – this innovative process is unique to AIS, and they are proud to have conceptualised it in Brazil.

Ensuring AIS Brazil became an independent, effective, and successful localised operation in this manner has been vital.

The company arrived in Brazil in 2013, yet management of this operation remained in Britain. However, in the face of the Lava Jato and the petroleum crises, there was a need to localise what was done internationally for costs purposes. Also, to gain a better understanding of the local market, the group needed to establish better relations with key clients in Brazil.

Indeed, through unwavering commitment driven by the localised AIS Brazil team, this has been successful.

Where the country previously represented less than 3% of global revenue for AIS, it accounted for 20% in 2022. As AIS Brazil has grown, the group has as well. Indeed, the regional operation initially started with just one individual in 2013 and now comprises 75 local workers.

By successfully bringing what the wider group had and tailoring it for the local market while ensuring local employees drive and enhance its national operations on the ground, AIS Brazil has become the biggest player of thermal insulation in the local market.

About AIS Brazil

AIS is a global leader in the engineering, manufacture, and application of insulation and passive fire protection systems, buoyancy and SURF products. Their advanced materials deliver mission-critical solutions for the energy, industrial, automotive, chemical, and marine sectors.

Story type

#digital (main category)

#diversification

Benefits

• Increase in participation of the AIS global revenue, from 3% to 20%.

• The automation of the manufacturing process created in Brazil are being implemented in other regions.

Key findings

For industry

• Take risks. There’s no growth without risks.

• Understand the market around you and communicate.

For government

• Invest in the qualification of manpower and re-open the technical schools.

AIS Brazil at a glance:

Key products and services: protection, insulation, fire protection, flexible jackets, contrablast, passive fire protection, jet fire protection, renewables and automotive.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 80%

• Others (sugarcane burning, biomass) – 20%

Headquarters: Gloucester, UK

Year established: 2013

Number of employees: 75

Revenue: £4.2m

Revenue from exports: 5%

AIS (UAE)

Turning to innovative, complex projects to differentiate in a busy market

What’s more, it is impossible to design a blanket solution for all situations to fast-track production and gain a competitive edge this way, not least because AIS needs to consider site conditions, interaction with other materials at the location and other vendor’s products used at the site, among other factors.

How is AIS thriving?

Faced with the prospect of falling behind and competing in a congested market for protective solutions, AIS made a brave decision in 2018 to pivot towards more complex and demanding projects. Its Middle East team has emerged as a global centre of excellence for the entire group, driving the uptake of its highly advanced ContraFlex® system which is being implemented successfully in numerous parts of the world.

The challenge

Any company reliant on custom from the oil and gas sector has faced headwinds over the past decade. Volatile prices and uncertainty across the supply chain have impacted clients’ confidence in committing to various types of spend, with many projects also put on hold during the pandemic.

For AIS, this is one of a series of challenges that are continually changing based on where and for who it is working for.

The company is engaged in the design, manufacture and installation of bespoke and customisable high performance ContraFlex® systems for passive fire protection, cryogenic jet protection, thermal insulation (high temperature and cold conservation) and acoustic protection. It is a niche market, but one that is still subject to intense competition due to a lack of comprehensive standardisation that leaves implementation of projects open to varying interpretations in different jurisdictions.

Faced with such a varied set of circumstances, in 2018 the company’s leadership decided a critical strategic change was needed.

The solution

Rather than compete side-by-side with other players in the market, AIS made a major pivot to focus more on distinctive projects that require innovative solutions.

Today, it positions itself as a value provider for its clients and engages more in generating awareness about the possibilities of its more creative ideas. In the process, the company’s Middle East branch has developed into a centre of excellence for ContraFlex® products, the unit now serving as a key arm of support to the global team for export projects.

Indeed, the division has invested heavily in R&D and currently has 22 type approved products with third party providers like Lloyd’s Register, ABS and DNV.

The jobs also require a highly personalised and bespoke client service. Due to the varied nature of the challenges its customers face, AIS’s strategy is defined by an in-depth engineering process to provide the best solution that caters to the specific challenge faced by any single client. The solution is always bespoke, with AIS investing large amounts of time and effort into sharing its knowledge and operating practices with customers to build confidence.

Nitin Abdul, General Manager

In one such project for a refinery in California, US, the company provided passive fire protection solution for a roof structural steel, walkway and tower for a retrofit project for a selective catalytic reduction (SCR), an advanced active emissions control technology system. Here, ContraFlex® was chosen as a preferred product due to it being pre-engineered, offering considerable savings in terms of time spent on installation and cost – although the exact design could not be finalised until engineering was finished, conventional solutions on the market would take longer to implement.

With numerous project challenges posed for this scope especially with space constraints and PFP integrity, Contraflex® was able to solve most of the problem. Compared to the conventional insulation available in the market, ContraFlex® is easily removable for quick access for inspection and can be easily installed for critical equipment’s which requires to have minimum downtime.

All the engineering, design and manufacturing and logistics was overseen from AIS’s Middle East office in Dubai, underlining its status as a go-to global centre of excellence for the wider group.

Indeed, projects such as this are also helping to push revenues in the right direction. Over the 2021/2022 financial year, the Dubai team generated a 70% increase in turnover due to diversification and AIS strength in providing solutions for challenging problems in fire proofing and insulation. And although margins have been pressured by difficult economic circumstances driving up the cost of doing business, profitability remains stable.

Thanks to the bold decision taken in 2018 to target more innovative projects, AIS has been able to differentiate itself in what remains an ever-changing and challenging marketplace.

About AIS

AIS is a global leader in the engineering, manufacture and application of insulation and passive fire protection systems, buoyancy, and SURF (subsea, umbilicals, risers and flowlines) products. AIS’ advanced materials deliver mission-critical solutions for the energy, industrial, automotive, renewables, chemical, and marine sectors.

Story type

#export (main category)

#innovation

Benefits

• An increase in turnover of 70% in Dubai.

• AIS takes on new types of projects.

Key findings

For industry

• Networking and collaboration will go a long way.

• Be resourceful, creative, and empathetic.

For government

• Have clarity on international trade and policies.

AIS at a glance:

Key products and services: Award-winning global supplier of insulation, passive fire protection, buoyancy, and cable protection systems.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 70%

• Conventional power – 20%

• Others – 10%

Headquarters: Gloucester, UK

Year established: 2009

Number of employees: 31

Revenue: £3.9m

Revenue from exports: 75%

AIS (UK)

Reaching the £100m revenue milestone

experienced its lowest annual profit performance in years. Critically, AIS moved away from upstream production, focusing on organic diversification as it entered the LNG, offshore wind, battery protection and downstream markets, seeing a degree of success in developing a new range of innovative products.

How is AIS thriving?

AIS has celebrated its 30th anniversary by reaching the mammoth £100m revenue milestone. Thanks to the transformative 2022 acquisition of CRP Subsea, an £8m investment in expanding its UK manufacturing footprint, efforts to scale up its buoyancy technology team from zero to 250 in five years, and successful, rapid diversification into LNG and offshore wind, the company is well placed to excel for decades to come.

The challenge

AIS arrived at a critical juncture in 2018. The company had been grappling with issues stemming from the oil price crash – a challenge faced by many of its industry counterparts. At that time, the firm only dealt with upstream production, making it incredibly vulnerable to changes within a volatile market. Critically, the oil price changes impacted revenue, while profits and available work opportunities also shrank as the market became increasingly competitive.

AIS recognised it needed to adapt to overcome these challenges, opting to pursue a new two-pronged strategy of diversification and export opportunities.

The solution

This strategic shift began in 2018 after the company

Looking towards export opportunities, AIS identified Brazil (where it already had a subsidiary) as a region of realistic growth, and China due to the number of shipyards where its solutions are well suited.

The vast majority of AIS’ products are made in the UK before being exported, this approach protected employment opportunities and its intellectual property in its home market. However, in pursuing its export strategy, the company quickly saw a spike in demand for its products in various locations. This, in turn, required investment in manufacturing facilities and a higher headcount.

To fulfil the added requirement for buoyancy products in Brazil, for example, the company invested over £8m in a new 65,000-square-metre manufacturing facility and state-of-the-art equipment.

That said, the strategic move to target new product markets and regions wasn’t without its challenges. Indeed, these were strategic aims that would take time to gather momentum, with other firms typically utilising aggressive strategies to win a larger market share.

Here, however, an opportunity arose that would enable AIS to advance its diversification and export strategy more quickly. In 2022, AIS acquired CRP Subsea – a specialist in polymer and syntactic foam-based buoyancy and protection products for the offshore renewables and oil and gas industries.

Andrew Bennion, Managing Director Rob Barrow, Marketing Manager

This move was key. By adding new product ranges with a proven, reputable track record, highly skilled personnel and state-of-the-art facilities, the acquisition has significantly accelerated AIS’ growth strategy.

Ever since, thanks to its enhanced capabilities and capacity, the firm has been able to take on bigger projects with higher profitability.

Crucially, the new synergies have delivered cost savings and improvements in AIS’ margins, and the firm also successfully consolidated its position with a substantial increase in market share.

AIS is now at the forefront of all the key sectors it operates in across the renewable and oil and gas markets, both locally and globally. It is the second largest player in the market for CPS, second in buoyancy, first in subsea insulation, and first for bend protection.

Owing to these massive leaps forward, AIS has become a £100m-plus business for the first time in its 30-year history, the company now competes even stronger in a range of new regions and markets. Furthermore, it is a much larger entity than it was previously. Its buoyancy technology team has grown from zero to 250 in the space of just five years, for example.

Between its new facilities, capabilities, products and a vastly expanded headcount, the company has reached its milestone birthday in perhaps the best position it has ever been in, leaving behind any thoughts of adversity as it eyes a new and prosperous future.

About AIS

AIS is a global leader in the engineering, manufacture and application of insulation and passive fire protection systems, buoyancy, and SURF (subsea, umbilicals, risers and flowlines) products. AIS’ advanced materials deliver mission-critical solutions for the energy, industrial, automotive, chemical, and marine sectors.

Story type

#diversification (main category)

#transformation

Benefits

• Company now worth over £100m for the first time.

• More facilities, capabilities, products and staff.

Key findings

For industry

• A solid business plan is key to success, but you also need the determination to see it through.

• Gather as much working capital as possible whilst everything is going well.

For government

• Return to the values of trade apprenticeships. They are not only key to the success of the business, but they provide lucrative careers as well.

AIS at a glance:

Key products and services: Award-winning global supplier of insulation, passive fire protection, buoyancy, and cable protection systems.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 46%

• Renewables – 9%

• Others (automotive, marine, industrial, buoyancy) –45%

Headquarters: Gloucester, UK

Year established: 1993

Number of employees: 487 (UK), 632 (Global)

Revenue: £100m

Revenue from exports: 85%

Alderley

Accelerating innovation through cultural transformation

offering significantly and better serve its customers, not only in the oil and gas industry, but energy transition technology markets such as hydrogen and CCS too.

How is Alderley thriving?

End-to-end integrated services provider Alderley has achieved a complete cultural transformation, updating and enhancing its innovation platform to improve its prospects. Underpinned by the launch of a new Special Projects team to deliver high-quality, quick-turn solutions for its clients, the company has firmly moved from loss to profit making, with significant growth potential extending far beyond 2023.

The challenge

Established in 1989, Alderley has enjoyed a lengthy and successful history in the oil and gas industry, carving out its niche as an independent expert in system integration, with a primary focus on capital equipment. However, even established enterprises must negotiate challenges and periods of flux.

During the 2010s, Alderley found itself facing stiff competition in the market, with several large and ongoing shifts leaving it in a situation where standing still and not innovating simply became an unsustainable strategy.

The company also opted to conduct a wide-ranging internal culture study in 2019 involving team members from all corners of the business. By doing so, it identified several issues, including siloed teams, a lack of agility and few new initiatives that were limiting the company’s progress. The study found that product development and innovation was not prioritised within the existing culture, leaving it unable to improve its

Not only did this limit the scope for growth and innovation, but it meant the erosion of margins in the face of strong competition and unfavourable economic periods, with Alderley recording losses in both 2018 and 2019.

The solution

To turn the tide, a new market-led strategy designed specifically to put the organisation on a new, more prosperous and sustainable path was agreed. As with all business strategies, it needed its people to succeed. It was decided that three key business behaviours would form the foundations of this strategic change: agility, ownership, and customer focus.

A company-wide audit in the form of a culture survey was key to understanding the challenges faced by Alderley. Here, two inter-departmental and international teams were empowered by Alderley senior management to investigate and discuss the existing culture of the organisation, and workshop potential business improvement ideas to address the challenges.

Once the business improvement process kicked-off, the firm evaluated various business changes implemented by other companies and examined how effective they may be in the Alderley context. Solutions were presented to the board and approved.

The use of inter-departmental teams was critical here, extending the reach of the initiative significantly through several “culture champions”. Through a continued process of communication and engagement as well as workshop activities and feedback, previously perceived “walls”

Andrew Charles, Aftermarket Operations & Projects Manager

were broken down across previously siloed locations and departments, energising the team through cross-functional working that helped to inspire new initiatives. Key strategic hires further cemented this newly collaborative approach, including Martin Shaw as the Group’s CFO and Nicholas Doherty as the Group’s Head of Strategic Sourcing.

One key initiative that emerged was the establishment of a new Special Projects division in 2021. Composed of a team of both internally and externally recruited specialists, its goal is to fast-track projects, accelerate the firm’s innovation cycles, and deliver high-quality, quickturn solutions for Alderley’s clients.

Equally, this plugged a gap in the firm’s offering between its capital projects and field service work. This included upgrade and retrofit projects and small, fast-track capital projects, which Alderley had not focused on for over 20 years. Through a complete operational and cultural overhaul, Alderley’s capability to develop new processes, products and services has been supercharged, owing to refined focus and improved use of resources across the group.

The strategic shift has enabled Alderley to achieve status as an agile, customer-focused and solutions-oriented business, improving its innovation culture. New ideas are now deemed critical to the business and given priority. This ensures that the company continues to adapt and futureproof itself.

The results have also been telling. After successive losses, Alderley returned to sustainable profitability in 2022 – a position it hopes to build upon in 2023 and beyond. By the end of this year, the firm expects revenues to reach £80m and profits to exceed £3m.

Without question, the company has turned a corner, with significant growth potential on the horizon.

About Alderley

Alderley is the end-to-end integrated solutions provider for the global energy industry. The company’s priority is to maximise the value and efficiency of its clients’ energy assets – from concept to operation and beyond. Alderley’s regional teams work closely with its clients to understand their needs and deliver the right solutions – with the flexibility, integrity, and customer service you would expect from a family business.

Story type

#culture (main category)

#transformation

Benefits

• Sustainable profitability reached in 2022.

• Revenues and profit to reach £80m and £3m, respectively, in 2023.

Key findings

For industry

• Take organisational culture as one of your greatest allies.

• Always be ready to challenge the status quo.

For government

• Consider smaller, innovative companies when writing export finance support policies. They are engines for growth, exports, and energy sustainability.

Alderley at a glance:

Key products and services: Advanced digital, mechanical, hydraulic, electrical, process, metering, consultancy, systems, and aftermarket services.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 95%

• Energy Transition – 5%

Headquarters: Wickwar, UK

Year established: 1989

Number of employees: 400

Revenue: £80m

Revenue from exports: 85%

Alypz

Broadening horizons on multiple fronts

Indeed, the company was always confident that it could perform well elsewhere given the many years of experience serving multinational companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil and Murphy Oil in Malaysia. However, little did it know a crash in oil price and global pandemic lied in wait, two challenges that would test the resolve and resilience of the company during the implementation of its bold expansion strategy.

The solution

How is Alypz thriving?

Realising that it could no longer afford to rely on generating income from oil and gas-related activities from clients in Malaysia, Alypz has successfully diversified in a number of ways. As well as establishing itself in international markets such as Kuwait and Indonesia, the company has opened up new service lines and is also reaping the benefits of investing in R&D and product development – all of this being achieved amid a series of challenges in the form of the oil price crash and Covid-19 pandemic.

The challenge

Alypz has been in the business of providing radiation safety and NORM (natural occurring radioactive material) solutions and services in Malaysia since 1985. With its own radioactivity and dosimetry laboratory, the company is fully in control of the delivery time and quality of service, a capability which has enabled it to assume the position of local market leader.

However, growth in its home market was becoming stagnant, the company realising that it was time to venture beyond Malaysia. In 2013, Alypz was awarded a three-year contract by Petronas Carigali in Turkmenistan to provide NORM Services, a success which inspired it to push on with growing into more international markets.

Having secured the contract in Turkmenistan, Alypz went on to receive project orders in Singapore, Myanmar and Indonesia. Alypz finally set up a permanent office in Jogjakarta, Indonesia in 2015.

This was a natural move, not least because Alypz had recruited and trained the relevant Indonesian personnel many years prior. It enabled the firm to better engage with prospective clients in Indonesia and made the implementation of a permanent base in the market easier. The company also brought on board an experienced member of the international and local regulatory body as a consultant to guide it in making inroads in the country.

Then arrived the first major obstacle. With business revenues largely deriving from clients operating in the oil and gas sector, the oil price drop of 2015 had a major impact and prompted a change in thinking in three major ways.

First, the company knew it had to diversify its customer base not just geographically, but also beyond its traditional bounds of the oil and gas market and into sectors such as mineral processing and healthcare. Second, it needed to diversify its service offering for existing and new clients, adding additional value to its proposition through the provision of training and OSL services, for example. And third, Alypz recognised the need to ramp up investment

Hanafi Abu Bakar, Hd BD/Mgr BD Anne L Awan, COO Amer Ezzadeen, Financial Controller

in R&D and collaboration with local universities to help develop new products that would complement and enhances its services.

Undeterred, in 2016 the company made a major breakthrough when the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) awarded it with a twoyear contract to provide services around NORM study and NORM procedures development. Two more major contracts from KOC followed in 2019 in what has proven to be a flourishing client relationship, the latest project concerning the disposal of radioactive materials.

Shortly after securing the work in 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic arrived. This put the brakes on immediately, with the projects virtually lying idle for months due to lockdown. In addition, Alypz found that acquiring financing from its local Malaysian banks was difficult due to their unfamiliarity with the risks involved in contract scopes and being in a new market.

However, thanks to its ability to innovate and adapt to new customs, regulations and ways of doing business, the firm has been able to establish firm roots in both Kuwait and Indonesia. Today, its export revenues represent more than 60% of total turnover, with over 40% of its workforce now being located outside of Malaysia. Profitability is also on an upward trajectory, with provisional estimates for 2022 showing a strong growth in margins from 0% (2021) to 17%.

Meanwhile, since venturing into the OSL service line back in 2015, the company managed to recover the initial investment within two years and now commands a market share of around 40%. And its R&D activities are also bearing fruit, the company securing an order from Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission for a new product developed in collaboration with Multimedia University (MMU). By May 2023, Alypz expects to have launched its very own survey meter which is currently undergoing SIRIM inspections.

Despite encountering numerous bumps along the way, Alypz has determinedly stuck to its diversification strategy. Today, it stands as a much broader enterprise that is no longer dependent on serving oil and gas customers in its home market, and there is plenty more to come yet.

About Alypz

Alypz was incorporated as Asia Lab (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. in 1985 and was the first company in Malaysia to have dual accreditation from the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) and the Ministry of Health. Alypz is the market leader serving all the top oil and gas companies in NORM/ TENORM monitoring services in ASEAN region, as well as providing comprehensive radiation safety services across various industries involved with radioactive materials and irradiating apparatus.

Story type

#resilience (main category)

#export

Benefits

• Alypz now commanding a market share of 40% approximately.

• About 60% of turnover currently coming from exports.

Key findings

For industry

• Take advantage of the financial assistance given by the government such as grants and soft loans.

• A prior understanding on different countries’ working culture, bureaucracies, and regulations can help in mitigating or avoiding any unwanted issues that can be costly when venturing abroad.

For government

• Government agencies should provide local intelligence that covers more countries.

Alypz at a glance:

Key products and services: Radiological and environmental consultancy.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 65%

• Others (healthcare and industries associated with radioactive materials and radiation equipment) –35%

Headquarters: Subang Jaya, Malaysia

Year established: 1985

Number of employees: 89

Revenue: £2.5m

Revenue from exports: 60%

Ankura

Making the most of international opportunities through rapid, collaborative, agile acquisitions

period. Nevertheless, the firm is continuing to grow by focusing on its purpose and cultural alignment of the teams.

The solution

How is Ankura Consulting thriving?

Since acquiring a significant segment of Navigant Consulting in 2018, Ankura’s global footprint and services offering in Europe and the Middle East has grown considerably. Alongside a global collaborative approach, the success of the firm’s strategic growth is founded on a purpose-built firm combining service offerings to deploy the best team and support to clients globally.

The challenge

Just a few years back Ankura laid out bold ambitions for global expansion which included the Europe and Middle East regions where it committed to provide clients with access to independent expert and advisory services by leveraging local, highly experienced and best-in-class teams with a global reach.

Germany was a key market as part of this strategic expansion in Europe. The business recognised the potential and importance of establishing a local team; subsequently an acquisition plan was considered to enable the firm to roll out iterative service lines and lay the foundations for establishing an Ankura team in the market.

Of course, building presence from the ground up is never an easy task, particularly in this case as it was set against a backdrop of economic crisis and the pandemic

As an example, Ankura’s global footprint provided Ankura with the ability to target the German market more effectively, enabling it to enhance its capabilities in a new market and build regional relationships that have become the cornerstone of the company’s success in the region.

Initially, Ankura launched two practices in Germany. The first, Risk, Forensics & Compliance help clients protect, create and recover value by identifying, analysing and managing risks and undertaking investigations for their businesses. The second, Construction Disputes & Advisory, is focused on offering technical advice and expert opinion to help clients assess and mitigate the risks inherent to infrastructure and capital projects.

Ankura’s global business has actively supported the growth of the German team enabling a rapid scale up of operations within the region which see it working with clients such as European energy companies with global operations. Culturally Ankura is team oriented and collaborative with significant cross-group initiatives, enabling the organisation to succeed across geographies by sharing critical expertise proactively and openly.

This latest venture is just one strand of an exciting Ankura story that has unfolded in recent years, underpinning the firm’s wider global growth programme that has seen it enhance its footprint and offering globally.

Marc Guilliet, Managing Director

In 2021, Ankura not only opened its German office in Frankfurt, it also opened its India offices in Mumbai and Gurugram, and launched its European Restructuring practice. In 2022, the growth and export story continued with the launch of its global Sports Advisory practice and the opening of additional offices in Shanghai (China) and Riyadh (KSA).

This impressive expansion strategy shows no signs of slowing in 2023 with the firm acquiring leading sovereign debt advisor Newstate Partners, US-China strategy advisory firm GreenPoint Group, and Chartwell Compliance, a leading global regulatory compliance and risk management firm. It has also launched its Middle East Turnaround & Restructuring practice and Australia Disputes & Economics practice, as well as opening an office in Melbourne, Australia.

As a result of these efforts, the company’s global headcount has expanded significantly with over 2,000 professionals globally.

Ankura’s proven ability to bring newly acquired teams on board and move into new territories is presenting exciting opportunities for its clients as well as for the development of its team members. Ankura is perfectly positioned to continue with its ambitious growth plans and expansion across the globe through the remainder of 2023 and beyond.

With a collaborative approach, industry leading expertise and multidisciplinary capabilities, the company continues to assist clients in protecting, creating and recovering value in more and more territories across the globe.

About Ankura Consulting

Ankura is an independent global expert services and advisory firm that delivers services and end-to-end solutions to help clients at critical inflection points related to conflict, crisis, performance, risk, strategy and transformation. Collaborative lateral thinking, hard-earned experience, expertise and multidisciplinary capabilities drive results and Ankura is unrivalled in its ability to assist clients to Protect, Create and Recover Value.

Story type

#export (main category)

#collaboration, #scale up

Benefits

• Successful global expansion

• Enhanced local service offering to support clients globally.

Key findings

For industry

• Be a purpose-built firm combining service offerings to deploy the best teams to support the client.

• Be a leader for your team, right now more than ever.

For government

• Open channels to be able to do business globally.

Ankura Consulting at a glance:

Key products and services: Consultancy.

Headquarters: New York, US

Year established: 2014

Number of employees: 2,000+

Applica

A smart scale-up operation that is already paying dividends

establishing itself. Its small team of six to seven employees was ticking along nicely, until the Ukraine crisis changed the energy landscape almost overnight.

How is Applica thriving?

Rather than having a year to bed into the energy project resourcing and recruitment scene, the events of 2022 threw several challenges in the direction of Applica. Russia’s invasion into Ukraine shook up the market and created an uptick in demand from other energy producing regions – if the company did not respond appropriately by scaling up to fulfil this demand, it faced being left behind by its (often larger) competitors.

CEO Matt Halle, supported by his team, built up the company’s credibility and relationships by speaking to project directors on the ground, understanding exactly their needs and responding appropriately. This personal approach lay the right foundations for the company which has seen Applica double its own headcount and revenues in record time.

The challenge

Having opened its doors to the energy sector in 2018, recruiting specialist Applica was embedding itself into various projects as a reliable resourcing partner – from FEED to commissioning, its hallmark is going on project journeys through entire lifecycles with clients.

Come 2022, amid the global economic hardships caused by the pandemic, the ambition very much was to continue

Applica was forced to re-think, re-invest and re-build. Needing to scale to stay relevant and take advantage of a huge opportunity, the key challenge was to grow its capacity to serve projects like its larger competitors – but, crucially, without losing the niche culture and family buzz that defined its DNA.

The solution

Doing so has been far from straightforward. Funding continues to be a challenge for players in the energy sector, with finance firms reluctant to commit to the industry despite it having a reasonable long-term outlook. Meanwhile, in Applica’s home market of the UK, there remains uncertainty as to what the long-term investment policy looks like, which is limiting investor confidence.

However, the company’s shareholders, along with its employees and other key stakeholders, have been extremely supportive throughout the scaling up process.

Central to Applica’s growth has been a restructuring of the organisation built around several important new appointments including Recruitment Manager for the UK and Europe, Country Manager for Norway and two senior leadership positions: Finance Director and Commercial Director.

Equally important has been safeguarding the original team who had built the company to this point in its journey. Here, Applica has plotted out a three-year plan for

Matthew Hallé, CEO

each member to help them bed into the new structure, providing coaching and development opportunities along the way for those whose roles are being changed.

In terms of scaling up commercially, Applica had already built relationships with key personnel in the industry and this proved to be invaluable. It allowed the organization to identify exactly where to focus its energies.

Using its well-established credibility and experience, the company has been sticking to its gameplan by finding smart and controlled ways to scale through acquiring new clients and increasing the value of existing relationships. For its largest client, Applica has increased the scope of resourcing support it provides, moving into the execution phase of projects and now serving as the number one recruitment partner on the site. Revenue derived from this account has grown from £1m in 2021 to £3m in 2022.

Applica is also ramping up work with global clients supporting them with recruitment for projects in the UK, Norway and France.New client wins are helping to grow the company’s presence in the US energy market, a new win is already delivering on a $1.5m contract with a view to extending the partnership to the UK.

The business now stands on a firm financial footing. Thanks to the scaling up exercise, revenues have more than doubled in the space of 12 months to reach £11m in 2022 – a far cry from the £1m recorded in 2019. With momentum on its side, Applica looks set to thrive for some time to come.

About Applica

The team at Applica are people-centric, diligent, agile, and innovative. The company’s head office, based in Manchester, serves both the UK market and acts as its global recruitment hub. Applica also has businesses registered in both Houston and Stavanger to support the energy markets of North America and Scandinavia and have solutions in place to support Europe and Asia.

Story type

#scale up (main category)

#culture

Benefits

• Revenue doubled within a year.

• Growing the company’s presence in the US.

Key findings

For industry

• Surround yourself with the right people, listen to them and don’t be scared to ask questions.

• Learn to trust your team even if you don’t really understand or agree with their decisions.

For government

• Develop a reverse engineering plan from 2050 net zero goals to our current state in 2023.

Applica at a glance:

Key products and services: Resourcing of projects globally, specializing in the projects space of the energy industry. Technical or commercial contractors.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 75%

• Renewables – 12.5%

• Energy Transition – 12.5%

Headquarters: Manchester, UK

Year established: 2018

Number of employees: 14

Revenue: £11m

Revenue from exports: 40%

Arcadis

Breaking down silos to develop a global, connected business

How is Arcadis thriving?

Arcadis has unlocked the passion of its employees to contribute to the worldwide sustainable and net zero journey. Missing out on energy transition opportunities due to its previously siloed structure, the company now operates with a series of global, expert-led communities that is helping it to make the most of its talent pool and collaborate across geographic borders.

The challenge

Established for well over 130 years and with a workforce of around 37,000, built asset consultant developer Arcadis has well and truly made a name for itself in building and engineering circles all around the world.

But for even the most longstanding of companies, remaining relevant and known in the energy sector is never a straightforward task, especially given the cyclical and volatile nature of the industry which is forcing virtually all stakeholders to remain on their toes.

For Arcadis, until the turn of the decade, the energy arena had been all but closed off for quite some time. Its brand, despite having a huge and long legacy behind it, was not well known. Previous three-year strategy cycles had revolved around the company’s numerous country specific silos, limiting the prospect for collaboration between divisions. If the energy market was to be tapped successfully, this needed to change.

The solution

To avoid missing opportunities, Arcadis decided to veer away from its typical approach to three-year strategies when the time came to launch the latest plan at the start of 2021.

Energy sector expertise have been pulled into a dedicated energy transition team which now operates at a global level and focuses on five key growth areas – offshore wind, industrial decarbonisation, hydrogen, energy systems, and energy infrastructure and storage. The firm has moved some of its leadership to the division to drive the five growth areas (referred to as communities), with the majority of the teams made up of personnel located in the former regional businesses.

This will drive a more joined-up approach to doing business in the energy sector, removing the reliance on ‘who knows who’ to prompt collaboration between disparate colleagues and teams. These communities of expert practice are now much more cohesive, each office now utilising shared case studies and competencies. Indeed, the major upshot for clients is that they are now receiving more focused propositions and a consistent experience across different geographic regions, Arcadis moving skills across the globe to suit customer needs.

Creating these communities has been no straightforward or speedy task. It has required a significant investment of time and energy to formulate, the company creating a series of digital basecamps to calibrate internal systems

and access the experts needed to form these new groups.

This process is indicative of what is now a digital leadership and cultural model that has been rolled out across Arcadis on a global scale. Each Arcadian takes part in a digital bootcamp, an initiative that has proven transformational so far and helped to break down the silos which had previously been holding it back. Today, the company positions itself as global player with focus on scale and digital entrepreneurship.

In terms of the renewed focus on the energy sector, achieving buy-in for such a wholesale change in approach has been relatively straightforward, not least because it fits in well with the wider company push towards sustainability and mission to improve people’s quality of life through the work it delivers. What’s more, many colleagues were passionate about contributing towards net zero and sustainable objectives but left frustrated by organisational barriers which stifled their potential to make a difference. Removing these barriers was therefore always going to be received well by the majority of employees.

The company is now into the third year of the strategy, and so far the signs are promising. Revenues are on the up, margins have improved, debts are down and the project pipeline is looking healthier. As Arcadis begins to ponder its next three-year cycle, it can do so from an entirely different starting point to the one it faced at the end of 2020.

About Arcadis

Arcadis is the leading global design and engineering consultancy for natural and built assets. Applying its deep market sector insights and collective design, consultancy, engineering, project and management services they work in partnership with their clients to deliver exceptional and sustainable outcomes throughout the lifecycle of their natural and built assets.

Story type

#transformation (main category)

#energy transition, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Clients are now receiving more focused propositions and a consistent experience.

• Stronger net zero strategy.

Key findings

For industry

• In terms of strategy, you need to deliver targets through focus and scale. Investing in the people within the organization should be the number 1 priority.

• Sustainability also needs to be at the heart of your operations. Addressing climate change and biodiversity loss are the greatest challenges of our generation and we all need to play our part.

For government

• It’s necessary to have a stable regulatory framework that promotes and accelerates the Energy Transition will help companies meet the challenge and invest in people and technologies for the long term.

Arcadis at a glance:

Key products and services: Consultancy, architectural design, design and engineering, natural and built assets, business advisory, health and safety, environmental remediation, sustainability, program, project and cost management, infrastructure, water, buildings and environment.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 2%

• Nuclear power – 2%

• Renewables – 4%

• Energy Transition – 2%

• Others (energy: transmission and distribution) - 5%

• Others (non-energy) - 85%

Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Year established: 1888

Number of employees: 37,000

Revenue: £2.63bn

Revenue from exports: 44% (EMEA), 43% (Americas), 13% (APAC)

Arrow

A decade of continuous improvement to build a sustainable long-term business

The solution

How is Arrow thriving?

A brand-new market entrant in 2012/2013, Arrow has spent the past decade refining its processes and proposition to customers in order to establish itself in the market and be better able to face shocks such as those caused by the Covid pandemic. This has involved taking on board a lot of feedback and making investments into new capabilities, including setting up its own machining shop and offering consultancy style services to clients.

Today, the firm is reaping the rewards of its persistent and tireless approach, recording back to back years of solid revenues which reached US$2m in 2022.

The challenge

In 2012, Arrow opened its doors as a supplier of key parts for power plants. Producing and distributing the likes of manual valves, control valves, motorised valve bolts, nuts, pipes and gaskets of numerous sizes and materials, the company launched in the Malaysian market as a totally unknown entity.

To not only survive its first few years but thrive in the longterm, building a business that is sustainable and futureproofed against shocks (including the likes of a global pandemic later down the line), Arrow knew it had to be responsive and willing to learn on the job. The journey, its leadership anticipated, would not be straightforward – however, do things right, and the rewards would start to emerge in time.

Like many start-up businesses, Arrow was built up from scratch. Arriving in Malaysia with no foundations in the ground, the company’s skeleton team adopted the oldfashioned way of drumming up business – knocking on doors, making calls, and approaching any potential clients with gusto and enthusiasm.

What the firm did have at its disposal was a directory of industry players it could reach out to. Leveraging this information, the company built out its network slowly but steadily, travelling 600km per week in its early days to sell direct and meet more than 1,000 companies that had potential to make use of the forging items it produced.

Through sheer persistence over four to five years, Arrow found a stable footing in Malaysia. While it endured a lot of frustration and rejection, the company always held the belief it would succeed due to the strength and quality of the product it was providing. Indeed, customers have expressed that they admire the firm for its ‘never-give-up’ attitude, while most of its competitors have become friends over time through collaborating to gain more business together.

A crucial milestone has been the development of an in-house machining shop. This has allowed some products which are produced in China to be machined locally in Malaysia, a capability which has enabled Arrow to keep costs down and deliver faster turnaround times to customers.

Remaining cost competitive has been especially important, not least because clients are extremely sensitive to price changes. To support this further, Arrow continually seeks to find ways of providing greater value for money by reducing its overheads, be it through restructuring or reorganising the production line, appointing additional

Amir Chini, GM

subsidiaries, or improving its stock range. Regarding the latter, the company keeps high stock levels of common items such as valves, flanges, gaskets, bolts and nuts.

Another key strategy adopted, this time in 2017, was to pivot to a more consultative offering. Here, Arrow has positioned itself as a go-to for solving customer problems with no obligations on the part of client to commit to any product orders. In doing so, the company has been able to acquire important business information, at the same time bringing new products and fresh approaches to challenges to its customers’ attention. Further, it has also enabled Arrow to successfully target larger clients with the budgets to keep the company financially viable, including the likes of Petronas and RAPID Pengerang.

The most recent hurdle arrived in 2020 in the form of the Covid pandemic. The inability to travel freely severely hampered day-to-day operations – however, as has been shown through the previous decade, Arrow was able to think on its feet and adapt.

The company used this period to expand outside of Malaysia, leveraging digital communication methods to approach new customers, many of which were now more willing to listen to its proposals. As a result, Arrow has now entered new markets within Asia and Latin America. Meanwhile, following the worst of the pandemic disruption, the firm came back into its local Malaysian market all the stronger by providing greater support and supply experience to local fabricators, EPCC firms, ship repairers and engineering companies.

Today, Arrow is on a firm financial and reputational footing. The past two years have seen steady performance, with revenue growing to US$2m in 2022. Now, with its feet firmly on the ground and value being demonstrated to customers in Malaysia and further afield with every passing week, the future looks decidedly more certain than when the company started knocking on doors.

About Arrow

Arrow has about 20 years of experience of producing different type of flanges. The company’s products have been exported to the Middle East and Southeast Asia successfully. Arrow is equipped with the most modern facilities and a highly qualified workforce, enabling the offering of the widest possible range of flanges. Arrow’s product line embodies the highest standards in quality, productivity and dependability.

Story type

#resilience (main category)

#collaboration

Benefits

• Revenue of US$2m in 2022.

• Arrow entered new markets in Asia and Latin America.

Key findings

For industry

• Turn rejection into an opportunity to grow your business.

Arrow at a glance:

Key products and services: Supply of customised forging parts.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 60%

• Conventional power – 10%

• Renewables – 10%

• Others (structural industry, palm oil, ship building, ship maintenance) – 20%

Headquarters: Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Year established: 2012

Number of employees: 8

Revenue from exports: 60%

ARUP Philippines

A critical friend to a complex hillside solar plant in the Philippines

Lynn Dimayuga, Associate Director –Energy Business Leader

How is ARUP thriving?

ARUP is drawing on all its experience in supporting solar farm developments and operating in awkward terrains to help the Philippines on its much-needed energy transition journey. Faced with a grid unable to provide a stable power supply during the pandemic, the government has ramped up its efforts to facilitate more renewable energy developments, with solar plants identified as a critical component of its energy security strategy. To make the most of the opportunity, projects need to be delivered on challenging parcels of land, especially mountainous terrains that are in abundant supply across the country. Here, ARUP has risen to the challenge, supporting a client in what is a first of its kind solar plant development in the country.

The challenge

As well as presenting major health and economic challenges, the covid pandemic highlighted the fragility of the Philippines’ energy security. Power outages became rampant and regular as the national grid was not able to provide consistent service to the whole population, this prompting the government to accelerate projects on renewables.

For ARUP, a UK-headquartered firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists, that has been present in the Philippines since 1990, this prompted the need to project itself as the go-to expert in infrastructure works in the country. With vast experience working on renewables projects around the world, ARUP’s mission is to shape a better world by being what it terms a ‘critical friend’ for clients – a go-to organisation that can help resolve complex issues.

This was put to the test when a client asked for support on developing a utility scale solar PV plant on an undulating hillside terrain.

The solution

Hillside solar farms represent an increasingly popular alternative to taking up large, flat swathes of land – they increase the usability of awkward terrain, provide clean renewable energy to the grid and improve employment opportunities for local communities.

In this instance, ARUP was working with a contractor that had never developed a solar power plant, much less on a hillside, the project also being the first of its kind in the Philippines. The company also lacked the exact experience, but it was able to draw on the lessons it learned from developing complex projects on very similar kinds of terrain and its extensive solar design knowledge to make it work – indeed, ARUP has garnered a reputation for mastering complex projects, and applied the same process of critical thinking and creativity to this development.

First, it had to identify the risks and challenges of the

project site, a key task being to find safe, stable and accessible ground, as well as optimal places to position panels to maximise solar yield. Here, the company applied its familiarity with the local climate and site conditions to identify probable risks to the project for the long term, mapping the constraints of the terrain and setting a safe clearance for development.

To expedite best panel positioning in consideration of best sun capture, it developed its own automated tool to generate the optimal layout of the plant, saving it around a third of the time compared with completing the process manually and helping ARUP to secure two more sites of similar complexity. The automated layout keeps track of all individual panel data, creating a mine of information that underpins crucial decision making and enables maximum performance to be derived.

The credentials of ARUP’s approach were tested on numerous occasions by the elements. For example, two typhoons were encountered during the construction phase which challenged the design of the plant regarding wind direction and uplift force. The mounting structure foundation design held up to scrutiny, granting the client confidence that the plant could withstand severe climatic conditions.

Projects like this will serve ARUP well in the future. As its track record for supporting hillside solar developments in the Philippines continues to strengthen, it looks well placed to play an important role in building up the renewable energy capacity the county badly needs to ensure its energy security.

About ARUP

Dedicated to sustainable development, ARUP is a collection of designers, consultants and experts working globally with more than 40 offices in seven continents. Founded to be both humane and excellent, ARUP collaborates with clients and partners using imagination, technology and rigour to shape a better world.

Story type

#service & solutions (main category)

#optimisation, #sustainability

Benefits

• ARUP becoming a leader in supporting the hillside solar energy market in the Philippines.

• Client’s first solar project in the country successfully developed.

Key findings

For industry

• Challenges are part of any project or business, one must know their limits and leverage on the skills and capabilities of their team members to supplement their skills.

• Be updated on current events and know the market so that a holistic view on things can be provided.

For government

• Ease off a few challenges for developers in regard to meeting their construction timelines by streamlining and permitting process.

ARUP Philippines at a glance:

Key products and services: Specialist services on infrastructure, buildings, management consulting, economics and planning.

Main industries served:

• Renewables – 100%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 1990

Number of employees: 200

Revenue: £1.9bn

Revenue from exports: 30%

ASCO

Growth and diversification inspired by international markets

in service and safety. For France, safe, reliable and efficient service needed to be the core of ASCO’s offering.

How is ASCO thriving?

ASCO is successfully finding inspiration in its people, offering safe, lean, efficient and sustainable end-toend logistics solutions. Having appointed a new CEO, Peter France, in 2018, the company has transformed its prospects through a renewed strategy underpinned by an emphasis on safety, service and sustainability, and a more focussed approach to international growth.

The challenge

Created in 1967, ASCO has developed an esteemed reputation as a leading logistics and materials management company for the global energy industry. Providing a range of services, ASCO is an established and highly regarded enterprise. The company has been working to expand its operational footprint into its first new international locations since 2013, which has come with challenges around resources, training and local content requirements.

Additionally, operating in a cyclical sector, ASCO experienced particularly highly competitive price market during the last Oil & Gas downturn and a change in management has served to steady the ship, return to growth and set ASCO on a new, more prosperous path.

The solution

Since Peter France came on board as CEO in 2018, he pivoted the company’s strategic focus towards excellence

From that point on, the firm no longer aimed to differentiate based on price but on service. By doing a much better job, ASCO would get a better return through better client relationships. Sustainability also became a core focus under France from the end of 2019 onwards, not just from an environmental perspective, but equally looking at raising the longer-term value of the business. Overall business performance was improving, underpinned by a culture of respect and equality. However, some early speed bumps were encountered.

ASCO faced a difficult situation when the covid pandemic arrived, the firm erring on the side of caution in opting to request that higher paid staff take a temporary pay cut. This helped limit the number of long-term headcount reductions to less than 10% of global staff. These difficult decisions ultimately paid dividends, with 2020 turning out not to be as gloomy as originally foreseen and subsequent years returning to sustainable growth and the recruitment of additional heads.

More recently, the war in Ukraine has also pushed the company to be more reactive. Where ASCO had previously been looking at diversifying away from oil and gas, it is now anticipated to continue to be the majority of ASCO’s business for at least the next decade, with oil and gas continuing to offer business opportunities in a tough market.

Beyond these reactive responses, perhaps the most significant change for ASCO in the past half decade has been its approach to international growth. Prior to 2018, the company had taken what can only be described as a scattergun approach to international markets, reacting to any inquiry, no matter where it originated from.

Fraser Stewart, Managing Director –International

From 2018 onwards, it was decided that a more coherent and planned approach was needed, undertaking country specific due diligence in advance of establishment. Critically, management felt that the firm had the capacity to develop three new overseas opportunities in parallel in order to give them the necessary resource and focus. Resultantly, Suriname, Senegal and Mexico were targeted, and while the latter provided significant difficulty and ultimately did not progress, ASCO became established on the ground in Senegal in 2021 and Suriname in 2022.

In each of these new markets, the idea is to have local people eventually driving each respective regional business. In Senegal, for example, while much of the business is currently driven by expats, the aim is to hand over each role to locals over a two-to-five-year period. To support this, each expat position has a local deputy attached to accelerate knowledge transfer through an understudy process. A team of subject matter experts, expats and HR personnel carefully designed the operating model for the new locations with layouts, workflows and personnel org charts to ensure there was no disruption to ongoing operations in any of ASCO’s locations.

With Senegal and Suriname now established, ASCO is now looking ahead to additional potential locations, the plan being to develop out from existing presence and hubs. Indeed, having become profitable in two of these initial three overseas ventures which mark ASCO’s first new international footprints in almost 10 years, the firm now sees international growth as a profitable, high growth and managed risk avenue.

The change in company culture has also had a huge impact, with employees that have been with ASCO for more than two decades reporting that the atmosphere is much better, more open and inclusive, creating a collaborative, positive and happier place to work.

Company performance has continued to improve owing to these changes. While revenue was down 10% in 2020 vs 2019 due to the pandemic, it rebounded to 2019 levels in 2021, and then expanded in 2022, with this growth anticipated to continue in 2023. While ASCO recognises that there are still improvement opportunities that need to be addressed, good progress has been made that is only likely to gather momentum through the remainder of this year and beyond.

About ASCO

ASCO is a leading logistics and materials management company for the global energy industry. ASCO’s safe, lean, efficient, and sustainable end-to-end solutions include logistics, transport and freight, supply base management, warehousing and storage, materials management, fuel and bulk provision, marine services, training, lifting and assurance, personnel and environmental services.

Story type

#people & competency (main category)

#export

Benefits

• Building long-term capabilities allows economic benefits to be apportioned equitably in the local economy.

• Developing a positive workplace culture ensures the business strategy is successful.

• Providing expat opportunities allows knowledge sharing and process standardisation.

Key findings

For industry

• Have confidence in yourself and your decisions. It’s easy to be swayed off strategy when things get hard.

• Invest in local capability in the markets you operate. Politics and culture issues fare better when managed by someone local.

For government

• Focus on local capability, not local content. Your economy will benefit more.

ASCO at a glance:

Key products and services: Logistics, transport and freight, supply base management, warehousing and storage, materials management, marine services, training, lifting and assurance, personnel and environmental services.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 96%

• Renewables – 4%

Headquarters: Aberdeen, UK

Year established: 1967

Number of employees: 1,500

Revenue: £419m (2021)

Revenue from exports: 25%

asset55

Delivering immense value for clients with a growing portfolio of digital solutions

with significant focus on operational systems, consultancy management and engineering support for CAPEX and OPEX projects.

How is asset55 thriving?

Building up its reputation as a digital solutions specialist in the energy industry, largely thanks to its market leading flange management software Calculate, asset55 has kicked on since 2018, expanding significantly through the introduction of three additional platforms.

With its product portfolio now also comprising of Operate (optimal planning and controlled execution in operation), Execute (optimal planning and controlled execution of capital projects) and Validate (automated validation to secure data integrity), the firm has doubled its users and demonstrated a proven ability to keep on delivering value with these new solutions.

The challenge

More than 10 years ago, Robert Noble, a pioneer in flange management with torque wrench manufacturer, Hedley Purvis, and Mike Rudd, who was Managing Director, identified an opportunity. With 60 years’ experience between them, the pair saw the industry was on precipice of immense change.

Operators were looking for ways to move away from outdated spreadsheet-based processes and unlock efficiencies by embracing cutting-edge, industry-tailored digital solutions.

To capitalise on this shift, the pair set up asset55 – a software technology engineering company specialising in the development of solutions for the energy sector,

With the help of an experienced team of software development experts, the company launched in late 2012 and after two years of development, in 2014, Calculate was born. A highly successful product, the firm has managed to secure business from three quarters of UK energy operators, with Calculate also established as a flange management software solution of choice.

However, despite the successes of its primary product, the founders knew that they couldn’t afford to sit still and solely rely on one solution alone. Resultantly, the decision was taken to kick on and develop new software solutions to diversify and consolidate its position in the market.

The solution

This decision came to fruition in 2018 as asset55 began to expand its portfolio of software platforms from one to four, the firm launching three further key products in the five ensuing years.

Execute was the first of these – a solution specifically designed to optimise planning and controlled execution in operation, launched in 2018. Come 2021, Operate was then added to the collection – a solution designed to optimise operations including shutdown and turnaround projects. And in 2022, Validate was rolled out – a capital project engineering platform with data validation capabilities.

Significant efforts went into developing each of these solutions to ensure they were addressing the unique requirements of the market. To achieve this, asset55 brought in industry subject matter experts and

Les Bartlett, Global Development Lead

experienced individuals from operator backgrounds to complement its internal software development team. With this combination, the solutions were successfully developed in house.

While each of these distinct platforms is undoubtedly sophisticated, the firm has faced several challenges regarding its go-to-market strategies and deployment. In the case of Operate, for example, the company faced some resistance from industry players regarding its efforts to change the mindset of shutdowns and turnarounds and optimise processes by reducing helicopter flights, manpower requirements offshore, and more. In such instances, it has had to be innovative, adapting its marketing techniques to specifically target those willing to embrace innovative solutions.

Despite some kickback, the immense value of the firm’s portfolio has been demonstrated by massive increases in uptake. While it had already achieved 10,000 annual users five years ago, this has now doubled to more than 20,000, with the firm’s annual licence renewal rate also reaching 95% despite ongoing economic difficulties. Within this, the firm is now also serving 30 operators – up from eight in 2018.

Indeed, asset55’s solutions have proven their worth among its client base which has benefitted significantly through the adoption of Calculate, Execute, Operate and Validate. In the case of Execute, for example, one client has saved more than US$2m simply by optimising its installation and fabrication sequence.

Despite being a company just 11 years in the making, momentum continues to gather at pace at asset55. And with an impressive, proven ability to deliver efficiency, productivity, operational and cost benefits to its clients, the company’s reputation and customer base are only likely to continue growing.

About asset55

At its core, asset55 is a software engineering technology company. It brings together highly experienced industry engineers combined with leading software developers to drive real and positive change within the energy sector. Established in 2012, asset55 has grown organically to become a leading and trusted provider of SaaS technology to the wider energy market whilst maintaining clear objectives to support customers on critical operations. asset55 ensures to go above and beyond expectations on delivery and execution of its services.

Story type

#digital (main category)

#innovation, #optimisation

Benefits

• A single client saved US$2m by using Execute.

• asset55’s users have doubled to more than 20,000 in five years.

Key findings

For industry

• The energy industry, where there are major opportunities in digital, should embrace technology more. Still afraid to take risks.

For government

• Open up boundaries: stop making business harder and instead embrace technology that’s out there to help.

asset55 at a glance:

Key products and services: Software technology engineering company.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 85%

• Energy Transition – 4%

• Renewables – 3%

• Conventional power – 2%

• Nuclear power – 2%

• Others (data centres) – 4%

Headquarters: Sunderland, UK

Year established: 2012

Number of employees: 26

Revenue: £4.5m

Revenue from exports: 50%

ASYAD

Oman’s shining example of ESG-driven success

The solution

How is Asyad thriving?

Asyad is a leading example of ESG-led success in Oman, owing to its explicit commitments to reform. By prioritising sustainability in its business strategy and culture, the Group has achieved record-breaking profits, secured key funding to further expand its fleet, and achieved a Gold Rating on the Oman Sustainability Index for two consecutive years. Asyad’s commitment to promoting positive change attracts top talent to the organisation.

The challenge

Sustainability is currently the most prominent trend transforming the energy industry, and Oman-based integrated logistics solutions provider Asyad recognises the importance of evolving and adapting to sustainability demands for its future success.

Asyad is committed to decarbonising its operations, not only to meet regulatory changes, but also to play an impactful role in the global drive to net zero. To that end, the company is undergoing a comprehensive transformation, with particular focus on its shipping business and deep seaports. Sustainability is deeply ingrained into the company’s values and culture, reflecting the impetus with which Asyad approaches this issue. The logistics group acknowledges that achieving true sustainability, as a global enterprise, is a challenging task that cannot be accomplished alone. It requires collaboration and partnerships to drive innovation and the sharing of knowledge and best practices.

Asyad began developing ESG strategies in 2022, placing them at the centre of a wider transformation with a clear focus on KPIs for 2023. This ESG framework didn’t just focus on the decarbonisation of the business but was split into four key areas: environmental leadership, thriving workplace, community engagement, and robust governance and sustainable growth.

Asyad also established a culture of transparency by implementing disclosure mechanisms to maximise accountability and setting quantifiable milestones to track progress across its multiple units. This not only enhances Asyad’s reputation as a sustainable and responsible business, but it also enables the Group to attract funding from ESG-led investors.

The benefits of this approach are already apparent. Asyad became the first Omani company to secure sustainability link loans based on its low CO2 emissions, securing US$35m in funding to purchase two new vessels. Beyond financing, Asyad has received a Gold Rating on the Oman Sustainability Index for two consecutive years and is publishing its first Sustainability Report in 2023, which will also undergo an international ESG rating process to verify its measurement and commitment mechanisms.

Furthermore, Asyad has recognised major international shipping lines’ increased demands for ports to disclose ESG commitments and decarbonisation plans, as well as regulatory and operational demands for reporting on carbon footprint and emissions targets.

The sustainability transformation has also enabled Asyad to better meet ESG and regulatory demands worlwide, with its expansive portfolio comprising three deep ports, two free

Dr Essam Al Sheibany, Group VP Sustainability

zones, and an economic zone supported by Oman’s five airports, alongside a world-class road network. In addition, the company operates a wide array of maritime services, with one of the largest drydocks in the Middle East and a diversified fleet of more than 80 vessels, supported by a sea transport network that connects Oman to key ports across the region and the globe.

Although there have been challenges along the way, including difficulty finding and retaining the right talents with the expertise required, as well as the increasing cost of adopting key sustainability technologies and solutions, Asyad has remained committed to change. Partnerships have proven key, with the Group collaborating with Sultan Qaboos University on biofuel projects and building partnerships with international corporations to create clean fuel alternatives and find further frontiers for emission reduction.

Through these efforts, Asyad has established itself as a corporate role model not just for Oman, but internationally. Its credibility has enabled the Group to attract and retain promising talents and a wider client base, garnering a reputation as one of the world’s elite energy transporters in terms of sustainability.

As a result, Asyad has been able to secure better financing to sustain its growth and fleet expansion goals. In fact, profitwise, 2022 was a record-breaking year for Asyad, with some segments that were previously underperforming financially becoming self-sustaining.

Overall, the Group’s commitment to sustainability has been crucial to its success and its capacity to develop and adapt in line with sustainability requirements being viewed as critical to its future. By integrating sustainability into its core values and culture, and emphasising transparency, collaboration, and partnerships, Asyad has become an example of ESG-led success.

About Asyad

Asyad Group is Oman’s global integrated logistics service provider. As a US$4bn enterprise and backed by an initial US$20bn in government infrastructure spending, Asyad is attracting customers keen to leverage the country’s integrated logistics facilities and establish manufacturing. Asyad Group provides integrated logistics solutions across ports, free zones and shipping. It comprises three deep ports, two free zones and an economic zone supported by Oman’s five airports, and a world-class road network. In addition, Asyad operates full maritime services with one of the largest drydock in the Middle East and a diversified fleet of more than 60 vessels, supported by a sea transport network that connects Oman to key ports across the globe. The Group offers integrated logistics services to meet market needs and support Oman’s economy.

Story type #sustainability (main category) #culture, #transformation

Benefits

• Record profit in 2022 and new self-sustaining segments.

• ESG entirely embraced and reputation elevated.

Key findings

For industry

• Build your strategy to evolve under ESG.

For government

• ESG should be self-driven, regulation is a key enabler to take businesses to this direction.

Asyad at a glance:

Key products and services: Integrated logistics solutions.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 90%

• Others – 10%

Headquarters: Muscat, Oman

Year established: 2016

Number of employees: +8,000

Revenue: around £1bn

ATPI Travel

Moving clients from A to B to Z during the pandemic

and at the right cost. The logistical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic meant its clients needed the company more than ever. With employees stuck in worldwide locations and the need to keep their assets and businesses operating, ATPI was up against an enormous logistical challenge.

How is ATPI Travel thriving?

Thanks to its can-do attitude, meticulous preparation and contacts with transportation stakeholders, ATPI Travel has proven itself as a true partner to oil and gas businesses during the pandemic. In times of difficulty with workforces potentially left stranded during lockdowns, the company found solutions, so much so that it has emerged stronger from the covid period than when it entered – a remarkable feat for a firm operating in the travel business.

The challenge

ATPI is one of the most experienced and long-established travel management companies in the travel industry, with parts of the business trading since 1919. It handles the exclusive air, road and sea travel requirements of clients, as well as hotel bookings and visa applications. The firm manages travel arrangements for businesses of many shapes and sizes, including office-based corporations, sports clubs, events organisers and industrial enterprises.

As a specialist oil and gas travel management company, ATPI has always offered a bespoke, flexible and scalable travel offering to each individual client. However, during the last few years as an industry specialist company it has been faced with unimaginable complexities and challenges as a result of the covid pandemic.

Due to the nature of the sector, ATPI deals with critical travel – getting people from A to B to Z on time, safely

The solution

Fortunately, the company was prepared for emergency situations. For example, it had already tried, tested and moved to working from home to ensure its infrastructure was ready to provide support when the time came. In addition, ATPI has specialist relationships with airlines to understand the availability, changes and options open to it based on the knowledge of its clients’ travellers’ origins, destinations and locations. As a result, it already had the planning and preparation required to carve out routes and avenues of support.

Despite the turmoil caused by covid and international travel shutdowns, ATPI managed to retain 75% of its workforce to ensure it maintained 24/7 coverage.

The team was, unsurprisingly, kept busy. Throughout the period, it was constantly engaging with clients, monitoring and booking repatriation flights, routings and other options – as a company, it chartered over 200 flights, creating accessible routings into key locations around the world where others could not, especially in West Africa and Saudi Arabia.

In Angola, for example, ATPI was called upon to support a world leading marine services provider to the oil and gas sector, the client’s footprint comprising 8,000 staff and more than 400 vessels spread across 44 countries. The prospect of keeping crew onboard for prolonged periods amid lockdown and travel restrictions was a risk that the

Lynn Coutts, Managing Director Middle East

company wanted to mitigate – this was especially the case in Luanda, Angola, where lockdowns prevented any travel into the country. Recognising the need to act quickly, APTI organised the chartering of a flight for the client and an additional third party to reduce costs. Thanks to this quick resolution, the health and wellbeing of the employees concerned was safeguarded.

During the pandemic period, ATPI managed the impressive feat of maintaining operations at around 50% of its usual capacity. What’s more, in some regions it increased its business, enabling it to emerge from a deeply challenging period stronger than before due to its ability to respond quickly and pick up new clients. Indeed, the company has showcased the value of a true travel partner and the ability to support, scale, guide, advise and work proactively alongside clients.

ATPI was particularly proud to be associated with the development of the Qatar Airlines seafarers lounge concept at Qatar airport. ATPI’s friends and colleagues at Qatar Airlines recognised the unique nature of the seafaring community and the constant nature of the business they provide and services they need despite the world shutting down most travel routes. Qatar Airlines took the decision to maintain this unique concept at the heart of the airport despite the world returning “almost” to normal.

Although unforeseen, in many ways the pandemic has laid the foundation for ATPI to offer increased service options. Today, it offers self-booking tools for oil and gas customers, as well as award winning sustainability packages, reporting, offsetting and safety/security tracking. Meanwhile, its real time analytical data, automated approval tools, API feeds, and tools for invoicing, crew management, and quality and duty of care reports help to remove many manual processes. All of this, and more, is available through a single sign on booking portal.

And backed by a loyal, motivated team that continues to work around the clock, ATPI will continue to fulfil its mission statement and raison d’etre – delivering what really matters.

About ATPI Travel

The ATPI Group provides world-leading corporate travel and events solutions to organisations operating in a variety of specialist sectors around the world. Comprising of ATPI Corporate Travel, Direct ATPI, ATPI Marine & Energy, ATPI Corporate Events, ATPI Mining & Resources and ATPI Sports Events, each brand is united by the aim to deliver what really matters to every single customer.

Story type

#resilience (main category)

#people & competency

Benefits

• About 50% of usual capacity was maintained during the pandemic.

• Business and services expanded.

Key findings

For industry

• Understand not just your business, but also that of your clients.

• Be adaptable to market and customers’ needs.

For government

• Develop travel policies that focus on the value that international partnerships allow.

ATPI at a glance:

Key products and services: Business travel management.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 70%

• Others (sports, corporate, meetings & events, marine) – 30%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 1919

Number of employees: 1900 (global), 100 (Middle East)

Revenue: £1bn

AVEVA

Taking AIM at process visualisation and data optimisation

thus only utilised where it absolutely has to be.

How is AVEVA thriving?

Identifying demand among world leading energy players for improved, data-driven asset management solutions, AVEVA has spent the last eight years developing and fine tuning its Asset Information Management (AIM) digital twin, a tool that has quickly become the go-to solution for asset and process visualisation and data optimisation.

The challenge

Founded in 1967 and a fully owned subsidiary of Schneider Electric, AVEVA has a formidable reputation in the energy market, supporting international oil companies (IOCs) and national oil companies (NOCs) with industrial software and service solutions across the US, EU, Middle East and Asia.

In recent years, the firm has witnessed its typical client base turning their attentions towards a data-driven, information management approach, targeting areas such as process efficiency improvements, asset management and predictive maintenance for good reason. Indeed, while such operators invest billions in their assets, poor asset information can cost them several percentage points of revenues.

AVEVA recognised that data was becoming the new operational currency for its clients. Today, many operators are aware of the fact that they are sitting on vast amounts of data that is either not used or difficult to access, and

Often, this data takes the form of engineering documents contained either in physical files or document management systems as PDFs. However, the need to access this data at speed is becoming increasingly paramount as experienced staff retire or move on, leaving knowledge base to dissipates into the ether.

This is the challenge that has been set by several oil & gas players – they now require systems that enable this data to be identified quickly and accessed in a usable manner.

The solution

These demands presented AVEVA with an opportunity, the firm responding by embarking on a focused development programme that was informed by engaging the specific needs of several early adopters.

Initially, AVEVA was faced with a singular question from a US IOC and developed a visualisation concept for that client. By utilising a visual approach, supported by a common data management structure that enables complex search capabilities, the ability to find individual pieces of equipment carrying out a specific duty (i.e. control valves in high pressure steam lines) can be achieved in seconds, not hours.

In seeing the value this digital twin delivered, the firm decided that this model needed to be productised and adapted so that it could be made fit for purpose for different industries, not just for oil & gas. Here, it settled on the name AVEVA Information Management, or AIM.

Beginning developments in 2015, AIM is still going strong

Roy Calder, Oil & Gas Industry Principal New Energies

today. Indeed, while the initial focus of the programme was centred around engineering, this gradually expanded to take in operational data as well as transactional data including maintenance information, and external thirdparty data management relevant to key client operations.

AVEVA now has a product management team of experts in Cambridge, UK dedicated to driving AIM that is supplemented by a coding team in Hyderabad, India and used as needed. Equally, much of the success of the project has been down to the firm’s existing software and setup. By combining the suitable technology and experience that it already had, alongside its closeknit relationships with its customers, the firm has been well placed to develop a highly intuitive and capable solution.

There have, of course, been challenges. Indeed, the firm had to find a way to deal with materials developed in competitor tools, overcoming this by opting to integrate information rather than tools. However, the launch of AIM in 2017 and its subsequent developments, including the launch of the cloud-based version of AIM in 2021, continue to be a resounding success.

The firm has secured several major contracts as a result, including its work in supporting BP in the Azerbaijan Central oilfield project (ACE). Here, BP provided the laser scan data which AVEVA could then use to build its digital twin 3D models. BP also asked KBR to help out with the data hosting on their intranet systems, leading AVEVA to build a compete model that identifies all of the firm’s equipment, with KBR now populating that database. Having signed the first contact on ACE in 2021, a new contract was then agreed at the end of 2022, signifying the success of the project in delivering major performance improvements.

In an era where the customer experience is king, AIM is only likely to continue attracting greater attention. With its open architecture approach that is geared to be much more flexible for clients and ability deliver the entire end-to-end process in constructing highly advanced digital twins, the firm now has a highly attractive and futureproofed tool underpinning its model.

About AVEVA

AVEVA is a global leader in industrial software, sparking ingenuity to drive responsible use of the world’s resources. The company’s secure industrial cloud platform and applications enable businesses to harness the power of their information and improve collaboration with customers, suppliers and partners.

Story type

#digital (main category)

#collaboration

Benefits

• Major contract wins as a result of AIM.

• Expansion of the team to Cambridge, Hyderabad and India.

Key findings

For industry

• Focus on a clear need from the market, adopt an agile project approach and don´t be afraid to make mistakes.

• Listen to your customers and shareholders and understand their concern and needs. Think of what the business model should be in 5 or 10 years based on what you have heard and drive your business sustainability in that direction.

For government

• Focus on vision, not rhetoric.

• Government should adjust thinking towards the common good and not just what people in London, Brussels or Washington are paid to say.

AVEVA at a glance:

Key products and services: Industrial software, from energy to infrastructure, manufacturing, transportation, mining and chemicals.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 38%

• Power – 18%

• Others (chemicals, marine, manufacturing, infrastructure, process industries) – 44%

Headquarters: Cambridge, UK

Year established: 1967

Number of employees: 6,500

Revenue: £1.18bn

Baker Hughes

Bringing pioneering inspection and monitoring capabilities to the world of flexible pipes

Baker Hughes needed an additional solution to monitor and inspect flexible pipes in a simple and non-intrusive manner. This capability would enable users to keep pipes operational for longer and boost on-site safety.

The solution

How is Baker Hughes thriving?

Baker Hughes has successfully adapted and applied its inspection and monitoring services to flexible pipe structures, which are commonly used in the oil and gas industry. For many years, the company developed and introduced a solution to the market. Now, the objective is to build on the success it has experienced in regions like Brazil, where the solution has proven its worth significantly.

The challenge

For many years, the R&D company called MAPS Technology has been developing and deploying magnetbased technology to identify stress in steel structures supporting a variety of industries. With venture capital backing, the company effectively applied its solutions to the US rail market, among others.

In 2013, the company was acquired by GE’s oil and gas division (now part of Baker Hughes) with the intention of applying the technology to flexible pipe systems as well. These pipe networks are commonly found in offshore and subsea oil and gas developments because they enhance production and asset integrity, while reducing the overall cost of pipeline systems.

However, these pipe systems are susceptible to mechanical failure, which, if undetected, can cause issues that significantly reduce the life of assets. Consequently,

The journey to this new market has been one of perseverance and patience.

A major engineering challenge involved developing the mechanical components that transmit signals and capture the response, as well as the ability to read the collected data. Concerning the latter, the key to success was to clean and interpret data using improved algorithms and software to eliminate excess noise in offshore environments.

Development took six years. By 2016, Baker Hughes had reached a stage where it could successfully demonstrate its system in flexible pipes; however, reliability and consistency was needed before the technology could be commercialised. Three years later, Baker Hughes achieved the crucial milestone of fully qualifying its technology through blind testing.

Today, Baker Hughes can offer a full inspection and early warning service for operators of flexible pipe networks. This process involves collecting and analysing data on wires, which can number up to 70 in each pipe. When unloaded wires are detected, reports and alerts are sent so remedial action can be taken before serious problems arise. Importantly, the system can also indicate safe service life, informing users when pipes will require repair or replacement and allowing them to plan maintenance work accordingly.

Victor Farid, Business Leader

To date, Baker Hughes has completed 118 inspections, with its current ambition being to scale up the system’s deployment.

This endeavour should be aided by the fact that Baker Hughes has a highly successful real-world case study under its belt involving an independent energy firm in Brazil. Located off the coast in Sergipe state, the operation entails transporting LNG from offshore assets to be converted back into gas on land and commercialised. After noticing the abnormal shapes within the riser, the client suspected there might be issues with its wires, prompting an inspection from Baker Hughes that confirmed this suspicion. With no previous measures to compare against, a full-time monitor was installed to analyse the evolution of the damage. As Baker Hughes also manufactures flexible pipes, it was able to use the data to assess whether the pipe still maintained integrity.

Due to the monitoring capability provided by Baker Hughes, the client has been able to continue producing. Without the technology, the client would have been forced to shut down the operation and replace the pipe – a process which would have taken two years and cost US$5m. Including the cost of lost production, the solution has saved the client a further US$38m in revenues, more than justifying the US$300,000 per year cost.

With use cases such as this to draw upon, it is no surprise to see Baker Hughes increasing the volume of inspections it completes, scaling up from an average of one per month to three or four. After six years in development and a decade since the challenge first presented, Baker Hughes is poised to take full advantage of the commercial opportunity it has worked tirelessly to unlock.

About Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes is an energy technology company that provides solutions to energy and industrial customers worldwide. Built on a century of experience and conducting business in over 120 countries, its innovative technologies and services are taking energy forward –making it safer, cleaner and more efficient for people and the planet.

Story type

#service & solutions (main category)

#technology

Benefits

• Client saved US$38m in revenues by using Baker Hughes’ solution.

• Over 110 inspections completed so far, with plans to scale up.

Key findings

For industry

• Focus on people, hire character not skills.

• Build your own knowledge to avoid buying into the hype.

For government

• Establish regulatory stability – instability of regulations and decisions impact long-term planning and drag investments.

Baker Hughes at a glance:

Key products and services: Inspection and monitoring services in flexible pipes.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 90%

• Renewables – 10%

Headquarters: Houston, US

London, UK

Year established: 1950

Number of employees: 55,000

Revenue: £17.1bn

Revenue from exports: 70%

Balmoral

Re-invigorated R&D tackles toughening competition and new market demands

system that was huge success and led the market ever since. However, as the years went by, the competition started to close in – while not always able to compete on performance and quality, some were managing to produce alternatives at more competitive prices which would appeal to offshore oil and gas players.

How is Balmoral thriving?

Having commanded a leading market position with its premium buoyancy and protection systems for offshore energy assets for the best part of two decades, Balmoral was coasting. Customers loved its product, and the competition couldn’t compete on quality.

However, as the 2010s progressed, it became clear that disruptors were closing the gap through price competitiveness. With more and more industry players coming on stream, Balmoral knew it needed to radically evolve its offering to compete on cost and offer new advantages, not just for its core oil and gas market but also for offshore renewable sites.

A big decision was made to invest heavily in R&D, with the pioneering Integral Plus buoyancy module paving the way for the company to find a new edge.

The challenge

A critical threat facing any incumbent company with a strong market share is the temptation to drift along. For Balmoral, a leading provider of buoyancy modules and protection products for offshore energy industries since the 1980s, the danger of resting on its laurels was well and truly alive.

In 2006, it had released a high-performance clamp

To avoid being overtaken and protect its market share, Balmoral needed to find a way to shave costs with a new offering that could also appeal to operators in future energy markets such as floating offshore wind. Doing so is no easy task – rigorous standards must be met to bring new safety and protection solutions to market.

The solution

In 2018, the company’s leadership decided to change course. Continuing with the status quo, it was feared, would result in Balmoral being usurped by competitors which had been coming up on the rails in recent years.

R&D therefore took centre stage. Backed financially with 2-3% of company turnover being invested each year, an in-house R&D team named the Discovery Unit was carved out of the project engineering team. A nine-strong unit spread across three subcategories (product development, material, process), 2019 saw the Discovery Unit brainstorm the concept of a semi-clampless technology through a series of educated trial and error projects.

The new solution had to compete on price and offer a radical step-change in comparison to the premium clamp if it was to interest existing clients and win over new customers.

The Integral Plus was thus born. It is a two-plane buoyancy module containing a clever rubber part – as the load is

Fraser Milne, Engineering and Projects Director Gary Yeoman, Sales Director

applied, the rubber (which is now patented) reshapes and reforms to give even distribution load.

Towards the end of 2020, a four-tonne prototype was built and independently tested to prove the concept, with the results providing cause for optimism on many fronts. Key benefits include the ability to spread load in modules, suitability for use in renewables, and incorporation of thermoplastic, recyclable components.

Crucially, the Integral Plus makes it easier to automate the installation process, helping to optimise cost, power, use and safety – for the renewables sector in particular, which potentially operates with thousands of modules, this automation capability could bring enormous advantages.

Indeed, the company calculates that for each major deep floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, a total saving of £4.5m can be made (based on a 400 module per FPSO average). This is thanks to a 12-20% lower product price, cheaper logistics, and savings made on time, space and other cost bases during the installation process.

Alongside developing the prototype, another crucial step has involved working with API to evolve standards and enable the use of non-separate clamping solutions, with a new standard release being achieved in June 2021.

The decision to change course in 2018/2019 already looks like an astute one. The new offering is already being adopted by customers and has opened up the floating offshore wind market to the company. Presently, orders for 2023/24 for the Integral Plus stand at £20m, which already represents around a quarter of all revenue.

It is clear that the foundations for the company’s next chapter have been laid. Today, Balmoral operates out of manufacturing facilities in Aberdeen (HQ) and Newcastle, its 325-strong team complemented by agents based in key markets around the world to give it a global industry presence. With Integral Plus establishing itself and picking up momentum across the oil & gas and renewables sectors, the future looks entirely different (and a lot brighter) than it did just a few short years ago.

About Balmoral

Established in 1980, Balmoral has an enviable reputation across the world for product design, development, and delivery. With 350 people based at its purposebuilt 250,000ft2 facility in Aberdeen, Balmoral builds successful relationships with clients working with them from concept development and advice through to product design, manufacture, testing, delivery and support. All managed in-house to give total safety, quality and scheduling control.

Story type

#technology (main category)

#diversification, #innovation

Benefits

• Balmoral has now diversified into the offshore wind market.

• New solution provided lower product price, cheaper logistics, and savings made on time, space and other cost bases.

Key findings

For industry

• Never rest on your laurels – resist temptation to delay investment to next year.

• Aim high for all your goals.

For government

• Support the British industry, stop letting it go overseas.

Balmoral at a glance:

Key products and services: Buoyancy installation and protection products for offshore energy industries.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 85%

• Renewables – 15%

Headquarters: Aberdeen, UK

Year established: 1980

Number of employees: 350

Revenue: £90m

Revenue from exports: 90%

Belzona

Reinforcing responsible values to stay in tune with the modern industry

those firms in the supply chain which portray sustainable principles and provide circular solutions are more likely to secure their custom.

How is Belzona thriving?

Any company in operation for 71 years can say they’ve stood the test of time. For Belzona, while its core proposition and purpose had largely remained the same, the priorities of the industry and its clients were shifting.

And although always a responsible business at heart, the time had come for Belzona to truly shout about its sustainability, the company now guided by a new strapline – polymeric solutions for a sustainable future.

Despite it being early days operating under the new mission statement, green shoots are appearing. Customers have already come calling in search of more circular solutions to their maintenance problems.

The challenge

For decades Belzona has been providing products and services to solve the maintenance issues found within equipment and structures across a variety of industries. Specialists in the design and manufacture of polymerbased repair composite materials and industrial protective coatings, the company has built its reputation in the market thanks to a huge amount of experience and a bespoke approach to every customer’s needs.

Those needs, however, are evolving. Industrial sectors are investing more in ESG strategies and circularising their businesses to become more sustainable – as a result,

Belzona realised it needed a new mission statement that would enable it to become more in tune with the modern world, a world which is dialled into sustainability like never before through the likes of social media and online connectivity.

The solution

Senior management and marketing teams from the UK and US began working on mission and values proposals, coming together in June 2022 to share ideas and agree a unified way forwards. The company’s previous slogan around being the first global choice for protective coatings and repair composites was replaced with a snappier, more value-driven statement: Polymeric solutions for a sustainable future.

Belzona is also underpinned by what it calls the three i’s – integrity, investment and innovation. And although this relabelling may, at face value, look as if it is about changing hearts and minds inside the company, the truth is the firm has always operated with corporate responsibility at its core. Indeed, the exercise is geared towards changing its messaging towards end users with a view to supporting them in their own sustainability journeys.

For example, repairing instead of replacing is now core to the Belzona mission – repair for a fraction of the price, while also delivering significant environmental benefits. It is something the company has done for decades, but only now is the proposition being labelled to appeal to the modern-day customers’ priorities and needs.

Belzona is also working with its own supply chain to

Jeremie Maillard, Export Sales Director

determine emissions generated in the production of its polymeric solutions, the idea being to gain visibility, make enhancements and take their learnings to customers to enable them to make informed decisions about reducing their carbon footprints. Another important step has been the creation of an internal environmental committee to oversee targets and ensure these are being worked towards – early commitments include two years of supporting tree planting charity work and offering staff three days paid leave to undertake voluntary work.

All of this has been housed into a multi-year business plan. Currently in year one, key goals are to embed the new focus and mission across the entire organisation, as well as customers and suppliers.

Customers have already been looking for repair instead of replacement because of the clear circular economy benefits. For example, over the course of several years, a steel fabricator in the UK’s East Coast managed to save millions of pounds by deploying polymeric repair and protection systems onto more than 2,000 metres of its gas pipeline, including epoxy repair mortars and stainlesssteel protective coatings.

Belzona has also been supporting a UK-based power distribution company whose assets are subject to SF6 leaks in their transformers. SF6 is described as the world’s worst greenhouse gas and is 23,500 times more potent than CO2.

In early 2022, Belzona created a tailor-made solution to stop leaks on a transformer owned by an electrical distribution operator. After several stages of prequalification, a trial repair was completed and has now been in service for nine months. With Belzona’s support, the organisation is now achieving a 90-95% leak reduction rate, with an ambition to reach 100% in the near future.

It is these types of repair success stories that the company will need to keep on shouting about. And with its refreshed focus on sustainability messaging, Belzona is perfectly positioned to drive forwards green agendas.

About Belzona

Belzona is a world leader in the manufacture of repair composites and protective coatings for machinery, equipment, buildings and structures. The company can meet the ever-changing and challenging demands of industries by providing solutions for the long term that reduce downtime and lower maintenance costs. Available through a global network of distributors, supported by headquarters in the UK, US, Canada, China and Thailand, Belzona provides 24hour technical support and on-site assistance.

Story type #sustainability (main category)

Benefits

• Customer saved millions of pounds by using Belzona’s repair and protection solutions.

• Company’s green messaging stronger.

Key findings

For industry

• Define what you want to achieve and build it on a sound foundation – long-term success relies on this.

• Get all staff to come on a sustainability journey, not just director level.

For government

• Be clearer on what the government is trying to achieve in energy-related topics (e.g., energy crisis)

– SMEs feel in the dark.

Belzona at a glance:

Key products and services: Polymeric solutions for industrial maintenance, offering unconventional repair alternatives for end users.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 25%

• Renewables – 10%

• Conventional power – 5%

• Nuclear power – 5%

• Energy Transition – 1%

• Others (mining, marine, steel, wastewater) – 54%

Headquarters: Harrogate, UK

Year established: 1952

Number of employees: 251

Revenue: £29.4m

Revenue from exports: 85%

Blaze

Diversifying to move away from O&G dependency

profitability, improve certifications from appropriate bodies, and more easily find and execute projects.

How is Blaze thriving?

Embarking on a renewed strategy underpinned by innovation, diversification and export opportunities, the fire safety and loss prevention solutions provider has effectively secured its future, bolstering its reputation across several geographies and industries.

The challenge

Like many companies emerging out of the oil and gas sector, Blaze found itself in a precarious position when the oil price crash of 2014-2015 hit. Indeed, all largescale capital projects were put on hold, the firm finding itself in a vulnerable position and at the mercy of market fluctuations. Its owners, Howard and Ann Johnson, saw that diversification was required to survive, and so embarked on a strategy of research and development to identify new markets both at home and overseas that their products and solutions could be applied to.

The solution

The resulting business strategy is fuelled by innovation, and a client-focused approach, to seek out new opportunities through market expansion.

Through diversification, it was anticipated that the company could diminish risk in any one single market while increasing

This was no easy feat. Crucially, the complex contractual nature of CAPEX works associated with the government imposed the need to build a deep understanding of CEMAR and DIMIC contracts. Equally, in renewables, the firm quickly experienced the need for performance and warranty bonds coupled with punitive damage clauses which impacted cashflow and its ability to grow as a company.

Come 2019, the company sought to find a partner to help it invest in growing its share of the new markets it had diversified into, having successfully completed fire systems projects in the renewables sector at this time. This led to Balmoral Group acquiring a 70% share in Blaze, the fact it is now part of a larger group enabling it to bid for considerably higher value projects.

Today, the firm is spread across four different sectors. First, it has successfully completed five renewable platforms with a sixth on its books. Second, it is also working well within the nuclear greenfield market and has qualified as a tier one contractor direct to EDF, which will see the company migrate into the service and maintenance of nuclear assets.

Thirdly, in the industrial space, Blaze is now accredited by FIRAS and is awaiting the award of further formal certification which will enable further growth within the sector. And fourthly, the firm remains proud to continue to support its oil and gas clients both across the upstream and downstream segments.

The geographic expansion of the company has been equally impressive. Having targeted opportunities in Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, Blaze built key regional relationships to expand into Zambia, all while exporting

Ann Johnson, Business Development Director/ Howard Johnson, Managing Director

across Europe, the Middle East, the Falklands and Azerbaijan.

In Zambia there has been considerable success. The firm was mandated to protect two transformers for Copperbelt Energy on a highly remote site in the Zambian Jungle. With limited water supply and no power in the region, there could be no use of power tools. Further, the site was over three hours from the nearest town, meaning access to deliver goods was highly dangerous due to road conditions and local wildlife.

Blaze developed an innovative mechanical approach, designed in such a way that the native workforce could be trained to maintain the system and swap out the cylinders locally without the need for any physical intervention from its UK workforce. It designed a standalone pressurised water mist system to deliver automatic detection and protection of a fire event on the transformers, negating the requirement for fire water pumps, water storage tanks and bore holes. And despite several challenges, the project was delivered within budget.

Internally, there has also been significant change. The firm has completely restructured its teams, it now having a full commercial department and with cross-trained engineers that can take on a diverse range of projects owing to the experience the company is continuing to gather.

Despite the challenging period that the business endured through the downturn and subsequent diversification, the loyalty of the workforce allowed Blaze to maintain a core level of knowledge in this niche sector. The diversification strategy has also allowed Blaze to recruit specialists keen to broaden their skillset across multiple industries, with a 50% increase in headcount in the last 18 months. This has brought new thinking and ways of working, and a healthy culture of challenge, that will ultimately benefit Blaze’s clients, as they seek innovative solutions to protect their assets.

With a refined business strategy that is now focussed on a combination of export, diversification and innovation opportunities, Blaze continues to seek out new opportunities to ensure that this growth lasts. Owing to these ongoing achievements and growth drive, the firm is now optimistic that its revenues will rise from £4m in 2022/23 to £7m in 2023/24 – a significant jump that is fully within its grasp.

About Blaze

Blaze Manufacturing Solutions is a privately owned business providing technical safety and loss prevention solutions in the oil and gas, renewables, nuclear, mining, commercial and industrial sectors. This involves everything from the front-end definition of concepts, detailed design, supply and installation, and the commissioning and maintaining of active fire extinguishing systems and fire alarm systems both in the UK and internationally.

Story type

#culture (main category)

#export, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Successful geographic expansion of the company.

• Increasing teams and revenues.

Key findings

For industry

• Diversification needs to be carefully planned and executed because this will help with business sustainability and resilience.

• Don’t underestimate the importance of your network, surround yourself with experienced, positive voices.

For government

• We need local content laws to be enforced, proving a level platform to the SME community.

Blaze at a glance:

Key products and services: Fire safety, protection and loss prevention solutions.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 20%

• Renewables – 12%

• Nuclear power – 10%

• Others (industrial) – 58%

Headquarters: Aberdeenshire, UK

Year established: 2006

Number of employees: 35

Revenue: £4m

Revenue from exports: 7%

BMT

A purpose-driven enterprise focused on sustainable outcomes

organisation as an enabler for growth. Shortly after, BMT’s refreshed purpose was agreed with the board as follows: “BMT exists to navigate the most important and impactful engineering challenges of our time. We create environments where people with outstanding technical knowledge deliver meaningful, practical solutions. We are driven by a commitment to a safer, more efficient, effective and sustainable future.”

How is BMT thriving?

BMT embarked on a revitalised sustainability drive a number of years ago. Underpinned by a refreshed purpose and with the essential ability to set and measure emissions targets, the company is determined to become net zero by 2035 and is taking its employees with it on this transformative journey.

The challenge

For global engineering, science, and technology management consultancy BMT, the opportunities and challenges presented by climate change have become increasingly important.

In 2019, it was recognised that the company needed to become more purpose-driven, with sustainability embedded at the board level and etched into the wider business strategy.

It was seen as an opportunity to prepare BMT for future regulation requirement, winning work and to attract and retain talent.

The solution

In 2020 BMT’s executive committee agreed a new ambition for sustainability, to embed it into the

Their purpose has now become a pivotal mechanism in driving several steps to incorporate sustainability into the business.

From an organisational and structural perspective, BMT launched a dedicated sustainability action team, bringing together a diverse pool of people to discuss ideas and drive change. Meeting once a quarter, those involved have had their job scopes altered to allocate regular time to concentrate on sustainability issues. Meanwhile, the company’s executive committee has added sustainability as a monthly agenda item, the aim being to embed it into every business function across the organisation. From January 2022, it is now also a regular item on the board meeting agenda.

Central to the strategy has been the setting of various science-based emissions targets. The company is due to have its net zero targets approved and published by summer 2023, the major goal being to become net zero across specific areas by 2035, with travel related emissions cut by 65% by 2030.

BMT seeks to hit these targets through the adoption of several key strategies. These include embedding digital technologies to streamline processes, pivoting its business delivery model to a regional setup, and purchasing carbon reduction credits - once they have done as much as they can to reduce their emissions.

Dr Louise Ledgard, Global Business Development Director Laura Blake, Sustainability Manager

Critically, the idea is to achieve behavioural buy-in across the entire organisation. Whether this is through how BMT manages its supply chain, to reducing travel. In support of this BMT is updating its policies and procedures and has provided supporting workshops, including advising executive management on how to cut their travel and incorporate more sustainable forms of transport into their journeys.

A broader discussion around ethics within BMT was also started in 2022. This has involved deliberations over how to approach traditional energy sectors such as oil and gas, and what type of stakeholders the company wishes to engage with moving forwards.

For instance, this is likely to entail ramping up its activity around smart grid solutions for energy management and distribution in rural and remote (off-grid) locations.

In Canada, BMT has designed a smart microgrid energy management (controller) and distribution system (switchboard) built from commercially available, offthe-shelf components, to create a solution that reduces both development costs and time required to integrate renewable energy sources.

Armed with a full-scale prototype, the company is currently engaged with a pilot project to achieve proof of concept and take a step closer to market entry. If successful, this has the potential to minimise use of diesel generators in remote communities.

In just a few short years, sustainability has shifted away from being a nice to have to becoming a fully-fledged driver of BMT’s broader business. With a newly defined purpose and tangible action points in place across a number of areas, including the all-important ability to set and measure emissions targets, the company is wellplaced to futureproof itself for the long term.

About BMT

Formed in 1985 following the merger of the British Ship Research Association and the National Maritime Institute, BMT is a leading international design, engineering, science, and risk management consultancy with a reputation for engineering excellence. Active in the oil and gas, defence, renewable energy, ports, risk management and maritime transport sectors, BMT has around 1,300 professionals located in 27 offices in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.

Story type

#culture (main category)

#sustainability

Benefits

• Sustainability became a concern throughout the company.

• BMT futureproof to changing society and market’s needs.

BMT at a glance:

Key products and services: Engineering, science and technology management consultancy.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 19%

• Renewables – 1%

• Others (defence, maritime) – 80%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 1985

Number of employees: 1,300

Revenue: £157m

Revenue from exports: 30%

Bolloré Logistics

Overcoming challenges with a unique UAE/Kuwait Logistics contract

How is Bolloré Logistics thriving?

Bolloré Logistics has successfully completed a challenging contract involving cross-border logistics between the US and Germany, with delivery markets in the UAE and Kuwait. The company was able to provide tailored solutions to their client’s needs while also demonstrating transparent communication, adapting to unexpected issues, and demonstrating the value of Bolloré Logistics brings to its clients.

The challenge

Bolloré Logistics secured a major contract from an Engineering, Procurement, Commissioning (EPC) company to upgrade an existing platform to increase capacity from 40,000 to 50,000 barrels per day in Kuwait with the materials being manufactured in the United Arab Emirates. The key materials were imported into the UAE before being exported to Kuwait for final installation. The scope of Bolloré Logistics’ work included surveying

and consolidating goods, legal paperwork, shipment, and container management. Challenges encountered during the contract execution included high volumes of shipments from the US and Germany, lack of equipment/space, changes in cargo size/routes, as well as cost optimization. Moreover, the company had to deliver the contract during the pandemic which added to the complexity.

The solution

An in-depth study of the customer’s exact requirements and expectations was conducted in the initial stages of the project. A dedicated team of experts with knowledge gained from prior experience in similar endeavours was assigned the responsibility of driving it forward consistently. Additional measures were taken to provide cost transparency and consistency such as signing key contracts with shipping lines at the start of the project and providing warehousing facilities in the US and Germany for easier consolidation. Where its presence was already established, existing relationships were leveraged to ensure that local authorities did not impede progress.

The tailored logistics solution delivered by Bolloré Logistics allowed for the seamless execution of the project, with all elements of the supply chain being managed effectively. The company provided end-to-end solutions ensuring that

Vishal Saluja, Energy & Industrial Projects Business Development Manager UAE

all aspects of the project were managed with the utmost efficiency. The entire relationship with the client was underpinned by close communications and relationship building, entailing regular updates that included tracking reports twice weekly.

From mid-2021 to early 2022, the Bolloré Logistics teams worked diligently to ensure safe and timely delivery of the 75 shipments which included Breakbulk, flat rack, standard containers, and air shipments. Despite this complex combination, the teams ensured the safe delivery of all cargo to the client’s destination port well within the timelines, despite difficult conditions and changing circumstances.

Bolloré Logistics has been able to successfully navigate the ever-changing environment by quickly adapting to the new conditions.

With hundreds of successful logistics projects under its belt, Bolloré Logistics is the go-to provider for energy companies looking to tackle complex and large-scale logistics requirements.

Looking ahead, the firm is now eyeing more contracts, including oil and gas projects in the Middle East, and wind power projects in Africa, as well as solar power projects in both markets as it moves through 2023 and beyond.

About Bolloré Logistics

Bolloré Logistics is a major international supply chain operator and ranks among the world’s top ten transport and logistics groups with 15,000 people with a network in 146 countries. Placing customers at the heart of its strategy, Bolloré Logistics is committed to designing innovative, robust, and agile solutions. Through the reliable management of the entire supply chain, the company has developed a high level of resilience, enabling it to control risks by securing transport plans through alternative options and to lead a continuous improvement policy over the long term while acting as an ethical and responsible player.

Story type #service & solutions (main category)

Benefits

• Profits despite changing scope and project costs.

• Close communications and relationship-building with clients.

Key findings

For Industry

• It’s necessary to have extra effort to get the right exposure.

• To succeed, you must be able to adapt, communicate, be proactive, and be transparent with the customer.

For government

• Make processes easier for goods imported for reexports (temporary imports) and for Road permits for OOG cargos.

Bolloré Logistics at a glance:

Key products and services: Freight forwarding (multimodal), logistics warehousing, customs clearance, brokerage, packaging, and insurance.

Main industries served:

• Energy – 13%

• Others (aid and relief, aerospace, retail, defense, and healthcare) – 87%

Headquarters: Paris, France

Year established: 2008

Number of employees: 182 (UAE)

Revenue: £58m

Revenue from exports: 30%

Brunel

Aligning with customer’s transition requirements through two key acquisitions

How is Brunel thriving?

Brunel remains focused on connecting talented professionals with the companies and pioneering projects that need them most. With Brunel driving its presence in the energy market, the firm has successfully expanded its presence and enhanced its capabilities to drive improved outcomes for its clients through two key acquisitions in 2021 and 2022. Resultantly, it is now better equipped than ever to deliver tailor-made, high-quality solutions to its customers in the renewable and conventional energy sectors.

The challenge

Founded in 1975 by Dutch entrepreneur Jan Brand, Brunel has grown into a powerful global network with more than 120 offices and 12,000 specialists located around the world. The brand vision is simple: to connect the most talented and experienced specialists with present-day and pioneering projects, delivering skilled talent and workforce services that transform global projects.

One of the sectors in which flexible labour has long been intensively deployed is the international oil and gas industry. In 1995, Brunel set up a separate business unit specially to serve the conventional energy market. While this segment quickly became one of the group’s fastest-growing sectors, the primary challenge in the energy market today is to drive and accelerate energy transition while ensuring energy security.

Powering the world in a sustainable yet secure way requires the right talents and skills, but also technological innovation and digital transformation. It is thus essential to not only recruit specialists but also train professionals with transferable skills for their future roles in an evolving industry. Such expertise is critical in developing appropriate

technical solutions for a promising future in both the renewable and conventional energy sectors.

The solution

In 2021, Brunel held a market capital strategy meeting, where it was decided that the firm needed to be more proactive and responsive in order to better follow and respond to the trends being set by its clients and prospects.

To ensure it could continue to help connect the right professionals with the right projects in the energy sector, the firm has accelerated its organic growth investments and focused on a strategy of diversification in recent years, flanked by two strategic acquisitions.

First, Brunel joined forces with Taylor Hopkinson in 2021, a trusted world-leading recruitment partner for renewable energy leaders. By connecting its own extensive global footprint with Taylor Hopkinson’s deep sector knowledge, network, and track record, Brunel has been able to set a new benchmark for service and quality.

Backed by Taylor Hopkinson’s impressive history of growth, the acquisition has shown itself to be a powerful accelerator of Brunel’s position in the Renewable Energy industry. Having joined forces, Brunel is now capable of providing market-leading solutions throughout the entire lifecycle of renewable energy projects across offshore and onshore wind, solar, energy storage and green hydrogen subsectors.

In 2022, the acquisition of Singapore-based technical services company International Commissioning & Engineering Pte Ltd. (ICE) further enriched Brunel’s expertise. Established in 2007, ICE was a project risk assurance and commissioning and startup company specializing in the coordination and delivery of large-scale oil and gas, infrastructure, and

energy projects. By combining ICE’s specialist project assurance, execution, and delivery expertise with Brunel’s existing global recruitment, workforce, and mobilization services, Brunel is now perfectly placed to offer a unique combination of capabilities. Its management services span the entire project lifecycle, providing effective oversight and assurance across all phases from initial assessment to construction, commissioning, and operation.

During both acquisition processes, there have been some challenges to overcome. It was important to have cultural alignment between the merged organizations, thus requiring extensive communications post-acquisition, for example. By applying the Brunel value ‘passion for people’, this alignment was made quickly.

These are moves that have paid dividends. Brunel has been able to deliver on its diversification strategy, expanding its expertise and capabilities in two key industries. In turn, revenue and profit have spiked. While revenue was recorded at €893m and operating profit at €29m in 2020, this increased to €1.182bn in revenue and €61m in profit in 2022.

With its growing network of specialists, Brunel is now even better equipped to deliver tailor-made, high-quality solutions to clients. The firm is supremely positioned to drive growth in the years to come, support greater numbers of clients with their energy transition and drive the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

About Brunel

Brunel is a powerful global network, connecting the most talented and experienced specialists with both present-day and pioneering projects. With 120+ offices and more than 12,000 specialists around the world, Brunel delivers skilled talent and workforce services that transform global projects in life sciences, conventional energy, infrastructure, future mobility, mining, and renewable energy.

Story type

#diversification (main category)

#energy transition

Benefits

• Brunel successfully diversifying into new segments.

• Revenue and profit spiked: €1.182bn and €61m, respectively, in 2022.

Brunel at a glance:

Key products and services: Global recruitment and custom workforce services.

Main industries served:

• Conventional power – 39%

• Renewables – 12%

• Others (future mobility, engineering, mining, infrastructure) – 49%

Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Year established: 1975

Number of employees: 12,000

Revenue: £1bn

Bureau Veritas Solutions Marine & Offshore

Turning compliance demands into a successful consolidation-driven growth strategy

and complex issues, de-risk projects, optimise costs, and BV Solutions M&O has developed a renowned reputation for driving genuine change. However, recent times have forced the business to be exceptionally agile.

How is Bureau Veritas Solutions Marine & Offshore thriving?

Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore is undertaking a major operational and structural overhaul of its consultancy business Bureau Veritas Solutions Marine & Offshore (BV Solutions M&O). The business acquired a number of complimentary consultancy-based organisations from 2014–2016 which continued to operate independently.

The business has taken the strategic decision to create complete, clear and effective separations between its consultancy and classification activities. While some businesses are moving to matrix organisations, BV Solutions M&O is capitalising on its unique consultancy qualities to be able to provide a dynamic offering to the market.

Having already seen revenues jump dramatically, it is now well placed to attack ambitious targets that are set for 2026.

The challenge

Within the broader group lies BV Solutions M&O – a single-source advisory, consulting and assurance team of BV serving the marine and offshore energy industry markets. Completely focused on the future and offering added-value solutions to enable its clients resolve new

As a result of the impacts of the pandemic, changing markets, regulatory change, the energy transition and oil price volatility, the company has found itself facing perhaps the most defining period in the BV Solutions M&O team’s history.

To continue to deliver sustainable organic growth classification societies have looked to diversify into consultancy services, which requires complete separation from the classification business to ensure that there is effective independence between business units, with appropriate safeguards in place to manage any perceived conflict of interest on projects.

The solution

To adapt to market needs as necessary, the company launched BV Solutions M&O in October 2018.

Here, a key goal has been to consolidate its marine and offshore subsidiaries into BV Solutions M&O to create one large entity that is the single-source advisory, consulting and assurance team.

Specifically in the last nine months this has been a huge undertaking with dedicated leadership across the business driving this change across strategy, sales, marketing, legal, finance and quality departments, requiring a completely overhauled organisational structure. However, these

Dawn Robertson, Global Strategic Sales Director, Global Services –Marine & Offshore

efforts will be defining for Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore – by separating out the classification activities from the consultancy, the firm will be able to spread even more new wings for growth.

This strategy has gained momentum in the past five years. While the early phases of BV Solutions M&O resulted in clearer separation of services, the group still had consulting entities outwith the BV Solutions M&O brand.

With these entities having now been welded together under one brand and organisation as part of its consolidation strategy, siloes have been broken down to create a single team that is more resource efficient with deep-rooted expertise, truly global capability, and more agile and empowered in terms of scope definition and execution.

Equally, it has offered cultural improvements too. The firm’s employees within previous subsidiaries now feeling much more a part of the larger Bureau Veritas Group, and being able to appreciate the wider career opportunities available.

From a financial perspective, there have also been benefits. With various divisions now aligned in one group, there is improved understanding of key opportunities and greater synergies in terms of how best to allocate resources and chargeable hours.

The group’s renewed focus on services continues to deliver excellent results in revenue, despite the impacts of the Russian war in Ukraine, oil and gas price volatility, and the global pandemic. The figures speak for themselves: Where BV Solutions M&O began with €60m revenues in 2019, that has continued to grow to €80m today, with BV M&O delivering 16% organic growth in Q4 2022. And its clients have benefitted too, the clear separation of its classification and consultancy efforts providing a broader scope and superior response to queries. Indeed, having now developed stronger foundations and improved compliance via its consolidation strategy, the firm looks set to only go onto greater things moving forward.

Between growth opportunities, improved efficiencies, competency advantages, breaking down siloes, global compliance, and an underlying appetite to change and improve, BV Solutions M&O is now well placed to achieve its overarching goal of doubling its revenues by 2026.

About Bureau Veritas Solutions Marine & Offshore

Bureau Veritas Solutions is the single-source advisory, consulting and assurance team of Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore. Global leader in testing, inspection, and certification, delivering high quality services to help clients meet the growing challenges of quality, safety, environmental protection and social responsibility.

Story type

#transformation (main category)

#service & solutions

Benefits

• Broader scope and superior response to queries due to the clear separation of classification and consultancy efforts.

• Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore revenue organic growth in Q4 2022 equalled 16%.

Key findings

For industry

• Don’t be afraid to be a first mover and be bold in your strategy and have conviction in what you believe to be the right thing to do.

• In order to be an effective leader, you have to inspire, motivate, create an environment for people to flourish and when implementing a strategy create a clear message and vision with buy-in and urgency.

For government

• For Scotland and UK policy, I would like to see a cohesive energy transition plan that backs some key energy solutions with policy and investment and really demonstrates how to get there.

Bureau Veritas Solutions Marine & Offshore at a glance:

Key products and services: A single-source advisory, consulting and assurance team of Bureau Veritas serving the marine and energy industries.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 62%

• Marine – 29%

• Others – 9%

Headquarters: Aberdeen, UK (BV Solutions M&O)

Year established: 1828 (Group), 2018 (BV Solutions M&O)

Number of employees: 450+ (BV Solutions M&O)

Revenue: £70m (BV Solutions M&O)

CALGAVIN

Future proofing with innovative enhancement technologies

The solution

After completing his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, Hamzah joined CALGAVIN fulltime in 2022 as a Technology Development Engineer.

How is CALGAVIN thriving?

Whilst hiTRANTM Thermal Systems, a wire matrix heat transfer system, paves the way in tubular transfer enhancement solutions, CALGAVIN saw a gap in the market.

With the aid of robust in-house research, development, and manufacturing capabilities, the development of hiVISCTM, an innovative enhancement technology aimed at optimising process applications involving viscous fluids, began. The project, now in its commercialisation phase, has already demonstrated value for a well-known chemical and pharmaceutical client.

The challenge

British engineering firm CALGAVIN has been providing heat transfer solutions to clients all around the world for more than four decades. Innovation and problem-solving lie at the company’s core, its range of test facilities, development of research programmes and collaborations with UK and worldwide universities enabling it to stay at the cutting-edge of the ongoing question – is there a better way to optimise heat transfer?

Answering this question is CALGAVIN’s ever-present challenge. In 2018, during university student Hamzah Sheikh’s placement year, the company had started some research with a chemical company to tackle heat transfer challenges caused by processing highly viscous fluids.

Since then, he has been involved in progressing development on hiVISCTM, for which the company successfully applied for funding from Innovate UK to help take the product from development to commercialisation.

The process has involved several important steps to date, including engagement with clients via questionnaires and at large energy sector events such as ADIPEC. More technical steps have covered CFD, geometry refinements, physical testing, product prototyping and the development of manufacturing processes. Final heat transfer and pressure drop tests have also been carried out, along with modification of the test rig to meet the high testing accuracy standards required by clients.

Alongside this, the company has been further developing its software tool to help clients configure inserts which are optimised to their needs – the program generates a part number, which CALGAVIN then uses to quote them on supplying the finished solution.

The speed at which hiVISCTM has been developed and launched is impressive. CALGAVIN already has an order secured and delivered, the product exceeding expectation and providing cost effective solution to a complex thermal problem.

The customer in question was an international pharmaceutical company, that first made contact with CALGAVIN in 2018 at the ACHEMA conference. During the development of hiVISCTM, CALGAVIN reconnected

Hamzah Sheikh, Technology Development Engineer

as the product was suited to their needs. At the time, the firm was aiming to take a lab scale reaction to a continuous process, increasing productivity and efficiency of manufacturing their product. The fluids in question were highly viscous and corrosive, and therefore required delicate processing in a tubular exchanger without the presence of any metals. Due to the fluid properties and product yield requirements, flow rates were limited, and heat transfer was poor. In addition, the reaction was exceptionally exothermic, and using the current setup to achieve the required product yield would result in excessive temperature increases, which would ultimately lead to mechanical failure of the tubular exchanger.

CALGAVIN applied hiVISCTM, producing the insert from PTFE as metals were off limits. Because the PTFE version could not be 3D printed, the company adapted the product design, invested in new tooling and modified its CNC machine by adding an additional two axes.

The solution has performed remarkably well, achieving thermal stability at the required yield. Furthermore, CALGAVIN advised that firm could operate at a lower temperature due to the effectiveness of hiVISCTM, enabling it to reduce energy consumption and cut costs, and operate in a safer thermal envelope.

An equivalent exchanger to provide the same effectiveness as the solution provided with hiVISCTM enhancement would have been much larger and require more energy to manufacture, install, and operate.

With this impressive success story already under its belt, it appears that CALGAVIN could be onto a winner with hiVISCTM. Indeed, the project underlines the importance in offering avenues and opportunities for student talent to thrive with real-world R&D experience.

About CALGAVIN

CALGAVIN works in partnership with some of the largest global businesses to provide robust heat transfer solutions to the process industry. Based in the heart of the UK, CALGAVIN’s dedicated manufacturing facility encompasses a comprehensive engineering team and research and development laboratory, ensuring a robust quality and trusted experience across the oil and gas industry.

Story type

#technology (main category) #culture, #diversification, #innovation, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Customers’ needs for thermal stability satisfied.

• CALGAVIN’s heat transfer solutions optimised.

Key findings

For industry

• Science tells you what is real. Don’t let your personal feelings get in the way of solid research.

• Don’t be afraid to use new technologies to reduce emissions and to solve process challenges.

For government

• Push more practical and hands-on approach of the real world and industry in younger people.

CALGAVIN at a glance:

Key products and services: Unique chemical engineering and construction company, working in the enhancement of thermal process and flow conditions.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 80%

• Energy Transition – 5%¨

• Nuclear power – 2%

• Others (pharma) – 13%

Headquarters: Alcester, UK

Year established: 1980

Number of employees: 35

Revenue: £3.5m

Revenue from exports: 90%

Capital Consulting International

Shifting strategy towards proactive intervention

provided innovation and adapted its approach to client requirements.

The solution

How is Capital Consulting International (CCI) thriving?

To address the changing needs of the market, CCi has actively engaged clients to better understand and align with their needs.

By advocating a proactive and preventative approach to project complexities by looking to become involved at the earliest possible opportunity, the company is minimising project risks and delivering long term benefits and peace of mind to its customers.

The challenge

Established in 1998, Capital Consulting International (CCi) has an established reputation as an independent global consultancy, recognised around the world for its expertise as a provider of delay, quantum, technical and project management services in the construction and insurance industry.

With a staff compliment of more than 200 employees, the firm has continued to grow its market share over the past decade.

CCi has found many of its clients becoming increasingly cost-focused. To overcome this challenge and better cater to the evolving demands of the market, CCi has

CCi realised that to meet their clients’ ever-evolving challenges, they needed to engage with them in a different manner, ideally at the start of a tender period or project in order to identify potential challenge areas and minimise risks, resulting in the launch of its project monitoring services.

This was a natural transition. Indeed, as an established and experienced consultancy, CCi has encountered a variety of project issues and has the knowledge base to identify these ahead of time. For this reason, the firm began to advocate getting involved in projects as early as possible to help manage issues, encouraging its own customers to be more proactive and preventative.

This renewed approach has been transformative, adding significant value to the client. While upfront costs may be slightly higher, the potential for retrospective issues to emerge has been drastically reduced, limiting the potential that additional costs arise while providing peace of mind and better results. Further, it enables CCi and its clients to make more informed decisions in respect of costs and time involved on each project, facilitating greater forecasting and insights.

For this to work CCi reviews and alters the ways in which it presents to clients, reviews proposals and markets itself. Key to this has also been engaging with clients directly, understanding their pain points and where CCi can add value.

Julian Haslam-Jones, Managing Director – Middle East & Asia

Indeed, it has been a gradual transition. However, as the firm has ironed out the creases in all projects, it is continuing to demonstrate the merits of its proactive approach, offering value that will only serve to embolden its position in the market moving forward as more prospects gravitate towards this modernised, relevant, and logical method.

Its position is also strengthened compared to competitors by the addition of technical experts meaning that CCi can deal with Technical, Delay and Quantum related matters under one roof.

CCi’s belief is that a client’s case is best served when these three disciplines are provided as an integrated service, ensuring an exchange of information between delay, quantum and technical experts is efficient and effective. Indeed, it’s a competitive advantage that continues to pay dividends, ensuring clients don’t have to go to multiple providers for various services.

With this core offering underpinning its ongoing success, the firm has not only worked on hundreds of projects worldwide, but it is now also starting to see more commissions being developed on the central basis of its proactive offering.

In continuing to secure repeat business while also attracting a range of new clients with its renewed strategic emphasis, CCi is confident that it has re-laid a new, more prosperous path for the future.

About Capital Consulting International

CCi is a global consultancy of delay, quantum, technical and project management experts, advising the insurance and construction industries. CCi’s advisors and experts are strategically based around the globe, with offices across the UK, North America, Middle East, and Asia Pacific. They bring a broad range of industry experience to protect the clients’ interests on construction, engineering, and energy projects.

Story type

#transformation (main category)

#collaboration

Benefits

• Repeat business secured.

• Company now working on hundreds of projects across the globe.

• Value added to clients.

Key findings

For industry

• Listen to your clients.

For government

• Get inflation under control, it requires guidance and legislation.

Capital Consulting International at a glance: Key products and services: Independent global consultancy that is recognised around the world for its expertise in the insurance and construction industries.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas

• Conventional power

• Nuclear power

• Renewables

• Energy Transition

• Others

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 1998

Number of employees: 200

Revenue: £40m

Cellnex

Proving the case for cellular connectivity

convincing that cellular networks represent the future of connectivity versus the longstanding Wi-Fi incumbent.

The solution

How is Cellnex thriving?

Cellnex is proving that cellular private networks represent a robust, scalable and ultimately superior connectivity infrastructure for industrial facilities. Its next objective is to move into the energy space, drawing on its success in deploying networks for other industries to kickstart a new age of hyper-connected (and thus hyper-productive) assets. With an expanded UK-based team and growing number of pilots being undertaken, momentum is starting to gather.

The challenge

A multi-billion-dollar global enterprise with around 2,500 employees, Cellnex is already a business success story. A key partner to the telecoms industry with its cellular network infrastructure solutions, the company owns and operates one in every four telecommunications masts helping to keep people and businesses connected around the UK.

For Cellnex, the future of connectivity involves wireless mobile networks (such as 5G) superseding the Wi-Fi establishment. Capable of blending with distributed antenna systems, the firm’s masts ensure everybody can acquire signal no matter where they are, laying the foundation for a connected society that is not reliant on cumbersome wires.

One industry it has targeted is energy. Traditionally among the slow adopters of new technologies, the sector still needs

Winning over the energy industry has been a priority for Cellnex’s Europe-based business (headquartered in Spain) since the turn of the decade. So far it has been something of an education and concept proving exercise, a process which continues to involve speaking to and working with potential clients to demonstrate the unique benefits of private cellular networks versus what is being delivered by current Wi-Fi setups.

The strategy is a simple one – apply and market use cases and applications from adjacent industries to showcase a range of transferable benefits to potential clients in the energy sector. To do so the company has pressed ahead with several important moves, the first being to grow its UK team and establish a dedicated unit responsible for engaging with energy stakeholders – here, EIC membership has been useful, in particular the access to project data and introduction to leads. Cellnex has also set up consortia with institutes and vendors to offer technological solutions and combinations which are already proven in adjacent industries.

A major challenge, and one which is ongoing, is making a business case to supplement and often switch away from Wi-Fi that will convince decision-makers who are already risk averse when it comes to disrupting their technology stacks. Budgeting is a particularly large hurdle to clear, not least because communications networks represent large areas of spend. But Cellnex is making the case for 4G and 5G private networks by encouraging potential clients to widen their lens and look at the wider productivity and performance benefits. 5G is already underpinning

Martin Green, Head of Business Development

Mike Harrison, Head of Product & Solutions

enormous industrial operations around the world, some of the most prominent examples being hyper-connected mines which exploit the superior connectivity provided by 5G to power autonomous operations.

Cellnex is drawing on these use cases to help penetrate the energy market. The company is engaged in a number of pilot projects spanning nuclear and mining to refineries and asset tracking at ports, all of which have the potential to help Cellnex make inroads into the energy space.

In Spain, it is working closely with BASF at a chemical plant operated by the firm. The project is based on a use case presented to BASF by Cellnex from networks installed at 14 ports across Finland – infrastructure which provides robust, reliable and scalable connectivity.

In November 2020, the two parties began exploring how a similar setup could be adapted to suit differing applications at BASF’s refinery. To date, the scope has been broad, covering network infrastructure, cellular radio, mobile network core and edge computing to host key applications around asset tracking, video surveillance and various AI-powered analytics. The results have been extremely promising, the client revealing that the project has allowed it to advance exponentially towards a new way of operating. The cellular network is highly scalable (at low cost), assisting workers on-site and from afar, and enables BASF to operate the site with fewer personnel than it otherwise could have with alternative network technologies due to the speed, coverage and data capabilities provided.

All of this unlocks several optimisations for BASF. Its coverage of outdoor areas and challenging environments is now far greater (versus WiFi), while the company can keep workers safe by removing personnel from hazardous areas. Meanwhile, various monitoring capabilities are providing the client data from which it can make process enhancements. In terms of sustainability, BASF is also able to reduce the amount of physical infrastructure it needs, helping it to reduce its carbon footprint.

With this successful pilot under its belt, Cellnex looks well positioned to approach and work alongside other asset operators and move beyond what it terms ‘the end of start-up phase’.

About Cellnex UK

Cellnex UK is the UK’s largest and fastest-growing independent owner and neutral operator of wireless telecoms infrastructure. With the wireless infrastructure foundation that they deliver across rural and urban areas, Cellnex UK connects everyone, everywhere. Their networks and solutions are built to be fit for now and the future so that the UK can prosper.

Story type

#diversification (main category)

#digital, #innovation, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Cellnex further into the energy market.

• Client was able to improve asset operations with fewer costs.

Key findings

For industry

• Believe in your vision.

• Have a clear call to action, take advantage of the direction the market is heading to.

For government

• Provide the industry with better, easier access to sufficient private networks radio spectrum/ frequencies.

Cellnex at a glance:

Key products and services: Infrastructure owner, servicing the telecoms industry, mainly servicing mobile network operators.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 1%

• Conventional power – 1%

• Nuclear power – 1%

• Others (telecommunications) – 97%

Headquarters: Barcelona, Spain

Year established: 2015

Number of employees: 350 (UK)

Revenue: £200m

Revenue from exports: 15%

Cokebusters

Breaking new boundaries with a pioneering intelligent pig

enable customers to quantify how clean the process is, but they also provide full diametric and wall thickness profiling, thus enabling an essential insight into asset integrity.

How is Cokebusters thriving?

Having dependably served the fired heater and power generation market for many years, Cokebusters was set an entirely new challenge to provide its trademark combined services solution to mechanically descale and intelligently inspect the ultra small diameter tubing within a vast solar steam array.

The ability to successfully develop and deliver this service has unlocked a stream of new business opportunities in the increasingly narrow diameter networks associated with alternative energy markets.

The challenge

Established in 2005, Cokebusters has forged a reputation as the international go-to for petrochemical and power generating operators seeking to clean fired heaters, steam generation plants and associated pipelines with its mechanical cleaning pigs.

As a highly effective cleaning device, the patented mechanical pigs have been the foundation and stalwart of the business and enabled it to operate sustainably for nearly two decades. Along its journey, the company found its customers asking for more. A challenge from Total to develop a pig which could ‘see’ how clean the surfaces really were triggered a chain of developmental events.

Today, Cokebusters’ range of intelligent pigs not only

In 2021, a new opportunity was presented to the company from Oman operator, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) – to create a solution for the descaling and inspection of an equivalent 1GW solar steam array.

The solution

The assignment from PDO has opened the door for Cokebusters to enter a brand-new market, a crucial breakthrough that will be essential to the futureproofing of the business as the world embraces energy transition and net zero strategies.

PDO’s Miraah plant converts water to steam by focussing solar energy. The steam is utilised for a variety of utility and process needs, including enhanced oil recovery. The array comprises some 100km of tubing, with each individual process loop being approximately 2km long.

One hurdle for Cokebusters to overcome was that its latest third generation (Mark V) intelligent pig, whilst capable of navigating an internal diameter as low as 65mm, was in fact still too large for the solar tubing network.

Undeterred, the company set about the development of a prototype intelligent pig that would be capable of inspecting internal diameters as low as 40mm. Key questions addressed during the design phase included how to create a robust exoskeleton which would house the ultrasonic detection sensors and be light enough to be sufficiently buoyant, as well as how to build a miniaturised

James Phipps, Managing Director

power cell and what sort of end cap and brush design was most appropriate.

Several designs were tested specifically in response to these questions. Crucially, as well as being able to house all the electronics in a much smaller device, the design also had to allow flexibility to navigate through additional tubing restrictions.

Cokebusters had a working prototype within just six months. The testing process, using a purpose-built mimic loop, identified several new enhancements, including the need to modify the end cap design further as a result of potential water ingress and navigational challenges. Meanwhile, several iterations of circuit board and power design were also required.

In conjunction with smaller mechanical descaling pigs, a full-scale trial was conducted on site in August 2022. The pigs were able to successfully navigate and clean the complex circuits with a reported 20% enhanced efficiency, all whilst collecting valuable integrity data to produce 3D imaging of the solar steam tubing.

The trial’s success is testament to Cokebusters’ ability to turn a challenge into a solution; a feat all the more impressive given the firm wholly funded the R&D work behind the new Mark VI intelligent pig. With some minor equipment modifications required on site the company plans to complete the remaining scope in 2023.

Cokebusters has developed what is now believed to be the smallest, untethered, single bodied intelligent pig available worldwide. In doing so, the company has opened up an entirely new market for ultra small pipe diameters, a move which will support the progressive reduction on traditional power sectors such as oil, gas and coal.

About Cokebusters

Cokebusters is an international energy and utilities services business specialising in the provision of mechanical decoking/descaling, intelligent pigging, and associated integrity management advisory. From its world headquarters in the UK and regional headquarters in the US, the company is able to consistently deliver high quality services to the energy and utilities sector across the globe.

Story type

#innovation (main category)

#diversification, #technology

Benefits

• Successful development of a revolutionary new intelligent pig.

• Full contract pending following completion of minor engineering modifications on site.

• Ability to now provide rolling efficiency enhancement and integrity assurance for modern ultra small piping systems.

Key findings

For industry

• Be bold and take risks to feed innovation. You will succeed more often than you fail.

• Time and bureaucracy can kill off a good idea.

• Process safety should not take second place in the drive for transition.

For government

• Hydrocarbon knowledge and experience will feed innovation and transition.

• There is room and requirement for all forms of energy.

• Support for SMEs should be aligned throughout the UK. Experience shows how engaging and forwardthinking governments in Wales are.

Cokebusters at a glance:

Key products and services: Provision of technologies and services for specialised mechanical cleaning, water filtration and intelligent pig inspection of small diameter tubes, pipes and pipelines.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 90%

• Conventional power – 5%

• Renewables – 2%

• Others (chemicals) – 3%

Headquarters: Chester, UK

Year established: 2005

Number of employees: 105

Revenue: £11m

Revenue from exports: 97.5%

Comeca

Breaking down barriers to unlock improved internal synergies

How is Comeca thriving?

Through operations and structures, Comeca has undertaking an incredible innovation journey driven by improved internal synergies. Successfully merging capabilities, enhancing its training strategy, and shifting focus to end-to-end solutions, the firm has made significant headway across key markets including electric vehicle charging, LV panels and green hydrogen.

The challenge

An international business delivering a variety of energy management solutions, Comeca has developed a reputation for spearheading innovation. In recent times, it has primarily been helping to drive vital progress across energy transition, digital transformation and new mobility. Operationally, however, this footprint was presenting challenges prior to 2020. While Comeca had developed comprehensive capabilities across subsectors ranging from oil & gas and nuclear power to renewable energy and energy transition technologies, many of its solutions were individualised, and delivered in a siloed manner. This was identified as an area for significant improvement – if Comeca could break down its internal barriers and unlock improved synergies across its operational portfolio, the potential merits could be game-changing.

The solution

Resultantly, a new optimisation strategy was launched in

2020, when Comeca began to merge and align its internal activities. It was a process which required an incredible amount of work. Not only did each of the firm’s factories have an individual set of IT solutions, but they also had unique administrative processes such as the presentation of key documents which needed to be addressed. Various branches of the quotations department needed to adopt standard structures across all factories, for example.

Marketing activities also had to be consolidated, while other parts of the business that had previously been fragmented were interconnected. The firm’s sales teams that each sold one range of products had to be trained on the entire enterprise portfolio as the company shifted focus to a solutions-based mindset, this approach also meaning that contracts would become broader in scope, longer term and of greater risk.

The changes were sweeping and would not fully bed in overnight. However, this approach has already begun to bear fruit.

Not only has the company merged internal capabilities to successfully provide end-to-end solutions for its clients, but it has also laid the foundations from which a more comprehensive electric vehicle (EV) charging station solution has been rolled out.

This newly established offering has proven to be successful. Responding to calls for a single provider capable of serving the entire e-mobility solutions lifecycle, from electricity distribution to end-user product delivery, Comeca has become a leading supplier of connected charging systems for heavy-duty vehicles.

In France, it now has a 60% share of the EV charging market for electric buses in cities – up from the 20% recorded in 2019, and only expected to grow further moving forward.

Christian Barbier, Strategic Marketing Manager

At present, the company is working on a major project for Rennes Métropole that comprises the delivery of 94 AMBER charging points for electric buses to charge in depot, which will serve the region’s 220,000 inhabitants. Further, initial testing of new markets across Europe is ongoing.

The choice to offer a modular and expandable DC charger solution, with a power range that can evolve over time from 50kW to 160kW, has been critical here – an offering supplemented by superchargers or dome solutions that can deliver power of up to 350kW. Further, a smart information layer has been developed and incorporated to improve energy efficiency, connectivity and minimise expenses for clients.

The merging of internal capabilities has also benefitted the firm’s LV panel offering. The company has since upgraded its NORMABLOC range that has been on the market since 1972, extending the life of French nuclear power plants. And it has also supported improvement of its GALAXIS range that is dedicated to oil & gas and continuous process industries, helping to better meet the needs of the nuclear markets of tomorrow.

In green hydrogen, Comeca is also making promising progress. Having anticipated a growth in demand for supply electrolysers, it developed ALLHYDRE – a power converter dedicated to mobility and industrial hydrogen production. Based on a modular design, ALLHYDRE supplies DC electrolysers from 200kW to 1.5MW, and can be delivered as either a standalone product or a containerised solution, this flexibility having attracted significant market interest.

Across these areas, the internal optimisation strategy has paid dividends. Where activities and factories previously had a siloed, single-product focus, that has now changed. With all markets and capabilities now interlinked, the firm has unlocked significantly improved operational efficiency and synergies, while also enhancing its offering and expanding its share in crucial markets.

Further, it is also now has a healthy and diversified portfolio. Having achieved a revenue of €127m in 2022, €39m stemmed from its energy portfolio, while the rest was split between industry (€34m), transport and infrastructures (€34m), and building (€20m). In no uncertain terms, the firm has diversified successfully in order to futureproof for years to come.

About Comeca

In an increasingly electrical world, Comeca provides equipment and services dedicated to distribute, optimise, and master the energy all around the world. As a multibrands and multi-technologies player, Comeca is a major actor in the industry, energy, infrastructures, commercial buildings and transport sectors.

Story type

#transformation (main category)

#energy transition, #people & competency, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Creation of a strong, diversified portfolio.

• Revenue of €127m in 2022.

Key findings

For industry

• Keep an open mind on possibilities. Find ways to combinate what you have to create something new.

• Use AI but don’t forget to think human. It’s too easy to lose relationships by only using new technologies. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

For government

• Ensure that government-financed R&D has access to the market.

Comeca at a glance:

Key products and services: Manufacturing of electrical and power electronic devices.

Main industries served:

• Energy – 31%

• Others (building, industry, transport & infrastructures) - 69%

Headquarters: Montpellier, France

Year established: 1976

Number of employees: 1,500

Revenue: £112m

Revenue from exports: 11%

Consortiq

Flying high by helping firms make the most out of their drone data

The solution

The elevation of Gareth Beverley to CEO in 2020 sparked the beginning of a more joined-up approach to doing business.

How is Consortiq thriving?

As more and more companies take advantage of drones to carry out vital inspection and data gathering tasks, Consortiq has successfully repositioned itself as a consultative partner, pilot and pilot trainer capable of unlocking key productivity benefits. Such has been the success of the move, revenues are set to treble in 2023.

The challenge

Far from being a novelty gadget or a ‘nice to have’ for businesses, drones are quickly becoming a vital tool for energy asset operators seeking a more efficient, accurate and safer way to carry out critical inspections and surveys.

For London-based Consortiq, starting out in 2015 centred around CAA-accredited drone pilot training. Over time, the company realised the value in diversifying its services, moving into consultancy to offer advice on how clients in various sectors can make the most out of drone usage, as well as how to ensure data best practice.

This consultancy style work took off from 2018 as more and more companies sought about accelerating their digital transformation and industry 4.0 strategies. With drones entering the mainstream at the same time, the company soon realised it was sat on a potential gold mine of business – provided it positioned its offering and expertise in the right way.

This did not require a root and branch transformation by any means. Instead, the transition represented a natural evolution of the team so it could offer combined drone piloting, consulting and training in a seamless and flexible way depending on client needs.

Indeed, the key to shifting successfully has been to allow the experts within the Consortiq team to be able to follow new opportunities, a culture built around trust and scope for development, as well as learning and collaboration. Alongside this, the firm started to be more precise in its recruitment of skills, hiring talent to fill very particular gaps.

Now positioning itself as a consultative partner, Consortiq adopts a relationship building approach to doing business as opposed to operating on a purely transactional footing. This is proven by its 2022 revenue breakdown, which shows that 43% of all income is derived from activities with recurring clients.

Such customers include The Chemours Company, an American chemical firm that was founded in 2015 as a spin-off from DuPont.

Consortiq was onboarded in 2019, initially as a consultant. Over time, the relationship has progressed as the company sought to incorporate LIDAR into its asset inspection activities, Consortiq flying these specialist missions to ensure it reaps the full benefit of what LIDAR has to offer.

Since 2020, the enhanced use of drones has enabled The

Gareth Beverley, Managing Director

Chemours Company to reduce the need for humans to be on site carrying out inspections in potentially dangerous areas and cut the amount of manual processes involved.

This has brought about key safety and financial benefits. For example, it is estimated that $9mn in costs can be saved annually on stack inspections across its sites by removing the need for expensive crane hire and human inspectors. Meanwhile, in the area of tank inspections, periodical checks used to involved US$125,000 per inspection – thanks to the incorporation of drones into the process, that cost is reduced to somewhere closer to US$20,000. Taking into consideration the scale of The Chemours Company’s asset portfolio, Consortiq is enabling savings of around US$5–10m.

Additionally, the client looks set to make further efficiencies in parts ordering, the use of drones now enabling it to order only what is needed in a much more responsive manner. Likewise, its human workforce are now freed up to take on more preventative tasks, a move which should lead to superior uptime and reliability outcomes.

It is long-term, collaborative relationships such as this that typifies Consortiq’s modernised approach to doing business.

Indeed, it is a strategy that appears to be translating into success financially, with revenues set to treble to US$3m in 2023 after the firm reached the US$1m landmark last year. By proving its worth across a multitude of dronerelated services and positioning itself as the partner to help organisations maximise their use of drones, Consortiq looks well set on its onward growth journey.

About Consortiq

Consortiq are Drone Enablers. They bring together consultancy, training, and flying in their Enterprise Drone Blueprint, and using this blueprint Consortiq aims to enable 1 million drone flights for its clients in the next 10 years. Consortiq aims to help clients find a better way to improve their safety, efficiency and quality through the use of drones and robotic technologies.

Story type

#collaboration (main category)

#digital, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Revenues set to triple in 2023.

• Approach to doing business mordenised.

Key findings

For industry

• Don’t be afraid to give people the freedom to learn and try new ideas.

• If you want to implement new technology successfully, need buy-in from the top, and promulgating through organisation. Bottom-up advocacy only gets you so far.

For government

• Reform the drone/aviation regulators to be forward-thinking, growth-based.

• Be less focused on bureaucracy, be more focused on the bigger market-creation prize.

Consortiq at a glance:

Key products and services: Use of drones and digital technology to customers safely and more efficiently.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 45%

• Conventional power – 50%

• Renewables – 5%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 2015

Number of employees: 10

Revenue: £821,910

Revenue from exports: 60%

COOEC-Fluor Heavy Industries

Providing high quality fabrication certainty during challenging times

How is COOEC-Fluor thriving?

COOEC-Fluor Heavy Industries (COOEC-Fluor) has been in operation since 2012. At over 2 million square meters, COEOC-Fluor is one of the largest fabrication yards in the world with a capacity to deliver in excess of 250,000 MT/ yr and completed structures of up to 50,000 tonnes. With an unwavering focus on maintaining quality and safety, this fabrication yard has rapidly developed a proven track record in delivering for significant projects working with internationally renowned clients in offshore oil and gas, LNG, refining and chemicals.

The challenge

Around the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, COOECFluor had secured significant contracts for clients in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Among these were 157 modules for a large LNG project in Canada, 34 fixed platform jackets for an offshore windfarm in the UK, Asia’s largest deepwater jacket to be installed in the South China Sea, as well as several other large onshore and offshore modular projects.

The yard faced several challenges during the pandemic

period including multi-wave infection resurgence in the local area, price increases in bulk materials, manpower mobilisation challenges due to limited ability to travel weekly even within the provinces, and sometimes daily testing requirements for a crew of up to 15,000 craft workers, to name a few. In order to effectively mitigate these issues, COOEC-Fluor took a very pioneering and pro-active approach.

The solution

The major priority was to ensure that the Zhuhai fabrication yard always remained operational, responding effectively and efficiently to minimise impacts to clients’ projects, all while always keeping its personnel safe.

Some of the strategies employed were:

- Developing specific safety policies to be implemented during the Covid-19 andemic.

- Establishing proper communication channels for Covid-19 and safety protocols.

- Developing proper quarantine protocols for incoming vessels and personnel.

- Providing free weekly covid testing for all craft and staff.

Due to these and other conservative measures, the Zhuhai yard did not have a single incidence of Covid-19 outbreak throughout the pandemic while the yard delivered over 125,000 MT of fabricated steel each in 2021 and 2022. While the initial phases of the pandemic proved challenging, this firm was successfully able to implement strategic control mechanisms to keep the yard open and operational without any compromise on safety and quality.

In the last few years, COOEC-Fluor has also made significant strides in developing and implementing a strategy for the offshore wind market. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, global offshore wind capacity will go from close to 100GW currently installed to over 300GW. Europe and China will account for the bulk of this installed capacity. With its large assembly area and production capacity, COOEC-Fluor has the ability of a “manufacturing driven” approach for the fabrication of offshore wind platform foundations and transition pieces and capitalise on this rapidly growing industry.

Looking ahead, the company is now exploring further international growth in renewables, deepwater oil and gas as well as large scale module fabrication for the upstream, downstream and chemical industries. With a proven domestic and international track record behind it, COOEC-Fluor looks well placed to expand its horizons even further.

About COOEC-Fluor

COOEC-Fluor Heavy Industries (COOEC-Fluor) is a joint venture formed by Fluor and China Offshore Oil Engineering Co. (COOEC), a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation. Through COOEC-FLUOR, the appointed management team operates and manages the Zhuhai Fabrication Yard in China’s Guangdong province. At 2 million square metres, the yard can accommodate fabrication modules weighing more than 50,000 tonnes.

Story type

#diversification (main category)

#collaboration, #export, #resilience, #service & solutions

Benefits

• COOEC-FLUOR becoming a leader in the Chinese fabrication market, delivering approximately 130,000 metric tonnes of fabrication solutions on an annual basis.

• Company building Asia’s largest deep-water jacket and entering the renewables sector.

• Significant quayside accommodating large vessels without height restrictions for delivery to western locations.

Key findings

For industry

• As one of the largest fabrication yards in the world, COOEC-FLUOR is always engaged to offer the most efficient solutions to energy players by providing fabrication certainty.

• Worked diligently to prove that Chinese yards can offer a combination of quality and good value solutions.

For government

• Providing the most efficient solutions to renewables market in China, COOEC-FLUOR is exploring its way to contribute to the government’s net zero commitment.

COOEC-Fluor at a glance:

Key products and services: Offshore fixed platform jackets and topsides, onshore modules fabrication and assembly, offshore wind foundations and substations, floaters, FPSO/FLNG modules, subsea equipment.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 33%

• Conventional power – 33%

• Renewables – 33%

Headquarters: Zhuhai, China

Year established: 2012

Number of employees: 1,500 (direct yard employees) 10,000 – 15,000 (subcontracted employees)

Revenue from exports: 50%

Crondall Energy Ltd

Navigating a difficult labour market with a cutting-edge approach to culture

the industry retrenched, and energy producers deferred investment into new projects, leading to a fall in demand for front-end engineering consultancy skills. However, owing to rapid realignments in energy supply following events in Ukraine, demand swung dramatically.

How is Crondall Energy Ltd thriving?

Crondall Energy Ltd is growing not just quickly, but effectively. Driven to solve some of the biggest challenges in offshore energy floating and subsea technologies, the firm has made the recruitment and retention of talented engineers its number one priority.

With investment in a new Glasgow office to attract local talent, and by targeting UK universities for quality engineering graduates, supporting chartership for all its engineers, and re-enforcing shared values and culture, the firm has successfully retained its staff amidst challenging labour market conditions.

The challenge

Despite its reputation, the firm has not been immune to the difficult conditions that stemmed from instability and unpredictability in key energy markets in recent years, largely driven by the substantial transition resulting from moves towards net zero.

While this has brought opportunities for engineering consultancies, it has also posed challenges, many of which have been amplified by large swings in the energy price market, the global covid pandemic, recent events in Ukraine, and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

At the outbreak of the covid pandemic in early 2020 and following a prolonged downturn in oil and gas prices,

For Crondall, this has highlighted potential concerns with staff recruitment and retention. With the firm’s main product being engineering hours delivered by skilled staff, it needed to avoid reducing headcount at times of low demand. However, in times of high demand, the company becomes more exposed to movements in the labour market and must act to retain staff.

That said, staff salaries and customer charge-out rates do not change quickly, and market volatility therefore has had to be managed carefully to underpin profitability and take advantage of any upturn in demand.

The solution

To combat the challenges posed by rapidly fluctuating market conditions, Crondall considered how to keep headcount stable at times when revenues are unpredictable.

Here, it opted to provide visible and ongoing opportunities for all staff, while ensuring all employees also felt listened to and heard, enabling the development of clear progressive paths that are aligned to individual aspirations.

To execute this more effectively, the enterprise also took the decision to bring its subsea and floating production companies together under a single board and management team in mid-2022, this helping to rationalise the commercial and corporate structure of the organisation and ensure a unified culture.

Murray Anderson, Energy Transition and Strategy Director

Now, the board meets formally every two months at each of the firm’s key UK offices on a rotating basis, ensuring all staff and management can meet and socialise at least twice a year. Albeit a relatively simple aspect of Crondall’s strategy, it is highly effective in contributing to a genuine feeling of unity within the organisation.

Beyond culture, these changes have also enabled the firm to rationalise its recruitment strategy and open additional opportunities for existing staff. Operating effectively as a single company with twice the headcount has allowed Crondall to scale up its human-resources capability, and more effectively support existing staff, all while freeing up senior management time to focus on the strategically important recruitment requirements.

The reorganisation and restructuring have further provided promotion opportunities and facilitated more bandwidth for recruitment of technical staff across a wider range of engineering disciplines and geographical locations.

While it has been just one year since this restructuring has taken place, with the process still ongoing, Crondall is already beginning to see several benefits emerging. Indeed, it now has a dedicated HR resource across the organisation which ensures consistency in its approach to issues such as staff reviews, communication, promotions, benefits and all other aspects of retention and recruitment.

The firm has not lost any staff as a direct result of the reorganisation in the last 12 months, while its senior team are now averaging 10-plus years of service. Further, the company’s recruitment drive has seen it become successful in reducing the average age of its engineers, with several of its staff now working across a broader range of disciplines.

Having made significant progress, Crondall is now looking to keep the momentum up. Between enhancing its focus on hiring high quality engineering graduates from many universities across UK, encouraging all its engineers become fully chartered, and continuing to re-enforce its shared values and culture through several initiatives, the firm looks well placed to sustain its satisfied workforce and reputation as an employer of choice in the future.

About Crondall Energy Ltd

Crondall Energy is a leading independent consultancy providing strategic, commercial and technical services for offshore energy projects using floating and subsea technologies. With over 20 years of experience, it helps clients to manage technical, commercial and strategic risks and achieve positive project outcomes.

Story type

#people & competency (main category)

#culture

Benefits

• Dedicated HR resource to ensures consistency in Crondall’s approach to issues.

• No staff lost due to the reorganisation and additional younger engineering hires providing a stable, well-motivated basis for growth.

Key findings

For industry

• Aim to recruit high quality staff and retain. It’s more efficient to recruit capable engineers and invest in training than to spend management time addressing a high turn-over of resources.

• Retention of knowledge at all levels is a key part of future development, and being open to transferring that knowledge between sectors will play a major role in how quickly the transition away from hydrocarbons as a principal energy supply can occur.

For government

• Have a stable long-term energy strategy and clarity over the speed and direction of travel required to achieve net-zero targets.

Crondall Energy Ltd at a glance:

Key products and services: Energy transition, offshore renewables, floating production, subsea and pipelines, business consulting and technology development.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 73%

• Energy Transition – 24%

• Renewables – 4%

Headquarters: Southampton, UK

Year established: 2000

Number of employees: 45

Revenue: £7.2m

Revenue from exports: 50%

Deepsea Technologies UK

Emerging stronger than ever from a period of significant uncertainty

the enterprise would be shut down, resulting in tens of job losses.

This task landed in the lap of Managing Director Martyn Conroy, who quickly came under huge pressure. It was a major period of uncertainty in which some employees were let go. Yet under Conroy’s leadership, the team stuck together, holding their nerve as they attempted to find a solution that would enable them to emerge stronger than ever.

Deepsea Technologies UK, formerly known as AFGlobal UK before being acquired by Deepsea Technologies Inc in July 2022, has endured a rollercoaster ride in the past 12 months. Having begun 2022 faced with a difficult business sale process, the division successfully found the perfect new partner and owner in Deepsea Technologies Inc the merger having provided huge benefits thanks to a wider portfolio of subsea production technologies, with huge export potential for the UK business.

The challenge

Prior to becoming Deepsea Technologies UK, AFGlobal began 2022 in a tricky position. AFGlobal was in the process of selling off various segments and was looking to step away from subsea, leaving the diver-less and diver assisted engineered technologies division – the last remaining division – in desperate need of a buyer.

Due to economic difficulties stemming from the Covid-19 period, and wanting to leave the subsea market, the former owner decided to reduce their exposure and find funds, asking the AFGlobal team to find a buyer for the business immediately. If a resolution couldn’t be reached,

The solution

Indeed, this is exactly what was achieved. Thanks to the perfect amount of patience and some fruitful and frank discussions, Conroy and the AFGlobal US Management team were able to find an ideal new owner and partner in the form of Deepsea Technologies Inc and its President, Sanjay Reddy.

With the buyer found in June 2022, and a successful acquisition following quickly in July 2022, AFGlobal UK was rebranded to Deepsea Technologies UK. Thereafter, the two enterprises’ product portfolios were merged to create a new UK subsidiary with bolstered resources, improved engineering power, and greatly enhanced global prospects.

As a result of this integration, Deepsea Technologies UK is able to use in-house manufacture to enable quicker delivery and reduced costs.

Further, the subsidiary is able to readily tap into Southeast Asian and LATAM markets, thanks to its parent company’s

How is Deepsea Technologies UK thriving?

Mark Lamyman, International Business Development Manager Charlie Bamford, Sales & Marketing Co-ordinator

footprints in India and Brazil, these also serving to lower manufacturing costs and reduce logistics-associated emissions.

As with any merger, there have been some teething problems, from combining the firms’ websites and marketing platforms/messaging to blending the technical knowledge of its teams. However, ultimately, Deepsea Technologies UK has found itself on much firmer footing as it embarks on a new year in 2023.

Where the subsidiary’s revenues had dropped 71% from 2021 to 2022, this is now expected to rebound and rise by 180% in 2023, exceeding those figures achieved in 2020 and 2019.

Kicking off this recovery will be the group’s new major Wahoo, Campos Basin a substantial contract win from operator PetroRio in Brazil, with a considerable scope coming to Bromborough, UK office that will see the provision of a subsea production system and manifold. Indeed, after a year of major uncertainty, the UK enterprise is now eyeing significantly more fruitful horizons ahead.

About Deepsea Technologies UK

With multiple production and manufacturing facilities across the world, Deepsea Technologies provides both diver-less and diver assisted engineered technologies for the energy sector.

These technologies are bespoke designed, built and installed by Deepsea UK’s team in some of the harshest offshore environments.

The company has over 30 years of experience in the design and delivery of pressure containing equipment, compact flanges, hot stabs, PLEM’s, bend stiffener connectors and ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) tooling. This includes well established products such Taper-Lok® flanges and Retlock® Diverless connection systems.

Story type #collaboration (main category)

#resilience

Benefits

• Substantial Brazilian contract won.

• Manifold and PLEM engineering to be conducted by UK office.

Key findings

For industry

• Take that leap into a new business and into the energy – a lot of opportunities, now is the time to take them.

• Built trust wins work.

For government

• Help businesses to go on more delegations for new market entry.

• Detail technical specs to enter the floating offshore wind market.

Deepsea Technologies at a glance:

Key products and services: Design and delivery of pressure containing equipment, driverless connection systems, compact flanges, hot stabs, PLEM’s, bend stiffener connectors, offshore service support, engineering and ROV tooling.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 100%

Headquarters: Bromborough, UK

Year established: 2005

Number of employees: 43

Revenue: £10m

Revenue from exports: 71%

deugro

Driving forward with digitalisation, innovation and energy transition

Jasmina Tuncheva, Senior Tender Manager

How is deugro thriving?

Recognising the need to evolve in the face of difficult market conditions, deugro has taken significant strides forward on multiple fronts. From collaborating more closely with its clients, carriers and ports to leveraging market intelligence, tailoring client solutions, introducing innovative contract models and pursuing transformative energy transition and digitalisation strategies, the company has futureproofed with a brand-new business model.

Having successfully completed more than 200 onshore and offshore wind projects in more than 40 countries since 2003, deugro has established itself as a leading provider of key logistics services to the energy industry. From project planning and preparation to complex transport engineering concepts and the complete logistical handling of turnkey projects, the firm has built a renowned reputation.

The challenge

Despite deugro’s solid position in the market, even the most robust companies have faced hardship in recent years. While the covid pandemic resulted in global economic and societal hardships that impacted capital investments, environmental and climate change commitments, and the global demand for goods and services, the Russian Invasion of Ukraine then further exacerbated the situation, adding even more uncertainty to global supply chains.

The key challenge for deugro stemmed from the fact that

many of its major clients in the energy industry were used to standard contracting models based on long-term fixed rates, yet servicing these contracts proved to be a major challenge in this highly volatile freight market environment.

Some carriers would not honour long term fixed rate contracts nor commit on any rate validity. Obtaining space and equipment availability became a challenged due to the overdemand caused by the pandemic.

The solution

Given the circumstances, deugro recognised it would soon face significant financial difficulties and the inability to deliver project cargoes on time if it didn’t work to overcome these challenges. In opting to proactively follow all market developments and indices closely, the firm successfully began to negotiate alternative contracting models for the project forwarding industry.

These models – including index-based pricing, cost plus options or various hybrid models – ensured deugro could provide the highest standards of service to its clients, even when it was faced with a lack of space and equipment availability, skyrocketing freight rates, port congestions and cancelled sailings. Critically, these models are now allowing its customers to benefit from cost efficiencies and optimise their supply chain costs, especially with the current softening of the freight markets in last few months.

At the same time, the firm worked extremely close with its clients on obtaining strategically informative and accurate project outlooks, supporting their planning and consolidation efforts while also looking at alternative modes of transport.

In addition to these alternative contracting models,

deugro has placed strong emphasis on digitalisation and innovation in the last five years. First, the firm has invested into a new, state-of-the-art IT system called deugro visiotrack – a highly customisable customer information portal designed to help clients not only obtain live tracking updates on their cargo, but also acquire QHSES and financial project information. Meanwhile, the firm has also rolled out a new transport management system, Axis, a CargoWise integrated logistics execution platform, for its global forwarding operations.

deugro also has been looking at servicing both its traditional energy and EPC clients better while focusing on energy transition. Here, it has joined forces with NORDFROST in a strategic cooperation officially announced in January 2023 that will see the establishment of a new Green Energy Logistics Hub in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. It will serve clients in the onshore and offshore wind energy industry, as well as grid-related players. In terms of services, it will offer handling, storage, consolidation and commissioning of components, as well as condition inspection, packing and stowage/unloading of containers, import/export clearance and more, primarily to clients across Central Europe.

With its tide-independent access from the North Sea and direct, traffic-light-free hinterland connections to the German freeway, the new facility will enable the delivery of faster services. Existing port handling capacities guarantee an optimal process flow, while expansion options will be able to improve scalability.

deugro has adapted successfully in order to succeed in the face of tough and changing market dynamics. Today, 25% of the firm’s revenue is driven by renewables spanning onshore and offshore wind and hydrogen, its energy transition journey now well underway. The company also looks to progress with its talent development and digitalisation strategies simultaneously.

From winning new contracts with existing clients (80%) and newly established customers (20%) to seeing greater success in the green market, deugro seems well placed to expand its already formidable footprint moving forward.

About deugro

deugro is a highly specialised project freight forwarder with a strong focus on turnkey logistics solutions for various industries. The company was founded in 1924 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and has a proven track record in successfully executing projects of any magnitude, even under the most challenging conditions and requirements. Thanks to a vast network of more than 70 company-owned offices in over 40 countries, deugro leverages comprehensive and in-depth expertise around the world to deliver on its promise.

Story type

#service & solutions (main category)

#collaboration, #digital, #innovation, #resilience

Benefits

• About 25% of revenues now coming from renewables projects.

• Over 90% of projects delivered in a timely and safe manner during the last 12 months.

Key findings

For industry

• Create future talent pools through skills and hiring, reskilling programs, flexible working. People are the best assets of our business, so look after them.

• Be open to embrace change to remain competitive.

For government

• Allow policy changes to foster innovation and develop human capital.

deugro at a glance:

Key products and services: Leading international project freight forwarder specialising in executing turn-key projects and engineering logistics solutions for various industries.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 45%

• Renewables – 25%

• Conventional power – 5%

• Nuclear power – 5%

• Energy Transition – 5%

• Others (pulp & paper, infrastructure, mobility, mining) – 15%

Headquarters: Pfäffikon, Switzerland

Year established: 1924

Number of employees: 1,400

Revenue: £843m

Revenue from exports: 90%

Draeger

Shifting business model to remain relevant in the health and safety market

of safety products designed for hazardous environments.

How is Draeger thriving?

Operating out of its base in Aberdeen since 2010, Draeger needed a fresh start. Clients were asking for the option to hire its equipment, while the site was bursting at the seams as the company continued to grow its footprint. In 2020, a new strategy was developed which transformed the firm’s operating model and brought it in line with market needs, with a new facility in Dyce providing the perfect base from which to start a brand-new chapter.

The challenge

Draeger has been manufacturing safety products for more than 130 years. Founded in the German city of Lübeck in 1889, it has grown into a worldwide business with more than 15,000 employees working out of 50 countries and a customer base spread across over 190 countries around the globe.

The company has been trading in the UK since 2001, its base in Aberdeen having been established in 2010 to provide the marine and offshore sectors with a full suite

By 2020, the time had come to change tact in order to keep up with moving market demands. Given the financial difficulty facing the oil and gas sector, many clients had approach Draeger with requests to hire equipment rather than invest cash in purchasing. Alongside this, the covid pandemic was disrupting supply chains and impacting lead times – something had to change.

The solution

The decision to switch to a solution hire and servicing model was a logical one given the circumstances. Furthermore, its best-in-class products could be hired out several times and generate greater value for the company over the course of their lifetimes in comparison to selling.

To execute this shift, Draeger had to transform its Aberdeen operation from manufacturer and seller to a service-driven enterprise centred around building up long-term relationships with clients.

A complete business review was conducted in 2020 to plot out a path to making this a reality. A new premises in Dyce was secured, a site three times larger than its base in Aberdeen that the firm moved into in 2012 on a 10year lease. Meanwhile, £600,000 was invested in hire equipment, the total investment in the new setup being

Euan McIntosh, Marketing Manager

a considerable seven-figure sum that also involved the hiring of new employees to grow the team by 15%.

In order to secure financial backing, the UK leadership team developed a 10-year business plan and presented the new hire and service model to group headquarters in Germany, which gave the green light and backed the strategy. Indeed, the support of the wider enterprise has been invaluable in the ongoing development of the UK business.

Once up and running, a major priority was to market the new proposition to current and prospective clients –this proved to be an initial challenge due to an already competitive marketplace and the fact time was needed to build up trust with the customer base. That said, momentum is starting to gather.

Indeed, revenue trends look promising despite it still being relatively early days. In 2022, the hire business significantly turned over its revenues, achieving around 30% of the Aberdeen unit’s total business and 25% up on what was generated in 2021. Last year also saw a 27% growth in the number of quotations sent out.

As well as successfully pivoting to boost its own revenues from the Aberdeen business, Draeger has also underlined its long-term commitment to the region and UK’s energy sector. Now that it is based in a fit-for-purpose facility and able to meet demand for the hire of its solutions, the company is very well placed to continue supporting the health and safety of client operations in the country.

About Draeger

Draeger manufactures medical and safety technology products. In so doing, the company protects, supports, and saves people’s lives around the world in hospitals, with fire departments, emergency services, authorities, and in mining as well as industry. Founded in 1889, the Dräger Group is currently present in more than 190 countries and has over 15,500 employees worldwide.

Story type #service & solutions (main category) Benefits

• Increase on annual revenue by 25% in one year.

• Growth in the number of quotations sent abroad by 27%.

Key findings

For industry

• If you have a belief in something, go for it.

• Make sure people value the environment they work in. The way company treats its people is as important as the remuneration.

For government

• Support traditional oil and gas industry. Focus on here and now, not on 10-year dreams.

Draeger at a glance:

Key products and services: Marine and Offshore

– detection of hazards in hazardous environments, breathing apparatus and gas detection and portable solutions, training academy, service and maintenance, hire division and engineering solutions division.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 80%

• Renewables – 5%

• Energy Transition – 5%

• Others (water and industrial) – 10%

Headquarters: Lubeck, Germany

Year established: 1889

Number of employees: 26 (Aberdeen Marine & Offshore)

Revenue from exports: 100%

Emerging EPC

Navigating uncertainty and driving growth through innovation, human capital development, and sustainability

Emerging EPC adopted a comprehensive approach to risk management and innovation. By closely examining its processes for identifying, assessing, prioritising, and mitigating risks, the company succeeded in uncovering new opportunities and effectively managing potential threats to its operations and profitability.

How is Emerging EPC thriving?

In an era marked by unprecedented challenges, including the oil price crash and the global pandemic, Emerging EPC has not only survived but has thrived, demonstrating remarkable resilience through proactive risk management, continuous improvement, and a strategic focus on innovation, human capital development, and sustainability. As a leading oilfield services provider established in 2012, the company’s journey through adversity offers valuable insights for energy professionals and oil and gas operators seeking to capitalise on opportunities and overcome obstacles in a rapidly changing landscape.

The challenge

In the years following its 10-year anniversary, Emerging EPC faced a confluence of challenges, beginning with the 2017 oil crisis and exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The industry as a whole was confronted with supply chain disruptions, project delays, increased regulatory scrutiny, and fluctuating material prices, while also grappling with the need to cut costs and maintain a competitive edge in the talent market. Travel restrictions and quarantine protocols further strained the industry’s ability to remain costefficient and effective.

The solution

To address these challenges and chart a path forward,

This proactive approach to problem-solving, coupled with a commitment to agility and adaptability, enabled Emerging EPC to invest in emerging technology solutions, pursue alternative supply chain strategies, implement cuttingedge project management and communication tools, and explore new markets and service offerings. For instance, the company pivoted to seize opportunities in digital analytics and Maintenance 4.0, allowing it to remain at the forefront of industry developments.

In the post-Covid era, the competition for skilled workers has intensified, necessitating greater investment in talent development and retention. To prevent its workforce from being drawn away by competitors, Emerging EPC has prioritised employee growth and development, providing comprehensive training programs for internal personnel to become competent in various compression systems and brands. Moreover, the company has cultivated a culture of continuous improvement and learning, ensuring that management regularly monitors and reviews its strategic direction to remain nimble and responsive to market conditions. Recognising the increasing importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in the energy industry, Emerging EPC has made sustainability a central pillar of its growth strategy. This focus on ESG not only positions the company as a responsible and forwardthinking player in the oil and gas sector, but it also helps to generate new business opportunities by aligning with the evolving expectations of clients and stakeholders.

Kamarul Johan, Executive Director

By providing innovative solutions in compressed air/gas, filtration/separation technologies and non-metallic pipe systems, Emerging EPC aims to support companies in optimising production and reducing costs, while minimising the environmental impact of their operations. Furthermore, the company plans to invest heavily in research and development to maintain its technological leadership in these fields, and to forge strategic partnerships with industry stakeholders to drive sustainable growth.

As Emerging EPC looks to the future, the challenge lies in striking the right balance between honing its expertise in specialised services and remaining flexible and adaptable to the ever-changing market conditions. By maintaining a customer-centric approach and delivering high-quality, innovative, and sustainable solutions, the company is wellpositioned to continue its growth trajectory and cement its reputation as a leader in the oil and gas services sector.

In conclusion, Emerging EPC’s success story is a testament to the power of embracing change, driving innovation, and prioritising human capital development and sustainability in an uncertain and rapidly evolving industry landscape. By adopting a proactive approach to risk management, continuously improving its processes, and strategically investing in technology, talent, and ESG initiatives, the company has demonstrated its ability to not only survive but thrive in the face of adversity.

For energy professionals and oil and gas operators seeking to navigate the complex challenges of today’s market, Emerging EPC’s journey offers valuable lessons and insights. By emulating its commitment to adaptability, innovation, talent development, and sustainability, businesses across the sector can unlock new opportunities, enhance their competitiveness, and build a resilient foundation for longterm growth and success.

About Emerging EPC

Emerging EPC Sdn Bhd (EEPC) is a leading System Integrator & Solutions Provider in the Southeast Asian Oil and Gas industry, specialising in innovative and sustainable solutions such as air and gas compressors, process filtration and separation, zone 2 diesel and gas generator, nonmetallic pipe and nitrogen generator packages. With a focus on localisation and customisation, EEPC adheres to international standards and has ISO9001 & ISO18001 certifications.

In December 2021, EEPC launched its Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) division, “EARS,” aiming to improve asset management, preventive maintenance, and ESG compliance. By 2030, EEPC envisions becoming an agile organisation, embracing technology, digitalisation, and sustainability to enhance community life quality.

Story type

#service & solutions (main category)

#innovation

Benefits

• Enhancement of Emerging EPC’s market position, allowing it to become the industry leader in oilfield services through competency and innovation.

• Substantial investment in research and development to maintain sustainable cutting-edge technological expertise.

Key findings

For industry

• Embrace sustainability: Encourage the industry to embrace sustainable practices and design, building projects that promote environmental stewardship and long-term social and economic benefits.

• Highlight the importance of embracing human capital, digital transformation, and innovative technologies such as automation, AI, and machine learning to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve safety.

For government

• Promote sustainable initiatives and innovation. Embraced and complying regulatory requirements.

Emerging EPC at a glance:

Key products and services: System integrator and solutions provider for the oil and gas industry.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 90%

• Others (general industry) – 10%

Headquarters: Puchong, Malaysia

Year established: 2012

Number of employees: 65

Revenue: £11m

Revenue from exports: 15%

EquipSea

Pursuing savinvy investments to emerge successfully from market crises

into an increasingly harsh national energy landscape. Undoubtedly, the Petrobras crisis was the main obstacle, but the pandemic prolonged the consequences for the market for a further year and a half.

The solution

How is EquipSea thriving?

A Brazilian manufacturer of welded, machined and coated parts and provider of turnkey tested sets, EquipSea has emerged from a difficult early period even stronger than before. Through a focus on quality, continuous client alignment and willingness to invest during hard times, the company has seen its revenues double for three consecutive years.

The challenge

EquipSea celebrated a successful sixth birthday at the beginning of 2023. And while it is a young company, its relatively short story so far has been fraught with challenges and curveballs.

While the organisation was founded in 2017 and enjoyed relatively fruitful beginnings, it was then plunged into incredibly difficult few years with Brazil’s internal oil & gas market facing several major challenges. Between 2018 and 2019, the Petrobras crisis – labelled the biggest corruption scandal in Latin America’s history that saw executives at Brazil’s national oil company accepting bribes in return for inflated contracts – began to explode, causing market activity to grind to a near halt.

From 2020 onwards, EquipSea then equally began to experience the worst effects of the pandemic, including raw material shortages and price increases that all fed

Despite these hardships and its vulnerable position as a new company in the market, EquipSea continued to power on, the business persevering with its strategic growth plan that involved investing in new machinery and the expansion of its shop floor.

Although its projects were frozen, EquipSea’s leadership made the major decision not to dismantle its team of 50plus staff, instead pulling together and working tirelessly to put the company in the best possible position to emerge from the crisis stronger than when market conditions began to improve.

This decision was made easier by the strong relationships that the company had already cultivated with its industry partners in the short period it had been operating. Indeed, many of the major industry players in Brazil’s oil & gas market reassured EquipSea that they would remain operational in Brazil for decades to come. Further, some even began to provide forecast scenarios for the coming years and queried EquipSea on how it would help to deal with those demands.

In fact, this kept Equipsea calm and faithful during an incredibly tricky period, providing the grounds to maintain confidence in the national oil and gas market despite the hardships and historical oscillations.

Further, EquipSea’s candid conversations and open-door policy with clients enabled it to adapt its offering to better

Claudio Evangelista, CCO Vitor Ramos, CEO

align with its clients’ changing needs. While the company had originally been known for small-sized, lightweight and low complexity products, it began to take on projects that required welded fabrication and machining while improving its ability to take on complex technical tasks involving hydraulics, electrics and testing to cater to demand.

This willingness to align with clients’ needs wherever possible didn’t go unnoticed. Take its support of OneSubsea in delivering a project for Shell, for example. This was a unique development in which special welds (F22 and F65 with buttering) were required. Being the only company in Brazil with the specifications for producing such welds, EquipSea expands its capabilities from simple welds so that it could deliver special processes for global projects such as this. Resultantly, within the space of just three years, EquipSea has moved from being a top-10 supplier for OneSubsea to its number one partner in its category by the end of 2022.

With its turnkey tested sets ranging from three to five tonnes that include seals, hydraulic and electrical components, EquipSea continues to support clients with their extensive testing and assembly requirements. Further, it is now getting ready to develop turnkeys in the range of 30-35 tonnes to be delivered from September 2023 on, while planned future investments will also be put towards a production park, overhead cranes, the hiring of skilled people in testing, and a large testing bunker with capacity for 120 people.

Such investments are possible owing to the fact that the company has rebounded in the past couple of years, its efforts in building capacity and continuing with its improvement strategy during a difficult period having proven more than worthwhile.

Indeed, EquipSea’s revenue has been doubled these last three consecutive years, up from US$3m in 2020 to US$12m in 2022, while its OTD and quality scores have continuously been improving with its clients.

Despite being a young company that started life in tough waters, it is clear that EquipSea has a bright future, especially when calmer waters arrive.

About EquipSea

EquipSea is a Brazilian manufacturer of welded, machined, and coated parts as well as turnkey tested sets including seals, hydraulic and electrical components with expertise in the oil and gas sector but not limited to it. Parts and sets in structural carbon steels, alloy steels, stainless steels (austenitic, martensitic, duplex, and super duplex), high-nickel alloys, from a few grams to 40 tonnes parts. Inconel cladding and high-precision machining, bunker for hydrostatic tests up to 30kpsi.

Story type

#optimisation (main category)

#scale up

Benefits

• Revenue doubled in the last three consecutive years.

• Major oil companies as clients.

Key findings

For industry

• Clearly determine your target market and clients, completely understand their needs and stay always close to them.

For government

• Create a healthy environment for business with tax reforms.

• In Brazil, fortify transport networks.

EquipSea at a glance:

Key products and services: Manufacturer of welded, machined, and coated parts as well as turnkey tested sets including seals, hydraulic and electrical components.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 95%

• Others (pulp and paper, sugar, ethanol) – 5%

Headquarters: Piracicaba, Brazil

Year established: 2017

Number of employees: 120

Revenue: £10m

EthosEnergy

Responding with resilience to the crisis in Ukraine

In the lead up to 2022, as covered in last year’s Survive & Thrive, the company had undergone an internal transformation to form a ‘OneEthos’ culture, consolidating 12 product lines into a cohesive business that is structured around trading in the two hemispheres (east and west). With a new CEO and leadership team in place, the firm was expecting a stable 2022 until the Ukraine crisis took centre stage.

How is EthosEnergy thriving?

When the war in Ukraine broke out in the early part of 2022, you could be forgiven for thinking that much of the positive transformational work undertaken by EthosEnergy in the years before was in danger of being lost. Its newly formed Eastern Hemisphere division lost a large amount of revenue as a direct result of the conflict, with contractor workforces also impacted by Ukrainian workers heading home. However, with a fresh strategy being devised, the company is seeking to recover some of the losses by tapping into other markets, all while being on hand to provide support to Ukraine’s rebuilding and repair efforts.

The challenge

There aren’t many sectors which haven’t been impacted by the war in Ukraine over the past year. For many businesses, 2022 has been a battle to remain viable and control costs as the energy market responds to immense supply constraints and prices rise.

Those operating in and around Ukraine itself have faced an even more unprecedented set of challenges. Take EthosEnergy, provider of engineering solutions to clients around the world, including in Ukraine and surrounding nations such as Poland.

In total, EthosEnergy has shed millions in revenue and opportunities as a result of the conflict, losing key contracts in locations such as Sakhalin due to the inability to access Russia and Belarus, as well as expensive equipment that has had to be left behind.

Meanwhile, the firm’s two Polish entities were heavily reliant on Ukraine for revenues and supply of goods such as copper and generators. The surging price of copper has been a particular challenge, increasing by 130% between March 2020 and March 2022. In addition, many employees and contractors of companies providing services to EthosEnergy’s Lubliniec facility are Ukrainian, the onset of the conflict prompting them to return home.

The solution

Responding to these extraordinary circumstances continues to be challenging. EthosEnergy still does business in Ukraine and is currently devising a fresh strategy – for example, it is supporting the Ukrainian people in repairing transformers destroyed during the ongoing conflict and sees itself playing an important role in the country’s energy infrastructure rebuilding process.

Internally, the company restructured its Eastern

Ana Amicarella, Chief Executive Graham Donald, VP Commercial, Eastern Hemisphere Jennifer Shanks, Marketing and Communications

Hemisphere division, combining two of its five regional units (Central and Eastern Europe) into one to make sure they are aligned and responding in tandem to ever changing events. More broadly, the division has refocused sales and operational efforts onto other key markets as around the Middle East, North Africa, and Kazakhstan.

In Kazakhstan, the firm has formed a strong joint venture with a local partner through which it will continue to acquire new business.

Although the strategy has centred around spreading portfolio risk away from Ukraine, EthosEnergy is still securing contract wins here and has several potential developments in the pipeline. In July 2022, for example, a state-owned power station operator awarded it a project involving two rotor rewinds.

Looking ahead, the priority is to remain agile and continue responding effectively to changing circumstances. While new markets are being explored by the Eastern Hemisphere division, the company is equally determined to maintain ties in the Ukraine region and support people impacted by the crisis as much as possible. Through its entities in Poland, EthosEnergy is eager to contribute to the support the country is offering to refugees crossing the border and seeking safety.

The immediate future, without doubt, looks tough. However, by remaining calm and spreading risk, the company is doing its utmost to continue operating viably.

About EthosEnergy

EthosEnergy is a global leading independent service provider of rotating equipment services and solutions to the power, oil & gas, industrial, and aerospace markets. The company has depth and experience in asset management and long-term maintenance agreements, whilst offering transactional, factory-based parts and repair services across all industry sectors.

Story type

#resilience (main category)

#people & competency

Benefits

• Diversifying portfolio geographically.

• Support to Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Key findings

For industry

• Be adaptable, nimble, and relentless in your approach.

For government

• Ensure support for the right energy mix to provide grid security and stability of supply.

EthosEnergy at a glance:

Key products and services: Independent service provider of engineering solutions.

Main industries served:

• Conventional power – 50%

• Oil and gas – 25%

• Others (industrial) – 25%

Headquarters: Aberdeen, UK, Houston, US

Year established: 2014

Number of employees: 4,000

Revenue from exports: 7.5%

Faazmiar Technology Sdn Bhd

The digital transformation partner of choice in O&G Upstream Sector

How is Faazmiar thriving?

Working to overcome perceptions that smaller businesses are unable to deliver turnkey digital transformation projects, Faazmiar’s bespoke approach has seen its ability to secure significant repeat businesses and develop an established reputation in the market as a partner of choice. Catering to the unique digital transformation demands of clients across the oil and gas upstream industry in Malaysia with cutting-edge technologies and technical services, the firm is already thriving after just eight years in the market.

The challenge

Founded in 2015, Faazmiar Technology was incorporated with the objective of providing solutions, technologies and technical services to oil and gas upstream industry in Malaysia.

Based in Kuala Lumpur, the firm’s activities extend across several categories, including real time and remote monitoring operations, digital oilfield solutions, 3D visualisation of data, process workflow digitalisation, software development, digital twins conceptual process, AI/autonomous system development, and integrated operations and advanced data analytics optimisation using machine learning.

Being a relatively new small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME), Faazmiar has faced several challenges in its first decade of operation. Specifically, it has struggled to sway prospective customers to place trust in the firm’s ability to deliver key and critical solutions, with its target audience often favouring partnerships with traditional and multinational corporations (MNCs).

The typical preference of customers in working with MNCs over SMEs without any real consideration and evaluation of products or solutions remains a key issue. Indeed, Faazmiar has found that some clients try to push for discounts, for example – something that is seldom seen in contracts with MNCs.

The solution

Naturally, when Faazmiar has successfully delivered a project, the stakeholders involved will see the first-hand on the value it brings to the table and consult it for future projects. However, this comes with its own challenges in the follow-up process. In subsequent projects, other key management that did not deal with Faazmiar directly will still be reserved, retaining confidence issues and resistance towards its ability to execute projects.

To address these issues, Faazmiar has focused on emphasising the benefits of its offering in terms of cost reduction, productivity increases, and enhanced safety delivered to those clients leveraging its products and services.

With the eight years under its belt, the company is now more easily to ensure these benefits shine through. As

Abd Hamid Bin Ahmad, CEO

a digital enterprise, it provides data optimisations using matured machine learning, digital twin and artificial intelligence technologies on a bespoke basis, designing solutions that solve the specific and unique challenge of its customers.

Faazmiar frequently engages with its clients to develop these unique solutions, discussing roadmaps and aligning it with its initiatives to ensure that all parties are pulling in the same direction. These efforts are backed by its expert team, comprising of very dedicated, experienced, and skilled personnel.

To date, Faazmiar has achieved multiple success stories that have led to significant repeat business. This has included the recent development of a rig automation system in which the firm developed unique digital software to protect the key drilling control systems, enabling the driller to operate seamlessly.

By enabling more seamless operations and guaranteeing uptime Faazmiar is able to deliver significant performance improvement resulting in cost savings and cost avoidance in the millions of dollars that far exceeds what clients expectation.

Moving forward, Faazmiar seeks to expand its horizons as it looks to bolster its reputation, shift perceptions in the market regarding SMEs versus MNCs, and secure a more diverse business portfolio. To this end, for 2023, it will be focused on new spectrum in oil and gas seismic crossborder interpretations energy /carbon reduction as it aims to become the partner of choice for digital transformation journeys.

Despite being founded in 2015, the firm has already made significant progress, its disruptive attitudes and unwavering commitment to quality having laid the foundations for further success in the future.

About Faazmiar Technology

Faazmiar Technology Sdn Bhd was incorporated with the objective of providing solutions, technologies and technical services to oil and gas industry in Malaysia. The company brings specialise knowledge and extensive experience in deploying oil and gas technologies mainly in the upstream sector.

Story type

#digital (main category)

#service & solutions

Benefits

• Contracts wins.

• Delivery of significant savings and cost avoidance to clients.

Key findings

For industry

• Entrepreneurs must be willing to take calculated risks and come up with solid strategies in business.

• Convince the big ones of the industry to be more involved in digitalization.

For government

• More coordination of project implementation in terms of integrations, optimization between functions.

Faazmiar Technology at a glance:

Key products and services: Products in the digitalisation, integration and optimisation of the oil and gas sector and related professional manpower, as well as trainings and consultancy.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 100%

Headquarters: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Year established: 2015

Number of employees: 28

Fluenta

Overcoming the challenges of Covid-19 through consultative selling

How is Fluenta thriving?

Bolstering its product-focused offering with consultative and servicing support, Fluenta has been successful in navigating the difficulties posed by the pandemic period and tough economic climate. By providing expert advise on products to its clients, the firm has developed a formidable reputation, driving both greater revenue opportunities and internal innovation loops, these improved relationships serving to establish it as one of the leading flare gas monitoring solutions providers in the Asia Pacific market.

The challenge

Founded in 1985, Fluenta has established a reputation as a in the measurement, monitoring and management of flare gas flow. Leveraging its unique ultrasonic technology as the most accurate means by which to measure the flow of liquid or gas, the company serves the oil and gas, petrochemical and liquid natural gas industries with more than 2,000 project installations spanning six continents.

While this footprint is formidable, Fluenta’s leaning into the international market has presented it with several challenges in recent times. Like many companies operating in the energy sector, it was hit hard by Covid-19, the pandemic period affecting its ability to expand or meet new customers.

Rather than accept this, the firm recognised it needed to adapt to continue to pursue its growth plans. To revitalise its overall prospects, Fluenta had to explore ways in which it could better meet the needs of its customers and deliver further value in tandem with its existing solutions and approach. Having laid the groundwork for this back in 2018, it was well set to kick on and reposition at speed during a difficult period.

The solution

Fluenta’s motto is simple – accurate information drives better decisions.

To ensure this mantra shines through in its offering, the company began to focus more heavily on servicing and aftersales as it took a more consultative approach to selling. Instead of simply selling a solution through transactional relationships, Fluenta realised the value in working to understand its customers’ specific needs before proposing solutions and offering advice that would solve their unique problems.

A strategy that had begun to be explored from 2018 onwards, this was a natural transition. Indeed, the firm’s industry knowledge and experience meant it was well placed to identify the gaps in performance and how to address problems using its products. The company quickly saw the merits and gathered momentum, despite the complications brought about by Covid-19. Indeed, by the end of 2021, travelling, meeting and engaging with clients became part and parcel of operations as word of mouth spread and more prospects and clients approached with enquiries.

Shamsool Yahaya, Sales Director Asia Pacific

Fluenta began to excel, embracing the opportunities presented to it. Information gathered from consultative selling projects were channelled back to its research and development team in UK, this serving to inform discussions about how the company could develop new solutions to meet the customer requirements, driving both innovation and new and value-add sales opportunities.

Of course, it wasn’t always easy. Indeed, in many instances, Fluenta’s primary challenge revolved around convincing customers to change their mentality and give its new approach centred around continuous improvement a go – an area where it received significant resistance at times. However, often the merits were quickly shown, and customers were won over.

Despite tough market conditions, the firm has continued to kick on. Revenue opportunities and subsequent serving activities were unlocked as a result of its shift towards consultative selling, a move which has helped to balance the books to cover any potential shortfall in sales during the pandemic period. Such has been its success, the company has been able to hire experienced, highly talented staff to bolster its advice-based approach.

The feedback it has received has also been incredibly positive. Customers have expressed that they now feel supported, speaking highly of Fluenta and recommending it at every opportunity, boosting the overall strength of the brand and its reputation and visibility in the market.

Indeed, having built what are highly effective and closeknit relationships with its customers, the firm has a secure base of business that will serve as a springboard for further growth moving forward.

About Fluenta

Fluenta was founded in 1985 and is a global leader in the measurement of flare gas across the oil and gas, petrochemical and liquid natural gas (LNG) industries. With over 2,000 installs across 6 continents, Fluenta has the experience to help customers more accurately measure flow to make better business decisions and meet the most stringent regulations.

Story type

#innovation (main category)

#diversification

Benefits

• New and enhanced revenue coming from improvement to products.

• Fluenta now into servicing and providing expert advice on products to clients.

Key findings

For industry

• Calculate risk-taking and think of strategies to leave your comfort zone.

• Keep up with new innovations, no compromise on safety.

For government

• Encourage more local talent and technology in the latest environment requirements.

Fluenta at a glance:

Key products and services: Flare gas metering and consultative selling.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 100%

Headquarters: Haugesund, Norway

Year established: 2018

Number of employees: 12

Revenue: £2m

Fluor

A business inspired towards achieving net-zero ambitions

looking inwardly and outwardly, a new strategy emerged in terms of how to position the business as well as achieve Fluor’s own net-zero targets.

How is Fluor thriving?

The world’s appetite for energy is changing and Fluor is meeting those needs with the adoption of a new approach inspired by the global mission to transition to net zero. Leveraging its formidable in-house expertise built up over the course of more than a century, the company is not only on its own journey to carbon neutrality but is also positioning itself as a developer of technological solutions to support energy transition strategies across several sectors. Today, it has several projects and people immersed in sustainability as it seeks to build its knowledge base further.

The challenge

In business since 1912, Fluor has carved a reputation for itself as a reliable provider of comprehensive engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services for clients, delivering capital efficiency and project certainty through its highly skilled workforce that today stands at 40,000-strong. Throughout this time, it has ridden many challenges as market fortunes have fluctuated and today’s energy consumers are not only seeking clean and sustainable energy, they are demanding it. A rethink was therefore needed – how could Fluor utilise its technical expertise to support clients on their decarbonization journeys and advance its own sustainability goal.

The solution

At the beginning of 2021, after a series of meetings

In broad terms, the strategic shift entails detailed engineering work in emerging technologies and engaging with clients earlier in their project cycles. This has involved examining and developing Fluor’s own technology and IP, refocusing its people, and collaborating with start-ups, existing and new clients.

Fortunately, the appetite and culture for aligning with netzero agendas was already strong. Internal expertise is being championed externally, with public sessions, knowledge building workshops and Q&As all becoming staple events in the Fluor calendar. The firm has established a dedicated Office of Technology which is pushing internal technology development strategies and exploring ways of taking its solutions to new markets. For example, Fluor is home to over 1200 patents, and over 15 licensed technologies. Fluor owns one of the top three proven carbon capture technologies and is helping not just traditional but other industry sectors such as cement and steel production to decarbonise.

For Hydrogen, the company is already applying its carbon capture expertise to make the production of blue hydrogen more affordable with a solution that cuts the space and energy required to produce it.

On the post-combustion side, in May 2020, Fluor was awarded the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for California Resources Corporation (CRC’s) 550 MW natural gas combined cycle power plant, a carbon capture, utilisation and storage retrofit project at the Elk Hills Station in Bakersfield, California.

Collaboration with and learning from external partners,

Helen Kilbride, Process Director

especially startups, is also proving valuable. Fluor is supporting prominent venture capital partners with programs that invest in companies utilising emerging technologies that reduce emissions. Strong partnerships have been built from this participation, which has also led to the company expanding its portfolio.

It has also been actively involved in the Carbon to Value (C2V) Initiative, assuming the role of Cohort Champion for Year 2 of the programme. A three-year initiative, the collaboration seeks to accelerate the CarbonTech industry by linking established and resource-rich entities such as Fluor with innovative startups to help bring solutions to market faster. 2022 saw the selection of eight CarbonTech companies across the globe under Fluor’s stewardship, including Aluminium Technologies. They challenge traditional Aluminium manufacturing with their Carbo-Chloride Reduction (CCR) technology, which not only captures CO2 emissions, but also requires less power. Aluminium Technologies was facing challenges in scalingup, so through the C2V program mentoring, they identified key risk areas and developed mitigation plans. In 2023, they are working with Fluor to design their first pilot plant. Fluor has built over 25 working relationships with stakeholders through this programme. Outside these programmes, Fluor also provides support to several university research projects in need of funding and expert advice. Indeed, such is the momentum being built by the new technology drive, the major challenge facing the company now centres around recruitment and being able to fulfil the work that comes its way. Although in revenue terms Fluor is still in the early stages of monetising this line of business, its involvement in several projects and programmes is certainly cause for optimism.

Meanwhile, Fluor’s own aggressive net-zero target, i.e., netzero for Scopes 1 and 2 by 2023, shows leadership towards sustainable solutions as compared to its competition.

About Fluor

Fluor provides innovative and sustainable solutions across a diverse range of markets while conducting business in a socially, economically, and environmentally responsible manner to the benefit of current and future generations. The company also delivers comprehensive engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services for clients, delivering capital efficiency and project certainty.

Story type

#collaboration (main category)

#culture, #innovation, #transformation

Benefits

• Fluor was recognised for its carbon capture, utilisation and storage retrofit project.

• Progress in net-zero push.

Key findings

For industry

• Do what’s right and positive. Social responsibility “from the heart”.

• Be patient, learn and consolidate skills, develop engineering expertise. You cannot shortcut this to progress your career.

For government

• More integrity is needed. Be stronger in context of what we need.

Fluor at a glance:

Key products and services: Engineering, procurement, construction, operations and maintenance, project management, fabrication, program management, design, supply chain management, logistics, power, energy, architecture and more.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas, Energy Transition - 50%

• Others (infrastructure, advanced technologies, mining, US government, intelligence agencies and more) – 50%

Headquarters: Irving, US

Year established: 1912

Number of employees: 40,000

Revenue: £11.4bn

Fulkrum

Scaling up in anticipation of a turbocharged 2023/2024

The solution

How is Fulkrum thriving?

After another successful year of growth in 2022, quality control and technical services provider Fulkrum will be accelerating its global expansion strategy over the next couple of years. Having worked hard behind the scenes focusing on recruitment, restructuring and skills development, the company is seeking to scale up and open new streams of business as it continues to expand its offering to support cross-industry projects.

The challenge

Since establishing in the UK in 2011, Fulkrum has provided expert vendor surveillance and technical staffing services to companies operating in the energy industry around the world. With a network of in-house experts and an active database of over a million engineering and technical personnel, Fulkrum has steadily grown and expanded its infrastructure over time, enabling it to offer turnkey inspection, expediting, auditing and technical staffing solutions to clients in a responsive and agile manner – no matter where they are or what stage of the project they are working on.

As the firm headed towards the end of the last decade, the need to diversify into other energy subsectors became essential in order to properly scale and safeguard itself in the longer term. This would require a new approach to people and culture within the business, as it continues to deliver consistent and class leading service.

Over the last two years, Fulkrum has been implementing significant changes to support the growth of the business. A new leadership strategy was formed in 2020 which allowed Fulkrum to move away from a purely centralised decision-making model, with regional and departmental managers given the training and autonomy to drive business development opportunities in new markets.

One of the most significant moves was the promotion of Brock Falkenhagen to the role of Global Vice President in May 2022. Having seen significant success operating Fulkrum’s Americas region after joining the firm in 2017, the decision was made to move him into a global position to spearhead international operations.

Recruitment activity has increased across the organisation, with Fulkrum bringing in new disciplines of people with the necessary expertise and experience as they put down roots in Guyana, Mumbai, Italy and Qatar, among other territories, to prepare for growth over the next couple of years. Indeed, across 2022, the company expanded its direct hire team by 16%.

Now led by an expanded HR team to drive hiring forwards, recruitment has been proactive in anticipation of winning clients, giving it the capacity to deliver immediately and efficiently. Alongside this, Fulkrum has continued significant investment in its proprietary software to help it better track project data and coordinate its operational processes. Named IRIS, the system has improved process efficiency and allowed key business performance metrics to be measured with opportunities for improvement realised. Fulkrum’s team members have had their KPIs and performance tracking metrics refined to identify individual opportunities for improvement and skill development. This

Owen Gibbons, Commercial Director

data is used not only to ensure compliance and consistency across all offices, but also to identify progression potential and promotion opportunities within the company’s team.

Supporting the training and development of the team has been another important priority for Fulkrum. Streamlining company processes has involved 30-, 60- and 90-day checkins during probation periods, while also making use of the in-house software platform to keep training and HR records up to date. These efforts produced quantifiable results, such as successful proposals to customers increasing by 49% and customer aged debt decreasing by 28%.

Change of this scale and speed is rarely easy to manage, and from a cultural perspective, the firm has also had to make adjustments to ensure its colleagues are onboarded and pulling in the same direction. Another component of Brock’s remit has been improved internal communication and alignment. New flexible working arrangements have been received well across the company and have helped to keep engagement and retention rates high – this is vital given how competitive the talent market is. Similarly, budgets are allocated for regular social activities away from the office to encourage team bonding which further drives team performance.

Amid the ongoing behind the scenes activity, Fulkrum has also laid solid financial foundations from which it can grow through 2023 and 2024. Last year the business grew by 13% after a successful 2021. In 2023, Fulkrum expects to see a revenue growth of around 30% in as a result of recent contract awards, organic growth with existing clients, expansion into new territories, and further diversification into renewables.

Now, with the new structure in place and a growing team giving it a wider presence both technically and geographically, Fulkrum is poised to enter the next phase of its development journey that will see it continue its transition into a diverse and robust global player.

About Fulkrum

Fulkrum is a leading inspection, expediting, auditing and technical staffing service provider. As a trusted partner, Fulkrum enhances the quality and safety of clients’ projects, safeguarding their operations and budgets whilst improving environmental performance. Its innovative solutions-based approach, technical capabilities, and highly skilled and motivated team ensure operational excellence across multiple sectors in more than 30 countries. Fulkrum works closely with clients and partners through the entire project lifecycle from feasibility, FEED and procurement to fabrication, construction, commissioning and beyond, ensuring compliance throughout, with an unparalleled level of engagement and commitment to the successful delivery of every project.

Story type

#people & competency (main category)

Benefits

• Successful proposals to customers increasing 49% and aged debt decreasing by 28%.

• Revenue calculated to grow 30% in 2023.

Key findings

For industry

• Continuously training your staff is key for improvement.

Fulkrum at a glance:

Key products and services: leading provider of expert quality control and quality assurance services to the global energy industry.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 90%

• Renewables – 9%

• Nuclear power – 1%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 2011

Number of employees: 70 (direct hire), 500 (freelance)

Revenue: £28m

Revenue from exports: 90%

Gexcon

Helping companies to excel in safety and environmental performance throughout the energy transition

three major streams: its software arm sells and leases tools to model the likelihood and consequences of hazardous events occurring, including fires, explosions and chemical spills; it offers consultancy across critical activities such as risk assessments; and delivers testing services at various scales.

Gexcon is eager to contribute to the world’s effort to transition rapidly to a sustainable energy and materials system. In doing so it works closely with governments, academic institutions, equipment manufacturers and asset owners to help them understand and mitigate the operational, safety and environmental risks associated. Gexcon’s strong foundation of supporting research projects in renewable energy, such as hydrogen, batteries, biomass, and biofuel, has become increasing relevant in recent years. This knowledge has been codified into a set of tools for accurately modelling the risks and consequences associated with these key energy transition vectors. These tools are fundamental in ensuring clients, and its own employees, deliver on their safety and environmental objectives whilst maximising operational and business performance.

The challenge

Since emerging out of a research project in Norway in the 1970s and 1980s, Gexcon has grown into a global leader in the provision of risk and safety management solutions to highly hazardous industries, including the energy sector.

Armed with formidable expertise and technology honed over five decades, the company derives its income from

Over the years, Gexcon had settled into its niche of serving predominantly upstream oil and gas players. However, recent shifts away from hydrocarbons and towards net zero projects have challenged the status quo – to remain relevant, the company needed to diversify its tools and services to serve emerging energy transition industries.

The solution

Studying the early work being carried out in the energy transition space, the company immediately realised it could fill a gap in the market.

Indeed, it identified a need to adhere to similarly robust safety standards as the traditional energy sectors it had been operating in, the seeming lack of formalised protocols inspiring Gexcon to step in and provide its expertise.

Positioning itself appropriately has required a significant knowledge transfer exercise and an ability to adapt and innovate. Beginning in 2018, that process is still ongoing, with Gexcon continuing to leverage its extensive oil and gas safety knowhow and transfer it to the field of energy transition, the aim being to emerge as a repository of sector-centric science and expertise.

Key to this so far has been involvement with several joint industry projects. Securing access and participation has involved leaning on the company’s brand recognition

How is Gexcon thriving?

Chris Coffey, Vice President Product David Smart, Sales Manager – UK & Nordics

as knowledge leaders in the oil and gas safety space, as well as ensuring it had adequate resource availability, test facilities at appropriate scale, and the right talent available to add value.

One of these joint industry projects has been with SH2IFT, a lead technical expert from which Gexcon has been able to learn from. In return for exposure to the leading edge of science and the opportunity to expand its knowledge that will feed into future safety solutions, Gexcon has offered up some of its own project management and technical expertise.

Meanwhile, in a similar vein, the company has also been working alongside the Jack Rabbit Project, which focuses on planning, protection and response to large scale releases of ammonia. This has clear implications for the energy transition sector, especially in the development of hydrogen projects.

Such efforts that are ongoing behind the scenes is beginning to translate into business success. Gexcon is seeing the proportion of revenue derived from work in the energy transition space increase as it takes on more projects and clients. Meanwhile, brand recognition is also growing among players in the industry.

With five years of projects and development already under its belt, the company looks well on its way to fulfilling its objective to become the go-to knowledge hub for energy transition safety.

About Gexcon

Gexcon is a global knowledge and technology leader in dispersion, fire and explosion safety, and risk management. The company assist its clients in identifying their hazards, understanding their risks, and improving their safety performance. Their experience arises from detailed knowledge of explosion phenomena built through years of performing extensive research, safety assessment, accident investigations and fire and explosion testing.

Story type

#energy transition (main category)

#collaboration, #diversification, #innovation

Benefits

• Involvement with several joint industry projects.

• Increase in revenues.

Key findings

For industry

• Build strong networks and relationships.

• Commit to collaboration and innovation.

For government

• Make decisions and get on with it. Indecision is causing investment decline. Work towards a stable and regulatory framework.

Gexcon at a glance:

Key products and services: Risk and safety management and solutions to high hazard industries.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 40%

• Renewables – 40%

• Others (non-energy) – 20%

Headquarters: Bergen, Norway

Year established: 1987

Number of employees: 2000

Revenue: £25m

Revenue from exports: 10%

Global Maritime

Unifying disparate business units to become ‘One GM’

The solution

The first port of call for Global Maritime’s leadership was to examine all the various entities within the business, weigh up which ones were delivering value, and decide how the pieces would fall into place under a single umbrella.

How is Global Maritime thriving?

Global Maritime has almost completed a root and branch transformation of its organisational structure, the company adopting a One GM policy to bring together its disparate entities into a unified company that is collectively pulling in one direction. Operating with five synchronised business streams, it is starting to reap the rewards of closer collaboration and the sharing of expertise to avoid wasteful outsourcing of work.

The challenge

In business for more than four decades, Global Maritime (GM) has built itself into a foremost consultancy, supporting clients around the world in their efforts to de-risk, innovate and push forward energy transition strategies in the offshore energy and marine sectors.

Headquartered in Norway, the company is in the midst of a critical chapter of its development. Over the course of its history under different ownership and management models, Global Maritime morphed into large but fragmented organisation with little consistency between disparate operational units.

Around five years ago, the need to create a more unified company was recognised. If it was to scale up and exploit its global base of expertise effectively, it had to operate as ‘One GM’ – this would mean breaking down the silos of local entities and structures and focusing on business streams.

Given the scale of the One GM challenge, the company decided to approach the task with two dedicated teams – one in charge of rolling out a unified ERP system and the other responsible for standardising processes, documentation, policies and business management systems. Senior management would also steer much of the change needed with the help of subject matter experts from within the organisation who were eager to help drive the strategy forwards.

Alongside this, a detailed financial review was conducted across 2018 and 2019 under a new CEO and CFO, both bringing with them strong finance backgrounds.

The first of the five new business streams were implemented in 2020, with Aberdeen-based Operations Manager Johnny Logan promoted to CEO to help steer the change process from the top of the enterprise. Meanwhile, underperforming parts of the GM network were starting to be closed down and merged into new streams, while townhalls were held to introduce the new structure and achieve buy-in from colleagues.

As well as moving Logan to CEO, several other important senior leadership appointments were made, including the hiring of dedicated directors to run each business stream. Each stream also identified which product lines to prioritise based on their expertise and capabilities.

In the space of two years, all five business streams

Ekkehard Stade, COO Marine

have become fully operational and Global Maritime is now around 95% of the way through the change programme.

Although still relatively early days, the company is starting to see the fruits of the immense efforts it has put in behind the scenes. One of the greatest advantages being realised is the newfound visibility the firm now has over every aspect of the work it carries out – thanks to a joined-up ERP and cohesive structure, GM now has 100% visibility down to a granular project level, allowing it to respond faster to clients and fix issues more efficiently.

This is being reflected by promising trends in numbers. Revenue and work delivered internally (where otherwise it would have been outsourced) has grown by 50% thanks to improved access to subject matter experts housed within the One GM business. This is contributing towards solid performance, the company expecting to grow revenues by €5m to €58m in 2023 and sitting on a project pipeline worth €40m at the end of February – double what it had back in 2020.

Global Maritime can now look ahead to scaling sustainably once again. With a unified business that is now delivering better value for clients, the future looks a lot clearer (and brighter) than it did just five years ago.

About Global Maritime

Global Maritime is a marine, offshore and engineering consultancy, working to de-risk, innovate and drive the energy transition in the offshore energy and marine industries. The company specialises in marine warranty, marine assurance, marine operations, dynamic positioning, engineering and geoscience services and is renowned for its independence, structural innovation, experience, integrity, operational excellence, and safety. Headquartered in Norway, Global Maritime can support its growing global client base through strong teams in 22 offices across 17 countries.

Story type

#transformation (main category)

#culture, #optimisation, #resilience

Benefits

• Revenues to grow €5m in 2023.

• Project pipeline doubled in 2018: €40m by February 2023.

Key findings

For industry

• Look at scalability from the start. You can’t get big if your systems and structure are not suited for it.

• Try to build culture of trust, critical for workforce to perform at their best.

For government

• Drop administration issues between individual states, e.g., if the US federal government had control of energy in individual states, renewables would have grown much faster.

Global Maritime at a glance:

Key products and services: Marine, offshore and engineering consultancy.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 45%

• Renewables – 35%

• Energy Transition – 10%

• Others (infrastructure) – 10%

Headquarters: Stavanger, Norway

Year established: 1979

Number of employees: 290

Revenue: £46.7m

Revenue from exports: 80%

HARTING Technology Group

Capitalising on the modularisation and pluggable connectivity opportunity

concerns slowly diminishing where pluggable connectivity solutions from market leaders have been proven reliable.

How is HARTING Technology Group thriving?

HARTING Technology Group has capitalised on the demand for intelligent technology solutions to drive modularisation and standardisation. Critically, the company’s renowned pluggable connectors have been specified by an international wind turbine manufacturer for use across turbines, nacelles, foundations, vessels and more at an infamous offshore wind farm to drive major cost savings.

The challenge

Prior to 2015, pluggable connectivity was not commonly accepted or applied in the energy industry. Oil, gas and coal dominated the energy mix which meant very few electrical connectors were needed, while some harboured quality concerns in the belief that pluggable connectivity could be a possible failure cause.

However, that all changed when 2050 net-zero emission targets were affirmed with the Paris Agreement, demanding that fossil fuel-driven energy infrastructure established over centuries must be replaced by renewable alternatives in just 35 years.

Here, modularisation and pluggable connectivity solutions have been identified as a solution to quickly deploy decentralised clean electricity technologies such as wind, solar and battery storage. Crucially, these technologies are extremely attractive in instances where quick and safe outdoor field connections are required, with quality

For HARTING, this has opened up a promising new frontier. However, while the company had some success in certain energy segments like wind and storage systems, it needed to consider how it could serve the entire market in a more systematic way.

The solution

As HARTING was presented with more and more customer requests for modularisation and connectivity solutions spanning wind, solar, storage and hydrogen, the firm began to consider how it could best capitalise on the opportunities available from 2020 onwards.

Driven by the cooperation of its industry-segment, product management and sales leaders, the company restructured the way in which it served different market segments to cover promising technologies like hydrogen, storage, solar, and energy management and control. This included the development and introduction of go-to market strategies, with particular emphasis on targeting select key regions such as China, the US, Germany, the UK, France, Spain, India and Denmark.

The renewed strategy resulted in the securing of several major projects, including a 2022–25 contract for the wind turbine manufacturer and the landmark offshore windfarm.

Here, HARTING’s pluggable connectors and connectorized cable sets will be used as the interfaces between the wind turbines’ modules in what will be a several million euros project.

This is a highly significant contract. Not only does it

Guanghai Jin, Team Leader Industry Segment Manager

demonstrate positive market sentiment towards the firm’s durable and reliable pluggable connectors that have developed a proven track record in the offshore wind over the course of several decades, but it also offers a unique case study to showcase its product’s benefits.

The company will deliver a consultancy and solutions offering on modularisation and interfaces, offering global coordination of the customers’ sub-system supplier networks and reducing transport, installation and maintenance costs during the lifetime of the turbines, offering significant cost savings via several different avenues.

Indeed, this project is just one of many the firm has recently secured work on. Through its strategic changes, the company has seen a continuous increase in revenues and a growth in its pipelines in both the quantity and value of projects.

Having successfully adapted to better capitalise on what has become a booming market in recent times, HARTING now looks well placed to thrive for many years to come.

While the firm is now intent on exploring possible business model innovations for the mid-or long-term to diversify and futureproof, its improved position in relation to modularisation and connectivity projects across all energy segments and key regions stands it in good stead as strong foundations from which to build on moving forward.

For the remainder of 2023, focus is shifting to improved customer profiling, consolidating its existing portfolio, and improving the organisation’s value proposition – initiatives that will only further enhance its prospects.

About HARTING Technology Group

The HARTING Technology Group is skilled in the fields of electrical, electronic and optical connection, transmission and networking, as well as in manufacturing, mechatronics and software creation. The Group uses these skills to develop customised solutions and products such as connectors for energy and data transmission applications including, for example, mechanical engineering, rail technology, wind energy plants, factory automation and the telecommunications sector.

Story type

#service & solutions (main category)

#diversification

Benefits

• Company’s energy market revenues and open opportunities in a continuous growth.

• Three-year contract secured with an international wind turbine manufacturer for offshore wind farm projects.

Key findings

For industry

• Standardizing can save a lot of work and money for everyone – but it starts with deciding to modularise.

• Stop increasing the turbine sizes – agree on standardisation (or platform-isation) as an industry, to start making money again. Make components interchangeable, reducing cost for the whole industry.

For government

• Put net zero as highest strategic priority. Time window is running out.

HARTING Technology Group at a glance:

Key products and services: Global leader in plugging connectivity, providing durable and reliable product solutions.

Main industries served:

• Energy

• Industry

• Railway

• Mobility

• Smart Infrastructure

• Others

Headquarters: Espelkamp, Germany

Year established: 1945

Number of employees: 6,500

Revenue: £918m

Revenue from exports: 80%

Hempel A/S

Resilience and ingenuity: Hempel A/S pioneers epoxy intumescent solutions for a competitive edge

centres that are operated by a workforce of 6,500 employees who oversee more than €2bn worth of business each year.

How is Hempel Paints thriving?

Recognising a gap in its portfolio of protective coatings a decade ago, Hempel Paints has invested a huge amount of energy in developing a product for clients in the hydrocarbon passive fire protection segment. Now, after many years of testing and refinement, the company is already making inroads with customers who have responded well to the new solution. With new contract wins secured and a growing pipeline of awards emerging, the decision to target this sector appears to be an extremely wise one, not least because the company can now position itself as a one-stop coatings shop for many of its customers.

The challenge

Any business that has been operating for a century has the right to say it has stood the test of time. Since 1915, Denmark’s Hempel Paints has been developing, producing, and distributing paints, coatings and coating systems predominantly for the protective, marine, container, yacht and decorative industries.

Its ethos is simple – to provide high-quality, sustainable coatings solutions that protect and enhance surfaces and structures around the world. And it is a truly global enterprise, its footprint comprising 30 factories, 130 distribution points and 14 research and development

Despite the company’s huge legacy and standing with clients in multiple industries, one relatively underexplored segment is hydrocarbon passive fire protection. A key challenge, therefore, lay in developing fire protection coatings that could fill this prime gap in its extensive portfolio.

The solution

Hempel has invested significant time and resources into R&D in the hydrocarbon segment. It has a dedicated department based in one of its centres in Spain which is charged with developing a product to cater to energy industry standards and offer something superior to what is currently available on the market.

In July 2022, the company launched Hempafire XTR 100. A lightweight product with easy application compared to its competitors, it has been successfully trialled against industry test standards and in highly corrosive environments. It is already proving popular with several large industry operators, including NOCs/IOC’s and EPC’s working in the downstream segment – key to its popularity, among other things, has been the ability to find the optimal balance between low weight and the quality of protection offered.

Getting to this point has been a decade in the making, with the testing cycle alone lasting several years to ensure it can perform against numerous tests and standards.

Rameer Tharola, Segment Development Manager – Global H-PFP

During this time, the company’s business development team has been working in the background with operators and asset owners to get the product specified prior to launch.

Winning over prospective users of the product has not been difficult. Hempel is over 100 years old and represents a trusted brand with a solid client base who already had a demand for this new service. Now, with its portfolio as complete as it has ever been, the company can serve as a one-stop coatings shop for many of its customers. In addition to the Hempafire XTR 100, Hempel offers additional services which include on/off field technical support, applicator training program, fire engineering, application assistance and specification writing. The company also offers customised solutions and on-site support for customers around coatings selection, project management and inspection services.

Being a member of the EIC has also proven valuable in terms of branching out into the hydrocarbon fire protection segment, not least because it has enabled Hempel to network with other industry players, gain access to market intelligence, and stay up to date on the latest trends and regulations in the energy sector.

Although it is still relatively early days, the firm has already made some key strides in the form of significant contract wins, its project pipeline and awareness increasing in line with growing awareness of the new product offering. Over time, the ambition is to grow its client base, the company identifying more than 160 clients and new clients that could benefit from its latest product development.

About Hempel Paints

Hempel A/S is a global coatings manufacturer that develops, produces, and sells coatings and related products for the protective, marine, container, yacht, and decorative industries. Hempel’s main activity is developing, producing and distribution of coatings.

Story type

#optimisation (main category)

#innovation Benefits

• Significant contract wins.

• More than 160 clients and new clients identified.

Key findings

For industry

• Understand requirements in your market and bring in a sustainable product to fill this gap, you will do well.

• Accept new ways of working and technologies to deal with in a changing market.

Hempel A/S at a glance:

Key products and services: Protective, marine, decorative and yacht coatings, technical support, training and application assistance.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 45%

• Others (marine) – 55%

Headquarters: Copenhagen, Denmark

Year established: 1915

Number of employees: 6,500

Revenue: £1.85bn

Hugh Fraser International (HFI)

Successfully pivoting to become a more prosperous enterprise

HFI has been a proven strategic partner to its customers since 2003, supporting them in establishing, expanding and divesting their international businesses through strategic, value-added consulting and legal services in the MENA region.

How is HFI thriving?

Having experienced and learned key lessons from the global financial crisis in 2008, the oil price slump crisis in 2014 and the Covid pandemic crisis in 2020, HFI has emerged into a new 5-year business plan for the mid2020s as a strong and stable entity thanks to an allencompassing transformation strategy.

This strategy has the key pillars of rigid focus on client service, solutions and results, investment in professional know-how and expertise training and development, and embracing of advanced technology and systems in relation to its core and traditional petroleum technology business and a diversification programme allowing both geographical expansion and additional focus on net zero energy technologies.

The challenge

In addition to the impact on its clients of the triple crises referred to above, HFI has also faced the growing stigmatisation of the petroleum sector politically, the withdrawal of traditional banks from SME working capital support and the increasing international anti-money laundering and corporate governance strictures being imposed on SMEs doing international business. However, HFI saw these challenges as opportunities.

The solution

Turning challenges into opportunities meant changes across three vectors: increased productivity and efficiency in the core petroleum technology business for its existing client base, expansion into energy transition technology ventures work bringing access to new clients and two new joint ventures for India and the Egypt, North Africa and Mediterranean region, allowing geographical expansion with both existing and new clients.

Hugh Fraser, Managing Partner

Key elements along the first vector included sharper focus on the Aramco, ADNOC and QatarEnergies highcapex markets in the region, pivoting from fixed costs to variable costs, the adoption of new software technologies and systems, and the introduction of a new professional development training system for its multi-national team and network. A key example is HFI’s project roadmap systems which provide detailed guidance on procedures, documentation, timelines, and anticipated costs associated with client ventures in the target regions. In a market dominated by global legal and consulting firms, the firm has emerged as a market leading boutique practice and has acted for a range of listed companies, private equity backed businesses and owner managed businesses in a series of successful assignments over the period since the start of post-Covid recovery.

The business is set to double turnover in 2023 to US$1.5m and plans to achieve turnover of US$10m by the end of 2027.

About HFI

HFI is a specialist professional services firm led by Hugh Fraser, a Scottish corporate/energy lawyer and member of the Scottish Development International GlobalScot international trade ambassador network. HFI supports clients to establish, expand and divest their businesses through strategic, value-added consulting and legal services, combining specialist know-how, connections, local partners, and execution expertise.

Story type

#service & solutions (main category)

#diversification

Benefits

• Revenue figures on track to double in 2023.

• Strong client base retention and growth.

Key findings

For industry

• Change is opportunity.

For government

• De-stigmatise the petroleum sector and recognise a balanced and integrated energy transition over the next 50 years.

HFI Consulting International at a glance: Key products and services: Specialist legal and consulting for advanced energy technology ventures.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 75%

• Energy Transition – 25%

Headquarters: Dubai, UAE

Year established: 2017

Number of employees: 16

Revenue: £1.2m

Revenue from exports: 100%

Howden (a Chart Industries Company)

Supporting Shell in its drive to net zero by 2050

How is Howden thriving?

Howden, a Chart Industries Company, and world leader in air and gas handling equipment, has been involved with Shell for more than a century. As the oil major continues its push to become carbon neutral by 2050, a new project to use renewable feedstock in refineries instead of crude is underway. The process involves hydro treatment using Howden equipment for high-pressure hydrogen and acid gas compression.

As well as supporting one of Howden’s most important, longstanding clients, the project at Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam (Pernis) forms part of Howden’s own strategic transformation to re-align with the global decarbonising trends.

The challenge

Historically, Howden was heavily focussed on serving conventional product applications within the oil and gas and broader energy market. The company’s offerings are also ideal to support global efforts to net zero and the energy transition, the company focussed on three key themes – diversification, regionalisation and aftermarket/ digital services.

In line with this, the company also seeks to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 50% before 2030 (compared to 2020 baseline) and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

In 2023, Chart Industries (NYSE: GTLS) bought Howden, which created the strategic combination of both businesses. Both companies are focused on enabling the global energy transition and industrial decarbonisation. Chart’s strategy “Nexus of Clean™” focuses on the drive for clean power, clean water, clean food, and clean industrials, which is clearly aligned to Howden’s purpose of “enabling vital processes which advance a more sustainable world.” This combination brings together two industry leaders and allows Chart to further penetrate existing markets while providing access to new specialty markets, thus establishing Chart as the undisputed leader in the clean energy transition.

Clean fuels are a key growth area and the company’s credentials are now being used by Shell in a landmark project that is about to ramp up.

The solution

Howden secured the contract to work on the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park in Rotterdam in 2021. It is a highly strategic project for Shell, as they are seeking to become a net zero emissions entity by 2050.

Furthermore, European directives are set to increase the part of renewable energy in transportation fuels such as sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and renewable diesel. Here, Shell is seeking to transform its refineries so they can handle renewable feedstock to produce such fuels, including vegetable oils like soybean, rapeseed and palm, as well as non-edible oils such as those used in cooking oil.

Howden is playing a central role in developing the equipment needed to hydrotreat the feedstock. Collaboration from the early stage of the project has been essential, as the parties involved finalised the definition of the equipment design and how it will integrate into the site.

Fred Hearle, President of Europe and North Africa Region

The contract, worth approximately US$20m, was awarded to Howden owing to its strong execution track record, robust supply chain, depth and spread of expertise, and proven technology – a combination which, for Shell, helps to reduce the overall risk, cost and time involved with the project.

From a design perspective, the trend across industry is to move away from traditional “stick-built” plants and Shell’s project makes use of a modularised approach. Key benefits that modularisation provides for oil and gas projects include minimised field time for site integration, dedicated off-site work force, and improved delivery schedules. However, the nature of limited space within tiered modular structures posed additional engineering challenges for the critical packaged equipment such as the main compressors.

As well as delivering reciprocating compressors to site, the Howden turbo compressor was critical for the Sulphur Recovery Unit (SRU) module in the Shell Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel project. Although its position is at the end of the process flow, uninterrupted operation of this compressor is environmentally vital to continued plant production. Despite the reduced space for design work, years of continuous service must still be assured, and ease of safe maintainability within the constrained environment remains paramount.

As engineering specialists, the Howden team naturally relishes this type of challenge. And, thanks to decades of complex compressor packaging experience, Howden was able to provide rapid rounds of technical solution development and feedback to assure the client’s needs would be met.

About Chart Industries Inc

Chart Industries, Inc. is an independent global leader in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of process technologies and equipment for gas and liquid molecule handing for the Nexus of Clean™ – clean power, clean water, clean food, and clean industrials, regardless of molecule. The company’s unique product and solution portfolio across stationary and rotating equipment is used in every phase of the liquid gas supply chain, including engineering, service and repair and from installation to preventive maintenance and digital monitoring. Chart is a leading provider of technology, equipment and services related to liquefied natural gas, hydrogen, biogas and CO2 capture amongst other applications. Chart is committed to excellence in environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues both for its company as well as its customers. With over 48 global manufacturing locations and 41 service centress from the United States to Asia, Australia, India, Europe and South America, the company maintains accountability and transparency to its team members, suppliers, customers and communities.

Story type

#technology (main category)

#energy transition, #innovation

Benefits

• Landmark project underway.

• Company closer to 2050 net zero goals.

Key findings

For industry

• Be bold, be prepared to take calculated risks.

• Capitalise on new ways of working, get human capital and collective intellect to collaborate more effectively.

For government

• Enable investment and regulatory support to facilitate a faster deployment of nuclear SMR within the UK energy mix. It can make a significant contribution to energy transition and decarbonisation for the UK.

• Also ensure UK companies remain at the forefront of next generation energy solutions for export markets.

Chart at a glance:

Key products and services: Air and gas handling products and technologies.

Main industries served:

• Energy Transition – 41%

• Oil and gas – 9%

• Others (industrials) – 50%

Headquarters: Georgia, US

Year established: 1854

Number of employees: 11,725

Revenue: £3.1bn

Revenue from exports: 92%

Instrument Transformers Ltd (ITL)

Finding firmer foundations to transform effectively

To protect client relationships, ITL continued to innovate its product line with investment in capital equipment for medium voltage transformer manufacturing and very high current testing and seeking additional specialist engineers to help upskilling opportunities. This also provided the company leadership a roadmap to future growth.

The solution

How is ITL thriving?

ITL has emerged successfully from the business hits of the recent oil crisis and global pandemic, which induced an element of internal reflection that has subsequently built a firm diversification to both renewables and overseas markets. The company has proudly retained 100% of its client base in its core transformer business. With focused vision from the business leaders, ITL signed a series of strategic partnerships in cutting-edge technologies.

The challenge

ITL, a designer, manufacturer and supplier of transformers for the accurate measurement and protection of electrical equipment in substations, renewables, nuclear, transmission and distribution (T&D), and vessel propulsion systems, found itself in a transformative situation in 2018–2020.

Like many energy organisations, it had been impacted by the oil crisis and then the pandemic, the firm facing a reduction in revenue as a result of many of its ongoing projects having to be put on hold. A number of its international customers either relocated production or parts of their supply base to low-cost economies, while others were lost through amalgamation or acquisition. The challenge for ITL was to adapt to the contraction of the UK customer base whilst also addressing the challenges of low-cost competition elsewhere in the world?

ITL had begun to consider how it could adapt to turn fortunes in its favour starting back in 2018. In these early phases, the firm looked at what new products were coming into the marketplace, and how client demands were changing. Critically, this led to a focus on renewables solutions such as cable monitoring using passive sensors to maximise utilisation of power generation assets.

Here it saw an opportunity, partnering with university spinoffs to develop sensor-based technologies for transmission and distribution solutions designed to help maximise asset performance. Faults happen continuously in the lifetime of T&D equipment. However, nobody had previously monitored the termination points (TP) at the turbine towers or in the array. Instead, existing technologies were designed to monitor the cable itself.

As part of a strategic partnership, ITL saw opportunity to help solve this problem in a cost-effective manner by hooking passive sensors onto existing fibre networks within the transmission system. Centralised electronics are then implemented in relevant substations up to 60km away, which can then monitor up to 30 TPs per interrogator unit. TPs are a common cause of failures, meaning service teams have to check all towers and TPs regularly and manually. With ITL’s solution, this can now be carried out passively with continuous monitoring highlighting any fault immediately, or trends that indicate the risk of faults ahead of time.

Ronnie Gormley, Owner Paul Munro, Director

The transformation wasn’t solely driven by developing this new solution. Capitalising on it required several strategy shifts. It wasn’t just a case of bringing the products to market, but rolling them out strategically, targeting specific regions and end users and forging critical partnerships.

The firm quickly shifted client focus, moving up the value chain to deal directly with protection engineers in utilities themselves rather than tier 2 or 3 suppliers. It opted to work more closely with end user protection teams, driven by the need to move away from low margin, high-volume projects –a strategy that was in-part enabled by the company’s agility as a small and nimble entity.

ITL designed a new range of LV/MV transformers over the course of two years to meet the internationally renowned UL standards and improve its prospects in overseas markets that were US influenced. Further, it also invested £600,000 in a new vacuum resin plant to aid doubling capacity for in-house design and manufacture of transformers. ITL established a new renewables division to support its activities within this rapidly developing sector for UK businesses.

In terms of collaboration, a key partnership was established with Synaptec for its passive fibre optic sensor technology designed to detect, analyse and provide equipment performance analysis for wind turbine operators, both onshore and offshore and other HV land-based installations. There, remote monitoring of HV cables and termination points can help identify problems before they occur, identify its location and avoid costly and unnecessary shutdown of the whole array or facility. Two joint ventures were also formed with partial discharge industry experts for the permanent monitoring systems of gas-insulated switchgear, further enhancing the range of solutions and services the company has to offer to the power generation and transmission industry.

While covid threw a major spanner into the works of ITL’s repositioning strategy, the firm remained undeterred and is now looking forward to continued growth. Today, ITLs revenues have recovered to the levels seen five years ago. The firm is now on a path of major growth thanks to its diversified foundations while also keeping hold of all key clients. Now capitalising on stable, traditional business opportunities in the UK alongside its export strategy, ITL is well placed to excel moving forward.

About ITL

Focussed on Continuous Improvement in Process, Product and People (CI3P), Instrument Transformers Limited (ITL) listens to customers’ needs and provides the most technically and commercially optimum solution throughout its range. Established in 1973, ITL has expanded nationally and internationally such that it is now an internationally known name in the field of power measurement and protection.

Story type #resilience (main category) #collaboration, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Ongoing diversification process.

• Complete recover process to revenues of five years ago.

ITL at a glance:

Key products and services: Design, manufacture and supply transformers up to 400kv for the accurate measurement and protection of electrical equipment in substations, renewables, nuclear, T&D and vessel propulsion systems.

Main industries served:

• Conventional power/T&D – 90%

• Oil and gas – 5%

• Renewables – 2%

• Energy Transition – 2%

• Nuclear power – 0.5%

• Others (vessel propulsion) – 1.5%

Headquarters: Glasgow, Scotland

Year established: 1973

Number of employees: 30

Revenue from exports: 40%

KBR

Helping clients go green with the CleanSPEND� carbon calculator

How is KBR thriving?

As more and more stakeholders and asset operators in the energy sector look to push ahead with energy transition strategies, the ability to calculate emissions has never been more important. Early visibility is essential to making sustainable enhancements – if projects emissions could be accurately estimated before breaking ground and ordering with supply chain partners, then huge amounts of carbon (and money) could be saved.

KBR is actively taking on the carbon calculation challenged, its CleanSPEND� solution already going through rigorous proof of concept testing with clients and evolving into what promises to be a game-changing tool.

The challenge

Houston-based KBR has been providing government agencies with a range of professional services for well over two decades and rooted in 100 years of engineering history. Another core component of its offering is investing in and developing sustainable technologies to help the corporate world advance its ESG agenda, the company offering high-end advisory solutions centred around energy transition and technology-led asset optimisation.

In more recent times, KBR has been approached by clients to help them find ways to support carbon cutting strategies, a major hurdle being visibility and the capacity to predict emissions in the project planning stages. By the middle of 2021, the company set out plans to develop a new carbon calculation tool in light of interest from a growing number of firms operating in the energy sector. Speed has and continues to be paramount, the company needing to build and prove concept quickly in order to capitalise on the opportunity.

The solution

Named CleanSPEND�, the carbon calculator can be used either at the early stage of the design process. Users can input the parameters of their design over a detailed set of questions, the system then producing an estimate of the carbon output of the development across the entire lifecycle.

Having prototyped it on EV initially, the tool can be used to calculate emissions for hydrogen, solar and offshore oil and gas projects, with offshore wind due to be added later this year.

The system draws on information from multiple databases and will only become smarter as more data and added complexity is added over time. The platform is able to compare projects to create a carbon baseline and a set of predicted criteria to start to assess a carbon efficient or inefficient design. From materials, fabrication and transportation to installation

Dave Cole, Director of Projects Solutions

and decommissioning, all carbon-producing aspects of projects are considered.

Getting to this point has not been entirely straightforward. Indeed, KBR has approached the building of CleanSPEND� in small blocks, first proving the concept and gathering feedback before moving on to broadening its capabilities. KBR has broad together an innovative team of engineers and software developers to create the system to extend the value insights it has achieved.

Today, KBR is still working with a select handful of clients to finalise the offering and make some final user interface adjustments. Interest has been strong, with international companies both IECs and IOCs. KBR is also working closely with clients to compare emissions with their teams on total scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

And it is easy to see why the concept appeals to the sector. If companies can accurately model emissions and how to reduce them before placing orders and starting construction work on projects, the potential to go green in a cost-efficient manner is clear.

Once fully deployed, CleanSPEND� could also turn into a significant and impactful system for KBR’s Client’s, the company are planning to roll it out on a subscription- service. Should it prove successful, the firm will doubtlessly contribute to the advancement of the energy transition agenda by unlocking the ability to enhance the sustainable credentials of projects before they take off.

About KBR

KBR delivers science, technology and engineering solutions to governments and companies performing diverse, complex and mission-critical roles in 34 countries. KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, and longterm operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results.

Story type

#sustainability (main category)

#digital, #innovation

Benefits

• Interest in the tool expressed by major global companies.

• Innovative project and investment in energy transition.

Key findings

For industry

• One good idea doesn’t make a differentiated solution. A few and you are a force to be reckoned with.

• Diverse teams solve complex problems

For government

• Ask projects to show their total lifecycle emissions and prove they have selected the lowest carbon intensive options.

KBR at a glance:

Key products and services: Project solutions, professional services across defence, intelligence, space, aviation, spanning research and development, advanced prototyping, acquisition support, systems engineering, cyber analysis, space domain awareness, supply chain management and more.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 16%

• Energy Transition – 3%

• SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) – 1%

• Others (government) – 80%

Headquarters: Houston, US

Year established: 1998

Number of employees: 28,000

Revenue: £5.3bn

Revenue from exports: 10%

Kent

A reshaped business designed to drive energy transition

major acquisition and is now looking to instil a new sense of energy into the industry with a focus on new technology, sustainability, culture, inclusion and belonging. Critically, however, it is determined to remain agile and maintain the ethos of the smaller, family-run businesses which has enabled it to get to this point.

How is Kent thriving?

After more than 100 years in operation, Kent is reshaping the business to lead the industry through the energy transition. With early buy-in among colleagues and clients achieved through careful and coordinated communication and support, the company is impressively ahead of schedule and on track to achieve several business targets by 2025.

The challenge

Kent’s philosophy is simple – to design, build and maintain the assets that power the world today, and make them future-ready for tomorrow.

Built up over 100 years, the company houses a formidable amount of knowledge that enables it to offer a truly cradle-to-grave service, from consulting to design, build, commissioning and start-up through to the maintenance and decommissioning of assets. And with projects executed in over 80 countries, Kent has a truly global footprint.

However, with the energy industry currently undergoing a seismic shift, companies need to adapt if they are to avoid being left behind. With the real threat of climate change, governments around the world are increasingly committing to new energies and technologies to drive the energy transition and achieve net zero. Kent’s leadership are determined to play a central role in this transition.

Recently, it quadrupled the size of the organisation with a

The solution

Following the acquisition, the Kent team took the time to articulate their ambitions and 2022 launched to employees at the industry at large their brave new purpose statement: “Courageously tackling the greatest challenge of our time to bring our world the energy it needs in the most responsible way ever imagined”.

To achieve this and drive the energy transition Kent focus on three core energy market streams that, come 2025, the company wants to derive its business from equally –conventional, low carbon & renewables, and process & chemicals, and they are well on track to achieve this.

Kent has identified four specific service lines that it believes will help it to differentiate from competitors from a technical perspective. Indeed, it now presents a full lifecycle service, covering consulting, engineering and projects, completions, commissioning and start-up, and operations and maintenance.

All of this is being delivered from three core regional bases covering EMEA, APAC and the Americas, and with specialist engineering hubs in Dubai, Houston, London, Perth and Mumbai.

Uniting their people under a common purpose has been critical to the rollout of the strategy, which is ahead of schedule despite only launching at the start of 2022.

John Gilley, CEO

With a commitment to authenticity and transparency, Kent leverages an omni-channel approach to their communications to keep colleagues informed and involved, including video content, social media, an employee engagement platform, Workvivo as well as townhalls led by senior leaders. Client communication and engagement has also been central to the success as they grow their solid reputation for true partnership and generally being good people to work with.

As a result of this coordinated communication exercise, stakeholders have been on board from the beginning, making the transition much more seamless than it otherwise may have been. Those working in conventional energy categories are still core to the strategy as these smart teams figure out ways to decarbonise and capture carbon from the production of traditional fossil fuels. These teams are also trained and supported to pivot into adjacent renewable markets where necessary, while new expertise has also been brought in to bolster Kent’s renewable and low carbon expertise. Implementing a flatter organisational structure has also helped with employee relations. The leadership team have always been committed to create the organisation of the future, with strong culture and transparency at its heart. With a flatter organisational structure, the company has benefitted from a more open-door culture where colleagues can have their ideas heard and there is greater crosscollaboration across different locations and teams.

Kent using its already outstanding credentials in energy transition projects as a springboard to achieve the company’s new vision. Indeed, it has a 30-year track record in low-carbon work, which includes being involved in 70% of the UK’s offshore wind schemes, more than 50 carbon capture projects globally, a strong presence in hydrogen and multiple waste to energy developments. Looking ahead, by 2025, the aim is for the low carbon and renewables business to make up 50% of total revenue.

During this time, the company also seeks to double its EBITDA. Having outperformed its budget to generate a revenue of $1,2m in 2022, momentum is certainly building. Coupled with a promising record of employee retention in such a hot market, the roll out of Kent’s future-forward strategy looks like an inspired move.

About Kent

Kent designs, builds and maintains the assets that power the world for today and make it future-ready for tomorrow. With 100 years of know-how, it works across the asset lifecycle from consulting to design, build, commissioning and start-up through to maintenance and decommissioning.

Story type

#transformation (main category)

#energy transition

Benefits

• Outstanding credentials in energy transition projects.

• The aim is for the low carbon and renewables business to make up 50% of total revenue.

Key findings

For industry

• This is a great time to be involved in this industry. The technological and digital innovations to make cleaner energies are fast and enormous.

• Be very sure of the purpose of the company ahead of anything else because this dictates the company’s strategy.

For government

• Demonisation of fossil fuels has led to a drain in investments. This needs to swing back to avoid future price spikes whilst building our capacity of clean renewable energy.

Kent at a glance:

Key products and services: From consulting to design, build, commissioning and start-up through to maintenance and decommissioning.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 40%

• Renewables – 34%

• Others (process and chemicals) – 26%

Headquarters: Dubai, UAE

Year established: 1919

Number of employees: 12,000+

Revenue: £1bn

Koil Energy Solutions

Embracing a new culture centred around innovation and energy transition

The primary concern was clear. How could the company overcome its challenges, transform under new leadership, and establish status as an important player in a rapidly evolving industry?

The solution

How is Koil Energy Solutions thriving?

Confronted with a series of challenges, Koil Energy has emerged thanks to a major strategic rethink and sweeping cultural change. In pivoting proactively towards energy transition technologies, the firm has succeeded in instilling a mindset shift across its employee base that is now focused on curious thinking, collaboration and innovation.

The challenge

Design, engineering, manufacturing, installation and aftermarket services provider Koil Energy (formerly Deep Down, Inc.) is an enterprise primarily focused on delivering subsea energy products and services.

Back in 2019, the firm faced turbulence and change in the aftermath of its founder retiring. With Charles Njuguna stepping into the role of CEO, he became tasked with steering the company in a new, futureproofed direction – challenging aspirations as Covid-19 hit just a few months later.

Faced with negative oil prices, increasingly intense energy transition demands and the volatility of the pandemic period, Koil was plunged into uncertainty. The bread and butter of its operations was centred around hydraulics – a specialism that the industry was speaking about leaving behind as organisations worldwide actively began moving away from oil and gas.

If Koil Energy was to transform effectively in an industry that was transitioning, significant change would be required. The organisation recognised it needed to retain the best parts of itself from the past, while repositioning for the future.

This strategic shift culminated in a rebrand in March 2022, the firm moving away from its former name as it pursued a new strategy pathway aimed at energising the future of the subsea energy sector while preserving a standard of creative solutions developed over the years.

“Koil Energy may be a new name, but our DNA remains the same… As our customers expand their horizons beyond traditional oil and gas, this move is a charge into a new era, with a steadfast commitment to what we pride ourselves on, nimbly finding unique ways to enhance offshore energy operations,” said Njuguna, commenting on the rebrand.

The focus of the strategic repositioning was two-pronged. First, the company sought to continue to have an intentional focus, whilst widening its reach in relation to innovative industry technologies. Expanding its reach beyond oil and gas required an internal cultural change. Second, to both influence and obtain buy-in to this cultural change, Koil Energy created cross-functional working groups to act as charters to drive cultural changes in various areas, including operational excellence, growth and sales, products and innovation, ESG and sustainability, brand and market perception, and talent development and retention.

Charles Njuguna, President & CEO

These groups provided Koil Energy’s employees with the platform to take ownership of the firm’s transition, encouraging them to think innovatively. It enabled engineers with a passion for marketing to contribute to marketing efforts, and service technicians to suggest process improvements outside their original areas.

The initiative has improved cross-functional relationships, providing staff members with the confidence to suggest and implement disruptive improvements and changes. To maximise involvement across the groups, Koil Energy has rotated participants across these charters. Further, the company moved into a new facility in September 2022. It has invested heavily in amenities such as flexible desks, creating an entirely new clean and modern look and feel. Its new campus now has state-of-the-art breakout rooms, a game centre, gym and wellness rooms. Critically, with everyone now operating out of one central location, the team has become increasingly unified, physically breaking down potential internal divisions.

While these cultural and office shifts underpin the core shift in thinking at Koil Energy as it moves into a new era, much has been achieved since Njuguna became CEO. The result of this focus on collaboration has been several changes. Indeed, the company is now more intentional in its efforts, slowing down the pace of change around HR initiatives to more effectively gauge and measure success, for example. And it has also revamped its paperwork, establishing a more precise, fluid and quality-centric system.

A deep dive into Koil Energy’s equipment strategy to position more effectively for energy transition has also led to several changes. Where the firm was historically provided multiquick connect (MQC) plates by others, it now manufacturers its own such products including a new version rated 20,000psi for new frontier energy projects, based on a patent-pending design containing 50% fewer unique part numbers, while increasing capacity by over 125%. These tweaks are testament to the company’s embrace of change. No longer do Koil Energy’s employees ask “if”, but “how”, with a mindset shift having swept across the company. With this philosophy now at the heart of the enterprise, it is now poised for innovation in the coming years.

About Koil Energy Solutions

Koil Energy is a leading energy services company offering subsea equipment and support services to the world’s energy and offshore industries. The company provides innovative solutions to complex customer challenges presented between the production facility and the energy sources. Formerly Deep Down, Inc., the Houston-based company was founded in 1997, and is comprised of world-class experts in engineering, manufacturing and offshore installation, with a fearless commitment to Energizing the Future.

Story type

#culture (main category)

#energy transition

Benefits

• Koil Energy better positioned for energy transition.

• Internal processes enhanced.

Key findings

For industry

• The oil & gas industry not done enough to drive the energy transition conversation. It is a source of good, it can drive the energy transition. Oil and gas can be part of the solution.

Koil Energy at a glance:

Key products and services: Design, engineering, manufacturing, installation and after-market services of subsea energy products and services.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 90%

• Renewables – 10%

Headquarters: Houston, US

Year established: 1997

Number of employees: 49

Revenue: £10.5m

Revenue from exports: 25%

Lloyd’s Register

Rebuilding its maritime and energy business from a stronger, more focused core

to grow it to £1.5 billion in size through a series of acquisitions. However, the strategy failed to deliver a setup that was cohesive – instead, the organisation had become fragmented and too thinly spread.

How is Lloyd’s Register thriving?

Following the oil price crash of the mid 2010s, Lloyd’s Register realised it needed to take stock. Its energy business had morphed into a fragmented and unfocused entity that was too thinly spread and in need of a solid foundation from which to built sustainably.

Tough decisions were made in the ensuing years. The firm opted to divest two of its divisions and reduce headcount from 10,000 to 3,500 employees, for example. However, today, the company’s offering in the maritime and offshore energy space is both focused and improved, helping it to rebuild its reputation as a trusted asset assurance partner to the oil and gas industry, enabling firms to thrive in today’s changing market.

The challenge

The crisis triggered by events in 2014 signalled the start of a difficult period for Lloyd’s Register. Financial performance took a hit in the following two years, prompting its leadership to change course. Complexity needed to be removed from the organisation – especially lines of business which were threatening to compromise the healthier facets of the company which were continuing to perform well.

Prior to the 2014 downturn, the group had major aspirations for its energy business, the objective being

Fundamental change was therefore required to create a more stable platform from which it could invest in growth once again.

The solution

A new maritime-centred vision was launched in 2016, with offshore carved out of the wider energy business. Two years later, the energy business itself was divested, with Vysus going its separate ways and leaving the offshore unit as the sole Lloyd’s Register division operating in the sector.

In 2020, the business assurance and inspection services division was also divested and now stands as an independent business named LRQA.

The offshore business thus reorganised itself around five core pillars:

• Asset Lifecycle: Helping clients to reduce operating costs with effective asset lifecycle planning and management.

• Asset of the Future: Gearing customers towards making smart spending choices on new technologies.

• Energy Transition: Adapting operations to help clients remain relevant in evolving energy markets.

• Decommissioning & Recycling: Expert solutions to help navigate the regulatory, legal and technical complexities involved with end-of-life strategies.

• Remote Services: Helping clients to increase their

Sean van der Post, Global Offshore Business Director

flexibility and work smarter with services powered by remote technologies.

With a newly streamlined and focused offshore/energy organisation, Lloyd’s Register went into the current decade optimistic about what lay ahead, not least because it had proper control over its strategy for the energy market once more.

Although the Covid-19 pandemic caused some confusion as to how to approach the oil and gas market, the events of 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have placed energy security front and centre of the political agenda, signalling an uptick investment which has opened many new doors for the company.

For example, it is now working with New Fortress Energy on how it can change the way LNG is brought into the US – a market which the firm had previously underexplored. A suite of nine projects, it is a novel challenge that involves installing a production facility on former Maersk jack ups, and is a perfect representation of where Lloyd’s Register sees a lot of potential moving forwards with its offshore business.

Overall, the pipeline for the year ending June 2023 already looks markedly higher, with activity in the first six months already 20% up compared to the full 12 months leading up to June 2022. Project win conversions have jumped from 26% to 42%, while staff turnover is less than 10%, a feat in itself given the disruptive market and restructuring that has occurred in the business.

With nuclear projects, especially around small modular reactors, also finding their way onto Lloyd’s Register’s books, there are now multiple avenues through which the company can continue its energy sector rebuilding exercise.

About Lloyd’s Register

Lloyd’s Register started out in 1760 as a marine classification society. Today, it’s one of the world’s leading providers of professional services for engineering and technology – improving safety and increasing the performance of critical infrastructures for customers in over 75 countries worldwide. Profits generated fund the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a charity which supports engineering-related research, education and public engagement around everything the company does.

Story type

#transformation (main category)

#service & solutions

Benefits

• Project win conversions jumped from 26% to 42%.

• Registered growth in nuclear projects.

Key findings

For industry

• Recognise role the audience has to play.

• Help the supply chain to make investments in energy transition.

For government

• Create the environment that stimulates the government’s ideas and aspirations.

• Provide policy necessary for cross industry collaboration.

Lloyd’s Register at a glance:

Key products and services: Oldest classification society, grown since then into other areas. Now the trusted advisor to maritime industry, with focus on the sustainable ocean economy.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 70%

• Renewables – 25%

• Energy Transition – 5%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 1760

Number of employees: 3,500

Revenue: £500

Revenue from exports: 75%

MaxGrip

Changing course to emerge stronger from the Covid downturn

How is MaxGrip thriving?

With its traditional lines of business drying up due to a reluctance of stakeholders in the Malaysian energy market to make capital investments, MaxGrip arrived at a critical crossroads at the end of 2020. Faced with difficult decisions, the company chose to realign its offering and present an asset management formula to clients which involves less risk and reduced upfront spend. Not only has this incremental offering proven popular, but also saved MaxGrip Malaysia in the process. Today, the global company stands in a more robust position than at any time since it started out in Malaysia in 2012.

The challenge

For more than a decade, MaxGrip Malaysia has been a helping hand for players in the energy sector, specialising in asset performance management. With a cohort of highly experienced and capable people on its books, the company soon expanded into a sizeable enterprise and built up an esteemed reputation among industry peers.

However, during the covid pandemic it was hit by a drying up of energy-focused investments in Malaysia and the broader APAC region. Indeed, it took the region considerably longer than Europe and the US to emerge out of the economic downturn (MaxGrip also has offices in Europe and US), the western hemisphere generally being more optimistic about leaving the pandemic behind it.

Unfortunately, MaxGrip APAC had to reduce its headcount by 40% at the end of 2020 due to the lack of business, a decision which was not taken lightly due to the fact that its USP is centred around the expertise of its people. Amid a difficult backdrop, MaxGrip needed to adapt its offering to remain relevant and get the most out of the experts that remained.

The solution

A crucial pivot was made when the company decided to develop a new offering that would require substantially less initial investment from clients.

Launched in 2021 and named the Asset Improvement Program (AIP), the solution is all about helping clients optimise the performance of their assets, on a technical and operational level. It centers around improving equipment reliability and asset integrity, maintenance & inspection efficiency, and providing insights and control. The AIP typically optimizes production output, reduces Total Cost of Ownership and overcomes compliance restraints.

The program has a 3-step approach: Asset Improvement Mapping (AIM), followed by the Asset Improvement Deployment (AID), and finally the Asset Improvement Rollout (AIR).

The first step (AIM) is an assessment, not an audit, of the asset performance improvement potential by evaluating and describing the current way of operating and how to improve. This includes developing a roadmap with shortterm wins and longer-term improvements. The second step (AID) is to select, together with the client, one or two improvement initiatives that MaxGrip helps deploy on a limited scale. This is a proof of concept to show it delivers the value MaxGrip claims.

Martijn van den Broecke, CEO

Finally, once a client is convinced of the value delivered in the PoC, the third and last step (AIR) is to scale up the program to a site-wide or multi-site level. The scale depends on a client’s expectations and ambitions.

This incremental approach has proven to customers that MaxGrip can realize results. This alleviated the hesitancy of customers to spend capital, and thus unlocked new opportunities for the company just when it looked as though revenue streams were being closed off.

Alongside this more flexible approach, MaxGrip has also turned to a more agile strategy towards resourcing, working around a core group of engineers with a pool of resources hired for specific projects only, as and when the business comes online. This has allowed it to grow and shrink as and when new projects take off or complete, at the same time enabling the firm to identify and permanently hire new talented people who add the most value.

Although some resistance to the new approach of identifying and implementing performance improvements has been met along the way, due to concerns among some client contacts that it would expose shortcomings of their own performance, the AIP has proven itself as a businesssaving strategy. In fact, MaxGrip has completed 158 AIMs which were done at sites in eighteen countries on four different continents.

Many clients have taken well to the programme, including a business operating in the food and beverage sector which has turned to MaxGrip to install a condition-based maintenance approach on its key equipment. Another key feature of the project has been the implementation of activity-based budgeting, as well as a split between reliability and maintenance engineering (which require different competencies). Results have already been positive, with an improvement being seen in the ration of preventive and corrective maintenance work being carried out.

As more and more successful implementations of AIP are added to MaxGrip’s portfolio, momentum will continue to build. Indeed, the company finds itself in a highly competitive position and on the path to growth once again, a situation that did not look plausible during the height of the pandemic when its conventional lines of business began to close off.

About Maxgrip

MaxGrip is a consultancy firm specialized in Asset Performance Management (APM). The results of MaxGrip’s approach are increased asset availability, enhanced reliability, higher efficiency, improved productivity, and significant cost reductions. MaxGrip was founded in 1997 and has offices in the Netherlands (HQ), US and Malaysia.

Story type

#transformation (main category)

#optimisation

Benefits

• Their agile way of resourcing.

• AIP’s success in creating a more flexible gated approach which has proven itself as a businesssaving strategy.

Key findings For industry

• Believe and invest in your USPs: why would a client choose you over another company? Focus on that.

• Be creative when times are tough. Reimagine and repackage your value propositions to fit the circumstances of that time.

Maxgrip at a glance:

Key products and services: Engineering services and strategic consulting for asset performance management.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 80%

• Conventional power – 10%

• Others (non-energy: pharmaceutical) – 10%

Headquarters: Utrecht, Netherlands

Year established: 2012 (Malaysia) (1997: Netherlands)

Number of employees: 30 (globally: 120+)

Revenue: £1.6m (in Malaysia)

Revenue from exports: 50%

MHB

Year of tremendous growth for MHB with net profi t surging to RM68m, the first NPAT since 2017

short, it had to demonstrate ‘adaptation’ and ‘prudence’ to reverse four straight years of losses and return to profitability.

The solution

How is MHB thriving?

Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Berhad (MHB) has embarked on a series of strategic shifts and transformations over the past two years, where these realignments have facilitated it to return to profitability at a far greater magnitude than previously expected. Now, with a healthy pipeline of projects awarded and currently being developed by both business divisions i.e., heavy engineering and marine, momentum is clearly gathering pace.

The challenge

The past decade has felt like an unrelenting conveyor belt of challenges. Year after year, companies operating in the energy space have been hit hard by the low oil price scenario from 2014/15, economic downturn and ongoing geopolitical tensions in various parts of the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic in particular has caused disruptions, for instance, forced shutdowns of activities, new safety procedures, and a crunch in the supply of labour which often relies on seamless cross-border travel.

MHB is no stranger to these dynamics. Faced with such a mix of challenges, its leadership embarked on a detailed reassessment of risks, challenges and opportunities. Indeed, if it was to emerge from this period of difficulty stronger, the company needed to realign its key strategic priorities to ensure sustainable growth and enhanced competitiveness. In

Having conducted a thorough strategic risks and opportunities assessment, MHB enacted several transformations through 2022 that have driven its turnaround.

The first focus was on capability development. Here, the company developed three functional core teams in the disciplines of Design Engineering, Transportation & Installation (T&I), and Hook-up & Commissioning (HUC). Alongside this, it also expanded the scope of its in-house work to strengthen self-reliance for critical processes, as well as upskilled numerous employees through external courses and on-the-job training.

Another key transformation executed was in the form of digitalisation. Named the PANTHERA initiative, the strategy centres around optimising and digitalising end-to-end Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation & Commissioning (EPCIC) supply chain management processes, from bid preparation through to end of warranty. Work processes will be documented, and data altered and used with transparency, reliability and traceability to establish a single source of truth for any particular project at any one time. Although this digitalising effort is still being implemented phase by phase, the company is already reaping its commercial benefits.

The third key focus concerns culture, especially in regard to the way MHB approaches risk management. Over the last two years, the company has totally revamped its risk-related processes, setting up a host of standard procedures that made risk management compulsory, clear and transparent

Pandai Othman, CEO and Managing Director

for prudent decision making. To this end, MHB has averted financially onerous projects and risky investments.

Finally, the company has been ironing out critical issues that have led to project delivery challenges across every department of heavy engineering. This has involved identifying gaps in personnel and process, leading to the creation of 30 mitigation plans which were executed and tracked progressively. Most of these gaps have been closed, notably in areas around the bidding process as well as activities in the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) verification.

Implementing such root-and-branch changes has not been without its obstacles. It has required a mindset shift for all employees, moving away from a focus on individual roles into holding a sense of accountability and understanding on how they contribute to the overall business. Employees have also had to be reassured during periods of financial losses, with communication of turnaround strategies and successes being critical to keeping people motivated, optimistic and on board.

All these initiatives have fuelled a remarkable financial recovery through 2022. Headline figures for the year include a total order book of RM6.6bn, which was among the highest in MHB’s 50-year history, and a profit of RM68m, first net profit after tax (NPAT) since 2017. Both the heavy engineering and marine divisions have played their part. The former, for example, was awarded the Kasawari Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) project, the first of its kind in Malaysia and the world’s largest offshore CCS project by volume of CO2 captured. Meanwhile, the marine division secured 53 projects from 41 new clients, 31 of these being international customers. This paints a much more optimistic picture than what MHB was faced with at the start of 2022. Having remained measured and taken the time to evaluate the areas in need of transformation, the company is now very much on an upward trajectory and once again firing on all cylinders.

About MHB

MHB is a globally trusted energy and marine solutions provider for a wide range of offshore and onshore facilities and vessels. It has 50 years of track record in delivering integrated and complex solutions to international oil & gas clients. Owns and operates the largest fabrication yard in Malaysia and Southeast Asia that is equipped with world-class facilities, MHB is recognised for its expertise in offshore deepwater fabrication, offshore conversion services and ship repair which include LNG carrier repair and dry docking. MHB also owns three dry docks which are amongst the largest dry docks in Southeast Asia. MHB is also commonly known as Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd or simply MMHE, its wholly owned subsidiary and main operating entity.

Story type #transformation (main category)

Benefits

• Headline figures for the year include a total order book of RM6.6bn, which was among the highest in MHB’s 50-year history, and a profit of RM68m, first net profit after tax (NPAT) since 2017.

Key findings

For industry

• Be meticulous and precise when considering the risk of any venture. Always ensure that you are able to deliver on your promise in order to maintain your client’s trust.

• Your people are your biggest asset. Take care of them through tough times, guide them to perform their duties with sincerity and integrity.

For government

• Implement easy and clear tax facilities for export products via specific export schemes, as well as tax exemption on import duties and sales tax on material purchased or imported for construction/ production of the products for export.

MHB at a glance:

Key products and services: full EPCIC services for the offshore energy industry; and comprehensive marine services (repair, maintenance, conversion, refurbishment, etc) for all types of marine facilities

Main industries served:

• Heavy Engineering – 79.6%

– Oil & Gas

– Energy Transition

• Marine Repair and Maintenance - 20.4%

Headquarters: Menara Dayabumi, Malaysia

Year established: 1973

Number of employees: 3,933

Revenue: £278m

Revenue from exports: 20%

Mott MacDonald

Helping to put hydrogen on the European clean energy map

if targets such as those outlined in the Paris Agreement are to be met.

How is Mott MacDonald thriving?

Having already proven itself as an early backer of new technologies when it picked up a significant market share in carbon capture more than a decade ago, Mott MacDonald continues to place its faith in solutions designed to advance the journey to net zero by 2050.

Of particular note is its current involvement in developing hydrogen (H2) production capabilities in Northern Europe, the company taking on the role as a technical and commercial partner in a project to develop a network of offshore wind farms in the North Sea that will power onshore green H2 production. Given the project is backed by a consortium of industry heavyweights, the contract award is another major feather in Mott MacDonald’s extensive cap.

The challenge

A longstanding, multi-sector engineering and management consultancy service provider, Mott MacDonald has witnessed first-hand the peaks, troughs, breakthroughs and challenges facing the energy sector over recent decades.

Today’s challenge very much centres around how to transition to a net zero society in a way that is feasible by 2050. The UK, along with many other nations, has made strong commitments that continue to be solidified at successive COP conferences, and time is getting away

Mott MacDonald can approach this challenge from a privileged position. Thanks to its formidable experience, it is able to help set industry thinking and passionately cares about meeting 2050 deadlines. The key question facing the company, therefore, lies in what projects to back and to ensure that its skills and knowledge are both futureproofed and invested in the right areas.

The solution

The company has been a proactive exponent of its partnership with EIC. Leveraging its contacts and information hub, it has been able to identify energy transition trends early and therefore invest in the relevant people and capabilities ahead of the curve, a formula which has won over clients time after time.

This was undoubtedly the case with carbon capture, a technology it placed huge faith in and resultantly gained a significant market share in the early UK market. This included the installation of carbon capture and storage at Longannet power station in Scotland, a UK first at the time (2009).

Today, it is actively positioning itself in the thermal energy transition market, as well as various applications of green hydrogen and associated products such as ammonia, ethanol and e-fuels. Indeed, hydrogen has been on the company’s radar for at least six years, with activity in this space snowballing since the turn of the decade.

In 2021, Mott MacDonald secured involvement as the principle technical and commercial partner for NortH2,

Prem Mahi, Technical Excellence Director – Energy

an international consortium that is jointly investigating the feasibility of large-scale production, storage and transmission of green hydrogen in north-western Europe.

Made up of Groningen Seaports, Eneco, RWE, Equinor and Shell, the group is investigating how a large-scale supply of hydrogen fuel can be achieved by working together on all aspects of the supply chain – from wind energy and electrolysis to transmission and storage. Ultimately, its aim is to supply industry with 4GW of green hydrogen by 2030 and 10GW per year by 2040, at which time it will be producing 1,000,000 metric tons on an annual basis.

With its multifaced expertise and track record for backing technologies in their early days of development, Mott MacDonald is perfectly positioned to support NortH2. The work entails a technical scope, as well as consultancy on health and safety, commercial, permitting, and environmental and social issues. Phase one involved calculating potential costs to produce the hydrogen, with phase two currently looking deeply into various engineering and technology solutions to make the project viable. Once these studies have been completed, positioning for phase three and the introduction of architect engineers will begin.

Although still at a relatively early stage, Mott MacDonald’s involvement to date is testament to how the company is viewed by some of Europe’s most prolific developers. The company has form in making the right call on emerging energy technologies, a track record that has paved the way for the opening of yet another door into energy transition and Europe’s net zero journey.

About Mott MacDonald

Mott MacDonald has a uniquely diverse range of consultants delivering extremely high profile projects across the world. Their purpose is to improve society by considering social outcomes, relentlessly focusing on excellence and digital innovation, transforming clients’ businesses, communities and employee opportunities.

Story type

#energy transition (main category)

#people & competency, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Efforts towards energy transition and net-zero goals.

• The company’s good reputation among some of Europe’s most prolific developers.

Key findings

For industry

• Energy transition will happen, don’t be afraid of it. Have a flexible mind.

• Identify the key players. It’s difficult to get action with too many players involved.

For government

• Mandate carbon capture on all thermal power plants before moving to other policies.

Mott MacDonald at a glance:

Key products and services: Multi-sector engineering and management consultancy service. The sectors covered are transport, energy, water and buildings and cities. Also, international development sector.

Main industries served:

• Conventional fuels – 10%

• Conventional power – 25%

• Nuclear power – 35%

• Renewables – 15%

• Energy Transition – 15%

Headquarters: Croydon, UK

Year established: 1989

Number of employees: 18,000 (Global), 8,000 (UK)

Revenue: £2bn (Mott MacDonald turnover), £300m (Energy turnover)

Revenue from exports: 70%

MSTS Asia

A fresh approach to HR to overcome talent retention and development challenges

Covid-19, therefore, hit the company hard. A tough decision had to be made to balance human capital and the company’s survival – during that period, many employees had to be put under a mandatory separation scheme, and others that stayed on were unable to travel to client sites and forced to work from home.

How is MSTS Asia thriving?

Forced to change its service delivering model almost overnight due to the impact of Covid-19, Malaysia’s MSTS faced an acute employee morale and retention problem after switching to a remote working model.

However, thanks to a newly shaped HR function, skills gaps are being better identified and acted upon, and staff are genuinely having their voices heard. And although the process has not been entirely plain sailing, the company has been willing to adapt and change as situations evolve, with communication being key to keeping colleagues on board and engaged.

Today, MSTS stands far better positioned to provide value to its clients. Revenues and profits have also recovered to the sort of levels seen prior to 2020.

The challenge

As a company which specialises in the delivery of safety training and consultancy services to critical industries such as the energy sector, MSTS relies heavily on face-toface interaction to offer a best-in-kind service and value for clients.

MSTS turned to digitisation. The theory section of its training offering was converted to an e-learning platform, its trainers now delivering content using cameras and online facilities from home. The company also upgraded its servers, switching to SharePoint and cloud-based software to enable it to conduct seamless and standardised lessons without compromising the quality of teaching.

However, post Covid MSTS saw large numbers of resignations due to changes in the workplace environment. A major hurdle to overcome, the situation demanded a fresh approach to talent retention and staff development.

The solution

In response, MSTS introduced a new style of HR. Rebranded as a People and Culture department, the function is now viewed as a genuine business partner as opposed to a body that just oversees hiring.

A first key step has been keeping the head of HR informed of operational happenings on a weekly basis, allowing them to better understand the company’s competency gaps while also connecting with employees and catering to their development needs. In tandem, MSTS has created

Syed Muzakir, Managing Director

a new culture of responsibility and accountability in every aspect of the process, defined by open discussion where suggestions are welcome at every level of the business.

Meanwhile, new KPIs and more balanced scorecards which focus on measurable targets have been introduced. And alongside identifying and plugging gaps in technical knowledge, the company has conducted soft skills training sessions across all teams and locations to help bring team members closer together.

The key to the success of this transition has been removing any element of a top-down approach. Employees are routinely consulted, and the company is now a much better listener thanks to its repurposed HR team.

Indeed, it has been open to a trial-and-error approach, testing new strategies and replanning as situations change. This has required careful and constant communication with staff, an effective method being quarterly town halls whereby all employees are invited to participate in two-way discussions. Feedback on everything from e-learning content to facilities upkeep is also gathered regularly, providing important analysis that informs updates on an ongoing basis.

Today, the company very much feels like a unified force once again. Morale has improved, while revenues and profits are recovering to levels seen before the pandemic.

Looking ahead, MSTS aims to continue providing industryleading value for money, offering the most up to date learning modules which are continually reviewed and developed to meet ever-changing industry requirements. With its own operations back onto a firm footing, its remotivated team are well-positioned to drive forward in the future.

About MSTS Asia

MSTS Asia is a highly reputable organization that provides internationally accredited safety training and consultancy services to safety-critical industries and the public sectors in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Story type

#transformation (main category)

#culture

Benefits

• Transformation in work environment.

• Revenues and profits are recovering to levels seen before the pandemic.

Key findings

For industry

• Be resilient in ever-changing economic circumstances. Strategies are not cast in stone.

• A good leadership style is needed in the world we live in today. No longer a top-to-bottom approach. The younger generation needs to feel that their voices and concerns are heard.

For government

• More tax cut for companies that spend money on developing staff.

MSTS Asia at a glance:

Key products and services: Safety training, digital solutions, e-learning, LMS, managed services, applications, simulations and control of work.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 60%

• Renewables – 20%

• Others (maritime, construction, safety courses) –20%

Headquarters: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Year established: 2000

Number of employees: 100

Revenue: £8.1m

Myrcator Marine & Cargo Solutions

Excelling as a fledgling enterprise through a focus on quality and integrity

How is Myrcator Marine & Cargo Solutions thriving?

Despite being founded during the height of the pandemic and facing several challenges during its inception, Myrcator Marine & Cargo Solutions has successfully established itself as a leading industry consultancy. Driven by its core values of integrity and quality, the firm’s commitment to providing exceptional services has enabled to retain its core client base and quickly amass annual revenues exceeding USD$250,000.

The challenge

Myrcator Marine & Cargo Solutions is a client-tailored marine consultancy providing specialised inspections, project cargo supervision and expert witness services to organisations operating across the energy sector.

Established in 2020, CEO Cris Partridge had a clear vision for what he wanted to company to be. Bringing his extensive experience to the table, the desire centred around providing agile, market-leading services, avoiding any engagement in the race to the bottom and an erosion of standards in favour of integrity and quality.

Unfortunately, the company didn’t enjoy the easiest of beginnings. Founded during the height of the pandemic, it was launched into a tough operating and economic climate.

While Covid-19 was embraced as an opportunity rather than an obstacle, several additional challenges equally emerged, Partridge facing significant obstacles in even setting up the company and dealing with the extensive bureaucracy involved. Further, the firm immediately faced and continues to attempt to navigate issues surrounding vessel charter rates placed upon vessel operators.

However, despite the odds being stacked against it, Myrcator has emerged as a successful enterprise now entering its third year of operation.

The solution

From the outset, Myrcator was focused on establishing a reputation for delivering quality work on time while helping its clients to find solutions to problems rather than causing more. As a result, the firm’s growth strategy has centred around evolving capabilities in response to client demands, Partridge keen to ensure that the company never wavers from its intended path.

As its clients’ needs have become clearer, Myrcator has honed on in catering to these specific requirements, developing and mastering a specialised set of services that it has continued to perform well with over time, consolidating its trusted reputation.

While its launch in 2020 was by no means easy, the recency of the company has provided it with a key competitive advantage, its agility enabling it to react and response to market needs in this way at speed.

Cris Partridge, Managing Director

Indeed, from day one the firm embraced modern and novel ways of working. In adopting technologies and embracing solutions such as the use of tablets for surveys, live video feeds to owners who are remote from their vessels, and online groups to provide real time updates to clients, it has become renowned as an innovator in its specific market segment.

This doesn’t mean that Myrcator is always the cheapest, yet the firm is fundamentally focused on quality, integrity and attention to detail, refusing to cut critical corners in an attempt to compromise on price.

Indeed, the value of its work is evident in several completed projects. In working with one offshore construction company, for example, Myrcator was commissioned to deliver a comprehensive package of services spanning SMS, ISPS and MLC to Mooring Analyses, a SAR plan and Evacuation Plan for two offshore construction barges.

Despite the large scope of work, the entire package was delivered within five months, with the barges subsequently being approved for operation in India, enabling the client to commence a key contract.

Indeed, the company’s success is reflected in its revenues, these having grown year over year with the organisation now established as a quarter of a million-dollar revenue entity, as of 2022. Further, the firm has consistently expanded and retained its client base, with a quarter of its new business actually stemming from external recommendations, referrals and word of mouth.

Since day one, Myrcator has focused on the ethical, professional, and responsible provision of services. And almost three years on, despite having evolved dramatically as it has overcome several early challenges, these core values remain at the very centre of the organisation’s operational mandate.

In sticking to its basic principles of quality and accountability as a sound benchmark of performance, the firm looks well placed to enhance its reputation and further establish itself in the market moving forward.

About Myrcator Marine & Cargo Solutions

Myrcator Marine & Cargo Solutions FZE, established in 2020 and based in the UAE, is a reputable global provider of marine and project cargo related consultancy and inspection services to many international clients. By valuing honesty and integrity above all else, they are proud that 80% of their business consists of repeat customers who continue to trust them with delivering exceptional professional solutions no matter the location.

Story type

#people & competency (main category)

#culture

Benefits

• Several successful completed projects.

• Company’s success is reflected in its revenues, £205,000 as of 2022.

Key findings

For industry

• Research the market, be confident in your abilities and deliver on promises.

• Be master of a few, not jack of all trades. Don’t try to offer everything if you won’t be good at it.

• You are only as good as your last deliverable, integrity is everything.

Myrcator Marine & Cargo Solutions at a glance:

Key products and services: Client tailored marine consultancy, specialized marine inspections, project cargo supervision and expert witness services.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 50%

• Others (logistics, project cargo carriers, S&P brokers…) – 50%

Headquarters: Abu Dhabi, UAE

Year established: 2020

Number of employees: 1

Revenue: £205,000

Revenue from exports: 80%

NMT

Facing up to a series of challenges to remain a competitive supplier in the Nigerian oil and gas sector

More recent years have required NMT to demonstrate resilience to maintain its esteemed reputation across the country – the challenges it has faced have been multifaceted and, in many cases, complex due to ongoing events.

How is NMT thriving?

Nigeria Machine Tools (NMT), some 40 years in the making, has had to overcome a series of challenges of late. Today, the OEM is a leading integrated engineering and manufacturing company offering engineering solutions for piping packages and anti-corrosion protection within the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, a status which it has worked hard to maintain.

Indeed, the company has come up against several obstacles relating to technology, inflation, talent and world’s socio-political instability in recent times, not forgetting the enormously disruptive period caused by the pandemic.

Fast forward to 2023, and the firm now looks set to continue thriving as a heritage brand within Nigeria and a key supporter of various national industries.

The challenge

The 2010s was a landmark decade for NMT. The company, which produces a range of stud bolts and nuts, industrial and municipal castings, flanges and customised industrial spares, as well as providing technical training services, secured its ISO certification in 2014. A year later, it achieved its first OEM approval status with Shell Nigeria, the firm now also an in-country OEM for Chevron, Total Energies and ExxonMobil.

The solution

Despite the challenges, NMT has shown an ability to adapt, graft and innovate to stay on top of its game.

For example, the current inflation rate in Nigeria is 21%, a reality which has made it extremely difficult to be competitive in the local market, especially when up against competitors from China and other Asian suppliers for contracts. Energy bills have risen by more than 50%, while freight and transportation costs have soared by over 85% in a short space of time.

While there is not a huge amount NMT can do to alter the bigger inflationary picture, the company is working closely with Nigerian governing authorities, regulatory bodies and other key stakeholders in an attempt to find resolutions. It has also implemented cost saving strategies, including a careful, price forecast-driven approach to purchasing raw materials.

Another major challenge centres around attracting and retaining engineering talent. Many technically qualified and young engineers leave the country to pursue opportunities in Europe and other developed markets, leaving a sizeable skills gap that NMT has to try and fill. To do so, the company invests heavily in training programmes, giving trainees exposure to real life experiences on the shop floor so they can learn first-hand about industrial processes. In addition, the firm is savvy when it comes to communicating to the younger workforce, making use

Obehi Ojeaga, General Manager Business Development

of social media platforms and video reels to highlight the opportunities to be had by staying local and making a career in the sector. This approach has helped to keep the talent pipeline intact.

Meanwhile, one of the key longer-term challenges involves staying up to date with technological advances. Access to technology specific to manufacturing and other areas of the business has been testing from the very early days. In addition, when technology has been installed, certification and approvals processes often take a long time to come through – often, by the time this had happened, the solution in question was already outdated.

Despite this, NMT continues to commit to sustained investment in its workshops, machines, front end engineering, reverse engineering, and up and coming technology such as 3D printing. Key to this has been working with the right partners who invest in their clients by sending engineers across the world to provide face-to-face service.

The Covid pandemic also hit NMT hard. And while the practical difficulties caused by curfews and restrictions of movements quickly became a key point of difficulty, the company was able to turn the situation into a positive, securing contracts over competition from abroad owing to its ability to supply products locally within a few weeks.

Today, although many of these challenges continue to rear their heads, NMT still stands strong as a proud local supplier to Nigerian industries. A vital manufacturing hub with 110 hectares of space at its disposal, the company will be a go-to partner for many industrial players in the country for years to come.

About NMT

NMT is the leading manufacturer of machine tools machine accessories, mechanical spares and after sales support provider in West Africa. Its assembly, production capabilities and plant facilities make NMT the preferred provider of some of the most complex machinery tools and varied equipment. The company is further engaged in the manufacture and production of industrial spare parts and fittings for energy and power, defense, and iron and steel industries; manpower training in various engineering and technological fields; and provision of after-sales and consultancy services.

Story type

#optimisation (main category)

#resilience

Benefits

• Company reputation maintained through difficult times.

• Local production and supply sustained.

Key findings

For industry

• Employ lean manufacturing strategies as much as possible as a means of improving cost effectiveness.

• Aim to sustain quality drive in your operations.

For government

• Encourage in-country manufacturers of goods by instituting policies that mandate patronage for in-country manufacturing commodities in place of imported equivalent.

• Review import tariff on steel raw materials considering the unavailability of raw materials incountry.

NMT at a glance:

Key products and services: Manufacture of machine tools and accessories.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 60%

• Others (defence, telecoms, construction, agrobusiness) – 40%

Headquarters: Lagos, Nigeria

Year established: 1980

Number of employees: 101

Oceanica

Serving the market with Divers of the Future

The solution

Rather than stand still and watch the business slowly but inevitably dwindle, Oceanica was determined to find another way to serve Petrobras and the broader oil and gas market.

How is Oceanica thriving?

Faced with a difficult situation where its main client was seeking to withdraw human diving from its operations, Oceanica made an important pivot to enter the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and diving support vessel space. A decade on, and that decision appears to have paid dividends with a series of contract wins and asset investments helping the company to stand taller than ever before on its own two feet.

The challenge

Specialist diving company Oceanica, until 2013, was primarily providing services to Brazil’s state-owned national oil company Petrobras. The business was delivering solid revenues, the work completed by its highly experienced team of divers providing the firm with stable footing for many years, with some personnel having been on the books for more than three decades.

However, despite zero fatal incidents occurring involving divers during this time, Petrobras started to signal safety concerns, and in turn sought to avoid diving. The client asked third-party companies such as Oceanica to seek replacements for divers abroad – indeed, it soon became clear that the diving service would be discontinued.

In conducting several studies, the company found that the market was chartering vessels and concluded that it could provide support vessels for diving. With financial backing from Brazil’s National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), Oceanica began to construct two vessels and acquire remote operated vehicles observation ROVs capable of going up to 1000 m. Petrobras then launched tenders in the market, a sign that Oceanica had pivoted in the right direction.

That said, the diving market did not contract as much as the firm feared. In response, it created a programme entitled ‘Divers of the Future’, that provide training for their divers interested in ROV operations. This has enabled most of the workforce to remain, with 68% choosing to participate in the new, more flexible setup which has also seen a large upskilling exercise take place to bring traditional divers up to speed with new ROV technologies.

By 2014, the company was operational in the ROV space with two vessels and working again on multiple contracts, including for Petrobras, covering both service provision and vessel chartering. Over the next few years, the company not only fulfilled these contract scopes, but also deepened its focus on ROVs and acquired a further two vessels to bring its fleet to four units.

A fresh round of contract bidding took place in 2018/2019,

Marcia Cristina Dias, Commercial Coordinator

with four more contracts being secured for service and vessel chartering – this has allowed the company to equip its ROVs with new vessels, such as SDSV shallow diving support vessels, which are lighter, more robust and consume less fuel.

Come 2022, with these contracts reaching expiration, Oceanica decided to finance its own investments into acquiring the resources needed to secure more work. To this end, the firm has hired more ROV support vessels (RSVs) and anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessels, and in 2023 has committed to investing in seven vessels, five of which they already own. This will enable Oceanica to fulfil the scope of the contracts it has secured – this year alone, it has won 14 contracts, half of which relate to vessels.

A further sign of how far the company has come is its growth in headcount. In 2018, it had 622 employees on its books, a workforce which has swarmed to more than 2,000 people who work out of three operational bases – one in Rio das Ostras, and two in Macaé.

The future certainly looks bright following the decision made a decade ago to adapt with the times. Indeed, as the company continues to gather momentum through 2023, it now has the all-important financial independence it needs to chart its own course.

About Oceanica

With more than 45 years of existence, Oceanica develops subsea solutions for the offshore energy industry. The Brazilian company acts in prevention, contingency and engineering, seeking to mitigate the risk of possible environmental impacts in clients’ activities and increasing the useful life of their assets. They offer inspection, repair, intervention, and monitoring services for underwater and underwater structures. The company also develops complete solutions for customers, creating and optimizing engineering resources.

Story type #resilience (main category)

Benefits

• Significant contracts win.

• Financial independence.

Key findings

For industry

• Be resilient and well-grounded.

• Surround yourself with good partners and reliable information.

Oceanica at a glance:

Key products and services: Services and technological solutions for companies with underwater activities.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 100%

Headquarters: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Year established: 1978

Number of employees: +2,000

Oilfield Offshore

Turning the challenges of Covid-19 into a springboard for success

unable to meet either its customers or its new strategic international partner that it had become dependent upon for technical support. With business also dropping, the firm had to resort to non-oil and gas opportunities in order to stay afloat, all while tapping into its internal cash reserves and new funding to survive.

How is Oilfield Offshore thriving?

Oilfield Offshore, a Malaysian provider of specialised pipeline inspection services, has overcome the uncertainty of pandemic period with incredible resilience. With extensive investments into its product development and backed by highly strategic, supportive partnerships, the firm has achieved accreditation with Petronas – an endorsement that it is tapping into as it now eyes overseas markets for expansion.

The challenge

Oilfield Offshore’s challenges began before the outbreak of Covid-19. Following an internal dispute among its shareholders, the original business was split into two separate entities, this having been an extremely challenging and taxing process.

During this time, the company found a new, strong overseas partner and funding from a new shareholder –partnerships that provided a renewed sense of optimism alongside the organisation’s confidence in its product. Unfortunately, the pandemic complicated matters considerably thereafter.

Lockdowns left Oilfield Offshore in a position where it was

However, in spite of these challenges, work was taking place behind the scenes that would enable the firm to excel once the worst of the pandemic had passed.

The solution

Faced with lockdowns and the resultant mass disruption, Oilfield Offshores redirected efforts into research and product development to enhance cost-effectiveness for its customers. Critically, this period saw the company successfully convince its new overseas partner to transfer some of its technology – a partnership which soon became vital.

Indeed, winning over the overseas partner in this way needed to happen for the firm to move forward with its product improvement strategy and in turn begin to approach Petronas as the local NOC. With the overseas partner’s blessings and partnership, a newly improved MTM-G (magnetic gradient tomography method) inspection technology is developed and Oilfield Offshore started to make approaches to Petronas. After several demonstrations and meetings, Petronas agreed to adopt its product as part of its official guidelines in inspection activities.

Not only that, but Oilfield Offshore critically achieved

Muhamad Paizal Othman, MD

Technology Readiness Level 7 (TRL-7), its product having been verified by Petronas’s technical teams and found to have acceptable reliability and demonstrate low risk of early life failure.

This was a key breakthrough for the company. From that point onwards, MTM-G’s specifications were adopted by Petronas in its Technical Guidelines documents, ensuring Oilfield Offshore has consistently been invited by the NOC to tender for specialised pipeline inspection jobs.

This has by no means been an easy journey. While the initial company split and pandemic presented several significant challenges, Oilfield Offshore has also experienced internal resistance to change. However, with Petronas’s backing, the firm has enjoyed what may have been unforeseen (but extremely welcome) success.

Today, it is waiting for several project awards in a number of countries in the Middle East, the company well placed to secure these contracts thanks to the direct endorsements having been received from Petronas. And it is also now eyeing expansion into other regions around the world.

Looking back, although the covid period was challenging, it was also instrumental in propelling the firm forward. Indeed, the figures do not lie. Revenues tripled between 2021 and 2022, with many of these extra funds having been directly reinvested into the further product development efforts – a strategy that looks like it will only continue to pay dividends moving forwards.

About Oilfield Offshore

Oilfield Offshore Underwriting Limited (OOUL) is a managing general agent which underwrites energy risks on behalf of several Lloyd’s syndicates and Company markets. OOUL’s predominant focus is upstream energy risks, including onshore and offshore coverages, both operational and construction.

Story type

#technology (main category)

#resilience

Benefits

• Revenues tripled between 2021 and 2022.

• Extra funds directly reinvested into the further product development efforts.

Key findings

For industry

• Always increase your knowledge, especially in communication skills.

• Learn from listening and observing others.

• Be humble and introspect to audit yourself. It’s through this that we will be able to maneuver the challenges ahead of us.

Oilfield Offshore at a glance:

Key products and services: Specialised in pipeline inspection, integrity assessment, corrosion and associated oil and gas business. OOSSB also provides technical advice for other Corrosion and NDT technical aspects. OOSSB has now embarked into catering the requirement and compliance for Environmental Consultancy and Industrial Hygiene Consultancy & Services.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 100%

Headquarters: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Year established: 2011

Number of employees: 11

Revenue from exports: 40%

Penspen

Developing an Aberdeen base to grow regional energy capabilities

employee headcount, regional talent attraction and retention, as well as high client satisfaction levels proofed by the securing of near 30 new energy projects.

The challenge

How is Penspen thriving?

Leading global energy consultancy company Penspen has reactivated its presence in Aberdeen – the UK’s foremost energy hub and long the backbone of the region’s economy with its well-established oil and gas infrastructure. After taking the difficult decision to close down the Penspen Aberdeen office in 2017 on the back of the oil crisis that beset the industry throughout the 2010s, the company is now well underway with the establishment of its new base. Destined to play a vital part of the business strategy, it will help to grow energy capabilities across the industry, the region and beyond.

In light of recovering activity in the North Sea and other opportunities in the energy market, Penspen opened its new Aberdeen office in 2019, which has since expanded to occupy two offices employing over 20 highly skilled energy experts with extensive experience in the sector. From traditional onshore and offshore projects for oil and gas – to first-of-a-kind projects to support the energy transition – the regional teams provide consulting, project, and engineering solutions focused on safety, cost management, environmental responsibility, and regulatory compliance across the entire asset lifecycle.

Although it is still relatively early days for the revived Aberdeen base, the company is experiencing good momentum with measured success such as increased

The oil crisis throughout the 2010s had a significant impact on both the local economy and the energy industry in Aberdeen. As a major hub for the oil and gas industry, many companies in the region were forced to cut costs, downsize or close down operations, resulting in job losses and a slowdown in economic growth.

However, the said crisis also generated innovation and transformation in the industry, as companies sought new ways to operate more efficiently and sustainably. This in turn saw important changes that will continue to shape the industry for decades to come such as increased investment in renewable energy sources.

For the energy sector in Aberdeen specifically, this means that operating companies will need to continue innovating and adapting to the changing market conditions and fluctuating trends globally. Evident is the significant need for transformation as the industry seeks to reduce its carbon footprint through the development of new technologies and services focused on offshore wind, wave, and tidal energy, as well as the development of hydrogen production, and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies. Investing in new technology and infrastructure to meet the demands of a rapidly changing energy landscape will be crucial.

The solution

Penspen has over the past 70 years delivered over 10,000 projects across more than 100 countries.

Fraser Ross, Project Manager Greg Carnie, Engineer Project Manager – Europe

Pairing the company’s extensive experience in the North Sea region with the expertise in offshore engineering and pipeline design, its team of engineers have the knowledge required to help the energy sector in Aberdeen navigate industry challenges and balance the need to operate profitably with the responsibility to operate safely, sustainably, and in compliance with regulations. Having access to other project execution centres, such as London and Newcastle, provide additional engineering expertise as required to ensure the delivery of bestin-class industry standards and beneficial solutions to clients.

As the energy demand intensifies, so too will the need for skills that can make energy optimisation a must. Penspen is dedicated to its diverse, highly skilled team, and is committed to developing career opportunities for engineers at all levels. By offering attractive employee benefits such as training and development opportunities, a multi-disciplinary work environment, and access to some of the most exciting energy projects in the world, the company can attract and retain the best talent. As a result, the employee headcount of the regional team consisting of both young and seasoned engineers, has quickly expanded from 3 to 20 with a trajectory of further growth during 2023 and beyond.

In just a few years, Aberdeen has proven itself as a central strategic base for Penspen in Europe, one that will see the company continuing to strive and thrive alongside its clients and partners in the region for years to come.

About Penspen

Penspen is a global team who designs, maintains, and optimises energy infrastructure to improve access to sustainable energy for communities worldwide. The company helps to meet the world’s evolving energy needs by providing consulting, project, and engineering solutions across the entire energy asset lifecycle.

Penspen has been at the forefront of the energy transition over the past 60 years, delivering more than 10,000 projects in over 100 countries. By helping countries access lower carbon fuels and by extending the useful life of existing energy infrastructure, the company helps bring cleaner energy to millions of people in thousands of communities across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, the UK, and the US.

As a proud member of the Dar Group, a leading, privately-owned professional services group with awardwinning impact and global reach, Penspen’s clients have access to multi-disciplinary solutions that deliver social and community impact through quality, innovation, collaboration, sustainability, and technology.

Story type

#people & competency (main category)

#service & solutions

Benefits

• Setting the foundations for a future company hub in Aberdeen .

• Partnering with industry peers to deliver the pathway to net zero.

• Investing in next-generation engineering talents alongside experienced team members.

Key findings

For industry

• Be agile and evolve.

• Make sure you can justify your business actions and the legacy you leave behind – the actions of today will be remembered forever.

For government

• Develop consistency and have scientific rigor.

Penspen at a glance:

Key products and services: Global energy consultancy services across the entire asset lifecycle: engineering, project management, asset integrity, asset management, digital data management, energy transition, training and knowledge enhancement.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 75%

• Renewables and Energy Transition – 25%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 1954

Number of employees: +1,000

Petronash

Harnessing technology and service diversification to overcome market volatility in the oil and gas sector

to reposition itself as an engineering solutions company, a move which has enabled it to diversify into brownfield projects across processing, drilling, well testing, coiled tubing, intervention, and production activities.

How is Petronash thriving?

With its core line of business having been subjected to the stop-start nature of greenfield oil and gas projects, Petronash made the bold decision to broaden its horizons and offer more to its customers. Leveraging its already extensive in-house expertise and partnering with a highly able technology vendor, the company now offers a smarter approach that enables clients to prolong the life of their assets.

The challenge

Since the turn of the millennium, UAE-based Petronash has been helping its clients to maximise the value of their oil and gas assets. A specialist in the design, engineering and manufacturing of modular wellsite packages, chemical injection skids and wellhead control panels, the company has a large-scale setup both in Jebel Ali and in Saudi Arabia, as well as the Indian city of Chennai.

However, like many firms operating in this space, business fortunes are tied to price volatility which dictate the stopstart nature of oil and gas projects around the world. And with inflationary pressures rising, end users are demanding highly advanced solutions at pre-pandemic levels of pricing.

With greenfield projects being susceptible to continued price volatility and uncertainty, Petronash has taken strides

Though successful, this triggered a broader question. Could Petronash reposition its business and grow organically by leveraging its existing capabilities, or did it also need to prioritise strategic collaboration with other value driven brands to create a solution-focused service company?

The solution

After a painstaking study and series of strategic sessions, Petronash’s leadership opted to pursue a hybrid approach involving both strands in 2018.

Petronash has been investing resources into building out a services-driven business solution. The result has been the deployment of what it calls a service turnkey contracting proposition. A customer-focused model, which centres around facilitating the operational and cost efficiency of customers and partners in major categories: Repair, Rental and Commissioning; Field Service and Brownfield Modification; Digital Oilfield Solutions; and CMAS (Corrosion Monitoring as a Service).

These offerings are designed to focus on the entire lifecycle of assets, helping customers to get the best out of their equipment through repair, revamp, servicing and the retrofit of smart monitoring and remote-control functionality.

In particular, the firm’s turnkey chemical injection service has been instrumental to the growth of the service division

Zubair Olarewaju, Global Head of Aftersales & Services

of the company, expanding by over 25% in 2022 (and on track for over 30% growth in 2023). Meanwhile, Petronash is now collaborating with major NOCs in the region making end user/operator skids smarter through integration of remote asset monitoring capability. This solution is agnostic of the brand or manufacturer of the existing asset.

In terms of collaboration and driving strategic partnership with reputable and solutions-led organisations across the value chain, the company has entered into a strategic partnership with Evinsys to integrate its DOS solution within its packaged equipment, both as a new build and aftermarket field upgrade option.

By offering the opportunity to leverage this technology, Petronash is enabling customers to tap into several benefits. This includes the ability to gain performance insight across their entire asset, improve ROI, maximise recovery, optimise production and reduce operational costs.

By collaborating with Evinsys’ wellhead IOT automation, data acquisition and management, smart surveillance and analytics, and AI and machine learning solutions, the firm is able to build packages and offer truly smart solutions to customers, offering unparalleled and instantaneous access to their asset’s performance.

The success of the service division lies in the fact that the company now takes on more responsibilities, taking ownership in areas such as pressure management, instrumentation, chemical injection, and testing, the upshot of which is that customers are able to focus more on other critical functions within their operations.

Five years on from the bold decision to develop a new vertical in 2018, Petronash can now plan ahead with a business that is far less prone to the unpredictability and volatility of the oil and gas market.

About Petronash

Petronash is a global leader in the manufacture of engineered packaged solutions for the Oil & Gas Industry. Petronash prides itself on owning advanced manufacturing plants in Dubai and Dammam. Investment in state-of-theart machinery and Business process Automation (SAP) has enabled the company to be the market leader in its portfolio of products.

Story type

#transformation (main category)

Benefits

• New technologies allow Petronash to build packages and offer truly smart solutions to customers.

• Collaboration with major NOCs in the region.

Key findings

For industry

• Be agile, goal-driven and not overly rigid.

• Listen to the customers. Build and develop your team to be customer-centric and flexible.

For government

• Continue to create a pro-energy driven policy and export promoting incentives

Petronash at a glance:

Key products and services: Engineering services, lump sum turnkey solutions, shutdown maintenance and brownfield modification services.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 80%

• Renewables – 10%

• Others (energy) – 10%

Headquarters: Jebel Ali, UAE

Year established: 2000

Number of employees: +800

Revenue: £200m

Revenue from exports: 50%

Proeon Systems

Futureproofing with a five-year diversification strategy

Miller, Managing Director

How is Proeon Systems thriving?

Automation controls and safety specialist Proeon Systems has emerged from a period of uncertainty and adversity. By investing in upskilling and leveraging opportunities for knowledge transfer wherever possible, the firm has successfully added capabilities and a track record in renewables which enhances its existing portfolio of work within the oil and gas market. A transformation and diversification strategy that has been half a decade in the making, the company is now ready to excel as it enters a new era.

The challenge

It has been anything but business as usual for Proeon in the past 18 months. While the firm had historically experienced steady growth over several years to move from small SME status to a much larger enterprise, the company – like many others – struggled after the 2014 oil crisis.

Behind the scenes, Proeon began targeting a diversification strategy from 2019 onwards to try and address the vulnerabilities it faced from overreliance on an increasingly uncertain oil and gas market. However, this transition would not be a quick fix.

As the challenges continued, the entity found itself in a position where it was facing a significant downturn and either needed to fix or shrink, with its shareholders opting to invest and fix.

The solution

With the diversification strategy, putting the business back on track, the company had a successful journey resulting in Proeon being acquired by a buyer in July 2022. This enabled the business to kick on at pace its diversification strategy.

Here, the ambition was to build on its existing presence and expertise in the renewables market, with the overarching goal of achieving a 50/50 revenue split between this exciting developing sector and the firm’s traditional oil and gas portfolio. Specifically, much of the organisation’s attention was focused on the offshore renewables market owing to the readily transferable skills it had in navigating hazardous, hard to access, harsh environments.

Again, this shift in strategy didn’t entail a simple flick of the switch. Proeon had to think differently, leveraging knowledge from others and learning new industry standards.

Whilst it continued to recruit new people, it invested to upskill its existing team in this new market of interest – a process which has taken time and involved support from third-party specialist training providers.

Richard

Indeed, it has been a long and hard road over the course of the past four years, Proeon having started out with no credibility or track record in the renewables space. However, the firm began to see the successes of its efforts back in 2021 after securing its first major contract win with an offshore wind project based in the Netherlands.

Thanks to existing relationships, the enterprise was able to proactively present a solution to the client. Further, while Proeon had no offshore wind credentials, it did have good critical-application SCADA experience – something that the project required with its substations and switchgear demands.

Resultantly, the company secured the project with a substantial value at the end of 2021. With this initial foothold, Proeon has kicked on in the years since. While it achieved a milestone revenue of £5m in 2020 significantly driven by oil and gas operations, this figure increased further last year, with 20% having been driven by renewables.

Moving forward, Proeon anticipates that it will achieve £8m revenues in 2023, half of which is expected to be driven by its new renewables-focused portfolio – a goal which would ensure the company hits its overarching diversification targets as initially planned.

Now benefiting from the successful acquisition and forays into the renewables market, the company is undoubtedly well placed to push on with its diversification and growth strategy moving forward.

About Proeon Systems

From its base at the Hethel Engineering Centre on the outskirts of Norwich, Proeon Systems is an independent specialist systems integrator, providing control and safety solutions for complex and critical applications in a variety of industry sectors, including: oil & gas, renewable, hydrogen, nuclear and utility industries.

Story type #diversification (main category)

Benefits

• Estimated 2023 revenues: £8m.

• Growth in the renewables sector, with 20% of total operations being driven by renewables.

Key findings

For industry

• Enthusiasm is key, put your heart and soul into it, and you will succeed.

• It’s about your people – look after them.

For government

• Keep up the highest standards for control of critical and dangerous industries.

• Force transitioning companies to either pay more tax or to invest responsibly – monitor it.

Proeon Systems at a glance:

Key products and services: Industrial grade control and safety solutions, working in complex and critical industries (usually energy and related sectors). Provision of complete turnkey systems that are a combination of hardware, software, control and functional safety engineering coupled with service and support services. Management of projects from concept design, development and manufacture of complete packages, through to providing support, installation and commissioning.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 75%

• Renewables – 20%

• Conventional power – 2%

• Others (pharma, chemicals, industrial) – 3%

Headquarters: Norwich, UK

Year established: 2004

Number of employees: 54

Revenue: £6m

Revenue from exports: 30%

Randridge DMCC

Excelling as a fledgling enterprise through a focus on quality and integrity

Conan Edwards, Managing Director for RSS

How is Randridge DMCC thriving?

With over 30 years global experience, Randridge Group has taken a fundamental step with its global expansion strategy. Through the successful and profitable launch of Randridge DMCC, the firm has established presence in Dubai and the wider Middle East region, unlocking project opportunities while demonstrating the value of local presence in capitalising on local opportunities – an approach it will continue to take moving forward as it looks to grow across Asia and the GCC.

The challenge

Headquartered in Ireland, Randridge is an established name in the oil and gas industry, providing a full range of engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction management services for both greenfield development and brownfield modifications.

As the group has begun to eye expansion plans, it launched Randridge DMCC in mid-2022 – a new regional subsidiary located in the Middle East.

Named after the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, a free trade zone based at the centre of the Jumeirah Lakes

Towers district, where the company is based, the subsidiary was essentially a brand-new startup that was almost an experimental venture. Indeed, many of Randridge’s European clients had revealed they had opportunities in the region that the firm would be able to support on with a local presence.

Launched under the same circumstances as typical startup, Randridge DMCC would need to get off the ground quickly – something not easily achieved with limited resources.

The solution

In terms of the local strategy, Randridge DMCC started out with the aim of finding and providing skilled personnel for its clients to leverage on key projects in the region, taking care of all the administrative burdens to ease the process and provide peace of mind.

Previously, Randridge had secured some initial contract work but only minor projects. With no personnel in region, people had to be flown in. However, that all changed once the company had established a regional base led by localised staff members in the region.

Here, Randridge DMCC Managing Director Conan Edwards led the charge – an experienced individual that already had developed extensive relationships with several companies across the region and knew the market well.

While this was a massive help, things weren’t all that

straightforward, and the subsidiary encountered several challenges. With DMCC being a branch office and the broader Randridge Group based in Dublin, it found it hard to open a local back account in the first instance, for example.

However, despite some unexpected hurdles, the firm won business within three months thanks to Edwards’ existing relationships and strong network of contacts. Since that time, the division has established itself in the market and boasts an ever-growing list of clients thanks to a number of contract successes, this including a major project in which 45 Dubai-based personnel were provided for a project in Singapore lasting 15 months.

With all its clients, Randridge DMCC is successfully taking care of everything from hiring to salary negotiations and payments, removing any major headaches for the customer while saving them a great deal of time. Equally, the company makes itself available seven days a week to ensure it provides full coverage and market-leading accessibility for resolving potential issues.

Looking ahead, Randridge’s successes in Dubai have provided confidence for the company to repeat the move by setting up a local division in Bulgaria, the firm also eyeing potential contracts in Oman and Qatar alongside other countries. Equally, longer term, it is now planning to grow across the GCC and Asia with a similar approach to market establishment.

Indeed, this venture alone has dramatically expanded the wider Randridge Group’s scope, providing it with the confidence to more actively target new markets moving forward with a proven approach to expansion.

And Randridge DMCC’s activities have also been reflected in a promising set of financial figures, the subsidiary having generated £1.5m in revenue in 2022, with half of this being secured as profit.

About Randridge DMCC

Randridge is an electrical and instrumentation engineering and contracting company. Founded in 1993, the company has rapidly established a reputation as a highly professional and leading-edge supplier of engineering services to the worldwide oil & gas, pharmaceutical, power generation, process (manufacturing) and related industries.

Story type

#service & solutions (main category)

#people & competency

Benefits

• Randrige Group’s expansion plans on track.

• Generated £1.5m in revenue in 2022.

Key findings

For industry

• Before doing any business in other regions, go in person and do your homework.

• Meet the right people, understand that networking is key for business.

Randrige DMCC at a glance:

Key products and services: full range of engineering, procurement, fabrication, and construction management services for both greenfield development and brownfield modifications.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 90%

• Others (electric vehicles) – 10%

Headquarters: Dubai, UAE

Year established: 2022

Number of employees: 3

Revenue: £1.5m

Reset Energy

Moving into ESG technologies during a ‘diversify or die’ year

occurring alongside Reset’s resurgence in the oil and gas space. Clients’ access to capital was becoming limited, while an influx of competition was resulting in the commoditisation of its traditional offerings – come 2020, and the time had come to ‘diversify or die’.

The solution

How is Reset Energy thriving?

By recalibrating its business model and turning attentions to energy transition and ESG-relevant technological solutions, Reset Energy has successfully repositioned itself at just the right time. Today, the company is a streamlined, responsive, and agile team able to respond to complex queries and deliver work at speed, a feat which continues to win new clients and secure repeat business.

The challenge

Having placed itself on the map with its modular equipment and custom process solutions for the oil and gas sector, Reset Energy looked set to enjoy a prolonged and healthy period of growth before the 2014/15 US shale downturn arrived.

After riding out the storm, the company was once again establishing itself, this time as a balance of plant provider and custom process solutions provider in the midstream market. With a crucial first customer on board, it had the confidence to evolve from three individuals operating from home into a business of 11 people with 250 years of combined experience between them. Come 2018/2019, the company had built up a backlog of 24 projects in multiple stages of execution and was experiencing record revenue growth.

However, the ESG and energy transition push was

The diversification strategy began with the establishment of a survival plan to set out how the company would work, including a rebalance between what was subcontracted and carried out in-house.

A third-party model for manufacturing and assembly was adopted, Reset partnering with approved fabricators to tap into a labour force at a competitive price, a move which has allowed it to provide more competitive and precise pricing to customers.

A newly streamlined employee base also required Reset to be more strategic in its hiring policy, the major focus now switching to the recruitment of key experts in energy transition, business development and marketing. With its value proposition changing, it was vital for the company to build a team capable of emphasising its newly focused ability to meet the needs of companies with energy transition and ESG challenges.

Although 2020 and much of 2021 were relatively quiet in terms of work volumes, Reset did secure key projects that offered it the opportunity to demonstrate its ESG value, expand its engineering capabilities and provide new technologies to the industry.

This laid the platform for what has been a very solid period of recent growth, the securing of a contract on January 8, 2022, being a landmark moment that generated more

Chris Villegas, CEO Steve Scribner, COO

revenue than the company turned over in the whole of the previous year.

The client approached Reset via email in mid-December 2021 following a recommendation from another customer, asking for a quote for a large hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide removal system for a gas processing facility in Veracruz, Mexico. Jumping on the opportunity to enter a new market, the Reset team responded within 24 hours, met the client’s senior leadership team in Texas shortly after and signed the contract barely a week into 2022. Following project kick-off, Reset met a very tight delivery schedule to help the client fulfil commitments it had made around gas production, completing the necessary work in 16 weeks compared to a typical window of 30-40 weeks for the scope of activities. The plant became operational at the beginning of 2023, and the two parties are now planning to execute a similar project at another of the client’s sites.

Ventures such as this have enabled Reset to grow its revenue stream by more than 250% during the past two years, with contract wins and new customer acquisitions (nationally and internationally) increasing by more than 130%. This includes work in entirely new markets – for example, a series of hydrogen plant RFQs which the firm would not have secured prior to undergoing the market diversification process. Meanwhile, average project size has also jumped from US$3.5m to US$10m.

Thanks to its changed business model, appetite to explore ESG markets and the drive and determination of its highly experienced team, Reset looks well set on a growth journey that looked unlikely a few short years ago.

About Reset Energy

Reset Energy is a design and fabrication company with the highest quality standards, able to customise equipment packages for over 100 global customers in the oil & gas, renewables, RNG, power generation, and CCUS industries. The company’s experienced and proven team applies their skills in process simulation, mechanical design, drafting, logistics, I&E, construction, commissioning and operations.

Story type

#resilience (main category)

#innovation, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Over 250% increase in revenues stream.

• Reset Energy now assisting larger project sizes.

Key findings

For industry

• Diversifying into multiple markets is key.

• Take advantage of being an expert in a niche market.

For government

• Work more with small businesses to develop new tech for export. Make applications streamlined.

• Understand what the makeup of the energy sector will look like in the future – there is misconception around the ease of transition from fossil fuels to alternative energies.

Reset Energy at a glance:

Key products and services: Design and delivery of custom process solutions for the oil & gas, renewables, RNG, power generation, and CCUS markets.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 50%

• Conventional power – 20%

• Energy Transition – 20%

• Renewables (including SAFs, biofuels, and RNG) –10%

Headquarters: Midland, US

Year established: 2013

Number of employees: 23

Revenue from exports: 50%

Restrata

Evolving the way organisations achieve resilience

seeks to give organisations the opportunity to manage and enhance business resilience end-to-end in line with their specific needs.

How is Restrata thriving?

In an increasingly complex world, effective management of business resilience is not just beneficial, it’s essential. However, achieving this becomes harder as an organisation grows and risks emerge. This challenge is further heightened when technology used is fragmented and the goal extends beyond merely maintaining resilience to enhancing it. Restrata is responding to the need for a unified, simple, accurate, connected solution with an operating system for resilience – resilienceOS.

The challenge

Restrata is focused on providing an answer to organisations, resilience leaders and heads of departments having to switch between multiple systems to get and make sense of information. Through resilienceOS, designed as the backbone for organisation-wide resilience, Restrata provides a single source of truth across safety, security, risk and critical event management, alongside a robust integrations ecosystem. Several years of development in the making, tested across several clients already, the job for the company now is to make a success of the launch and prove the resilienceOS category for users up and down the energy value chain.

The solution

The volatile events of recent years have strengthened Restrata’s sense of purpose. Through resilienceOS, it

Indeed, this is a hostile time, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine already having an enormous impact on the worldwide energy market and exposing many vulnerabilities that companies did not believe they had.

Restrata already had a strong customer base with Restrata Platform to help organisations manage sites, people, journeys and coordinate an effective response with incident and crisis management. Restrata has collaborated with and listened to its clients and the wider market, tooking away several major trends which have underpinned much of the resilienceOS’ development. These include the reality that many resilience and security teams are continually stretched for resources and struggling to use fragmented arrays of disparate systems, leaving them exposed to blind spots – a unified operating system for resilience, ultimately, is what they are seeking.

resilienceOS is powered by CoRe (Connected Resilience Engine), a smart adaptive system composed of low-code data ingestion ecosystem, concurrent data location fusion, risk monitoring and impact calculation, smart action, and response centre. This creates an array of modular capabilities including connected site, unified travel, fused risk (independent risk marketplace), mass comms, incident and crisis, and the Restrata App.

Connected site enables efficient management of operations, safety and security by streamlining access control alongside visitor and contractor management, providing visibility over people on board, mustering and evacuations, enriched with a supervisor app. Unified travel enhances duty of care across all business travellers and streamlines processes with

Botan Osman, CEO

travel request automation, recurring trips management and scheduling, real-time monitoring, analytics and location tracking alongside impact event and response case integration. Fused risk provides access to an independent risk marketplace and delivers a comprehensive, unified view across risk events by ingesting multiple risk data sources and enabling real-time impact calculation, risk alerting and escalations, travel risk management. Mass comms enables organisations to send targeted alerts and two-way mass coms across multiple delivery channels, multi-fold response options with granular polling functions. Incident and crisis management enables teams to gain real-time situational awareness and handle cases, trigger remote responses and everything in-between, providing separate logs, robust auditing, real-time dashboards, and reports. The Restrata App extends duty of care across all employees – from verified check-ins using integrated system biometrics to inactivity alerts, built in safety with emergency panic button and comms to easy hardware pairing of BLE panic buttons.

resilienceOS provides a wholistic approach for everything and everyone an organisation cares about, every day. It provides organisations with a single source of truth from globe to room and the flexibility to start their journey with a prioritised area.

To respond to clients’ needs, Restrata tripled its product and software engineering function within six months during 2021. The company is now primed to throw everything into the launch phase. And although it is difficult to measure success early, it has seen some positive signs already.

Initial feedback has been very positive for various reasons. Gaining a holistic view and automating the operations and risk management has resulted in a better allocation of resources, increased confidence in acting and making decisions as well as being able to report to stakeholders in real-time, reducing operational costs. Meanwhile, different teams across organisations have expressed an increase in productivity, collaboration, control and confidence when tacking various levels of disruption. Furthermore, Restrata has also secured clients ahead of launch and is embarking on a sustainable innovation path that will continue to see the ResilienceOS refined and improve over time.

·About Restrata

Restrata is evolving the way organisations achieve resilience through a unified operating system - resilienceOS. resilienceOS is the backbone of organisation-wide resilience, providing a single source of truth across safety, security, risk & critical event management alongside a robust integration ecosystem. Through resilienceOS, Restrata empowers every industry to achieve and maintain optimal levels of preparedness, adaptability, and response in the face of dynamic risks and disruption of any scale.

Story type

#innovation (main category)

#digital Benefits

• Staff tripled to develop resilienceOS.

• Clients and partners secured before product launch, with positive initial feedback already.

Key findings

For industry

• Energy security and geopolitics should be considered integral components of the net zero agenda. Ignoring the interplay between them could hinder progress towards sustainability goals.

For government

• Reconsider the implications of Brexit based on the associated impact across various sectors. A comprehensive review would provide insights into areas for policy adjustments to mitigate growing negative effects and potentially arguments to revert it. Balance the current oil & gas policy better.

Restrata at a glance:

Key products and services: Supply of technology to help companies achieve and enhance resilience through a unified operating system for resilience, plus consulting and response services to augment client operations where needed.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 70%

• Conventional power/T&D – 15%

• Renewables – 15%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 2006

Number of employees: 120

Revenue from exports: 50%

RevEnergy

Achieving rapid expansion through “empathy selling”

supplement its offering and bring value-added solutions to its customers. As a new company, RevEnergy saw this strategy centring around the hiring of a combination of experienced professionals and graduates that would be hungry to learn. For this reason, a strong company culture was imperative.

How is Rev Energy thriving?

In a mere half decade, RevEnergy has enjoyed incredible success. Through a culture of continuous learning, the firm has prioritised the training and development of its staff that have become industry experts through a cradle to grave approach to operations, quickly building confidence in its customer base surrounding competency and efficiency. With key client Petronas on its books and revenues growing at an astounding speed, the firm has established a renowned reputation in a short space of time, underpinned by its unique “empathy selling” approach.

The challenge

Founded in 2017, Malaysian enterprise RevEnergy remains a relatively young company. An organisation providing comprehensive solutions for valves, actuators, fire protection, sealant and other equipment, it has faced two key challenges in its first five years of operation.

To enter and establish itself in the market, it needed to develop a niche with a reputable brand and proven products – a feat that is easier said than done when starting from scratch. Critically, it had to register its products with Petronas before finding a way of successfully competing with existing players.

Building on this, the firm also recognised it would need to develop the technical knowledge and skills to

The solution

Hiring the right people was naturally a key priority, with RevEnergy able to nail this by securing the talents of seasoned industry experts that were renowned among its founders, OEMs and industry peers. Crucially, this injected a significant level of confidence in the company’s capabilities from the outset, providing comfort relating to RevEnergy’s competencies to key parties such as investors.

In this sense, while the firm wasn’t known in the market at launch in 2017, it could lean on the personal reputations of its employees as it got off the ground, successfully convincing customers of its capabilities and technical knowhow.

To consolidate this reputation, the firm worked tirelessly to improve its knowledge base and reputation in its early years. To achieve this, an internal business culture was implemented which assigned a single engineer or team to take charge of each project from cradle to grave. With this culture, all its staff would be exposed to the whole value chain.

This also included a focus on ensuring that the company didn’t lose visibility in any transition from sales to project teams. The firm’s leadership were all too used to this causing efficiency and delivery issues from experience in previous roles, and thus made sure these same challenges didn’t creep into Rev’s own operations.

The value of this approach has already been proven

Hazry Hassan, Senior Business Development Manager

through several successful projects. A contract delivered for Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd (MMHE) stands as a primary example, in which the engineer involved in the quotation and bidding stage was also the engineer who oversaw project management, enabling RevEnergy to successfully deliver for its client with minimal issues.

In many ways, the firm’s position as a young, agile company enabled the adoption of this culture. With the enterprise setting out as something of a blank canvas, it has been able to develop a key unique selling point through its “empathy selling” approach.

In essence, this revolves around ensuring any sale will offer a genuinely valuable solution that solves a customer’s problem, rather than driving revenue regardless of potential outcomes. By building rapport with prospective clients and gaining the understanding of their business and needs, the firm demonstrates genuine interest in offering bespoke support and build client relationships centred around candid conversations and comfort.

To achieve this, RevEnergy ensures all its sales staff are trained to be curious. They are taught to listen diligently and clarify any uncertainty to ensure that the prospect’s exact demands are understood, while also enabling the company to better manage expectations and clarify what is realistic. In this way, Rev can align the best possible solution to match the needs of its individual customers in any unique situation.

Albeit a young company, RevEnergy has successfully carved out an esteemed reputation in the market owing to its customer-focused approach and commitment to knowledge building in just half a decade of operations.

The firm’s revenues in 2022 were 17 times greater than in 2018 – testament to its already renowned reputation, established through several successful projects. Among these, the firm secured a major contract with Petronas in 2019, the Malaysian oil and gas major now retained as a key repeat client after delivering a strong service.

Looking ahead, RevEnergy is now eyeing continual year over year growth, as well as diversification of its business portfolio both in terms of contract type and geography – goals that should be easily achievable considering its sizeable success to date.

About Rev Energy

Rev Energy provides comprehensive solutions for valves, actuators, fire protection, sealant and other equipment. The company has an abundance of choices in oil and gas, refinery, pipeline and chemicals, from the most lavish zero leakage valves to the simplest flame arrestors.

Story type

#culture (main category)

#resilience

Benefits

• Rev Energy offers bespoke support and build client relationships centred around candid conversations and comfort.

• Big increase in revenues.

Key findings

For industry

• Passion for the business, people and the desire to help others succeed are essential criteria to enable the company to grow.

• Help others succeed and create a culture of openness that allows the expression of ideas for improvement, whilst maintaining strict conformance to the values and objectives of the company.

For government

• Rev Energy were able to secure the needed facilities from the financial institutions to run its business with the government’s help on a partial guarantee through SJPP, which provided an alternative solution to collateral requirement needed to secure the necessary loans. The government policy on this has been instrumental on the survival of SME companies such as Rev Energy which has made it viable with the necessary fundings gap.

Rev Energy at a glance:

Key products and services: Comprehensive solutions for valves, actuators, fire protection, sealant and other equipment.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas - 90%

• Conventional power – 9%

• Energy Transition (CCUS) – 1%

Headquarters: Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Year established: 2017

Number of employees: 18

Revenue: £6.2m

Samuel Knight

Diversifying to build resilience

How is Samuel Knight thriving?

Having survived the pandemic period thanks to an onshore wind breakthrough in the US, Samuel Knight has sought to build resilience to combat future adversity, diversifying its operations, regions of interest and revenue streams to enhance its offering across multiple energy sectors.

The challenge

Like many businesses operating in the energy sector, the pandemic period was a torrid time for Samuel Knight. As a market leading recruitment and project manpower specialist, providing engineering, technical and construction professionals on a permanent, temporary and project basis globally, the impacts of social distancing measures and national lockdowns on the company were severe.

Fortunately, Samuel Knight found isolated success with an onshore wind farm client in the US that, by the company’s own admission, saved it during this tough time. However, having emerged from this, the firm quickly sought to put the necessary provisions in place to build resilience in the face of continuing tough market conditions, ensuring it could not just survive by thrive in the face of any future adversity.

The solution

Having downsized by 25%, the leadership team took the opportunity to revisit the vision and purpose of the business in 2021 to ensure any renewed strategy could be

cultivated on strong and clear foundations.

Here, the new objective of making the organisation a 100% employee-owned business was highlighted as a means of creating a culture of greater accountability, while also improving internal buy-in on key growth strategies.

While there is 20% institutional investment in the business from a silent partner at present, Samuel Knight is aiming to buy this external party outcome 2024 – a move which will enable it to redistribute those additional shares to its staff in support of its improved ownership agenda.

At the same time, the company has also been focused on adapting and evolving to capitalise on new market opportunities.

This diversification and de-risking strategy was a direct consequence of the challenges faced during COVID. While the firm has continued operations in its traditional markets that include renewables, conventional power and training and development, its successes in onshore wind paved the way for it to develop a fully-fledged project solutions business in the US, as well as working in verticals including solar, battery storage more recently.

In the case of solar, Samuel Knight has supplied commercial solar racking solutions provider TerraGen with a team of experts comprising project managers, operations managers, assistant site manager, project engineers, O&M engineers, performance engineer and many other roles, supporting the company with The Edward Sandbourne Solar Farm in the Mojave Desert – one of the largest projects of its kind in the United States.

With a total capacity of over 2,200 MW enough to power more than 300,000 homes, the project was completed

Dan Kerr, Managing Director – Energy

in several phases, the specialists supplied by Samuel Knight having helped these to be carefully planned and executed.

Additionally, the firm has also moved away from its historical focus on recruitment and towards a hybrid offering – part independent service provider, part recruitment partner.

While this undoubtedly helped to consolidate its position in the US market, Samuel Knight has since taken the same approach and applied it in Europe, adopting a project service solution in the Nordic renewables market to great effect in 2022. In the area of conventional power recruitment services, meanwhile, the company has moved from supplying one or two supplementary individuals to entire teams.

Indeed, this multi-faceted transition has not come easy. The firm has had to grow its pool of suitable candidates significantly while also grappling with cashflow challenges that were exacerbated by stretched internal headcounts – this being necessary to deliver its improved client solutions. Further, it was critical for the firm that these initiatives remained self-funded, ensuring it did not have to seek more support from, and lose additional equity to, institutional investors.

Despite these challenges, however, the successes are clear to see. Revenues in 2022 (£20m) exceeded those of 2021 (£13m), 2020 (£17m) and 2019 (£12m), with £5m having been derived from US solar last year (up from £2m in 2021). Additionally, Samuel Knight’s client base has grown – having supported approximately 80 active clients in 2021, this number increased to roughly 130 in 2022.

Resultantly, the company now stands with a more diversified and resilient revenue mix, a position that is only likely to be strengthened moving forward as it rolls out its new ‘tech’ offering that will support all sectors with solutions such as plant efficiency monitoring.

With this improved stance in mind, the firm’s 2024 objectives now seem well within reach.

About Samuel Knight

Samuel Knight Energy is a global recruitment and project manpower specialist, providing skills and project solutions to the energy sectors on a permanent, contract and project basis. The company’s contractor services offering includes mobilisation of contractors, payroll, immigration, registration, taxation as well as contractor care and localisation. SK Energy also provides bespoke skills testing, competency-based interviewing as well as industry and market trend insights.

Story type

#diversification (main category)

#resilience

Benefits

• Growth on annual revenues.

• New clients wins.

Key findings

For industry

• Have a plan, retain flexibility, but stick to the plan.

• Be open, be innovative and adapt to the market that is forever changing.

For government

• Engage with the policies that impact up front. Stop kicking the problem down the alley.

Samuel Knight at a glance:

Key products and services: Provider of specialist technical and engineering manpower.

Main industries served:

• Renewables – 60%

• Conventional power – 30%

• Energy Transition – 10%

Headquarters: Newcastle, UK

Year established: 2014

Number of employees: 70

Revenue: £20m

Revenue from exports: 75%

Score Group

Adapting to deliver tens of millions in sustainability-driven savings for clients

The company knew it needed to adapt, taking a hard look at how to grow in line with rapidly evolving market demands to improve its presence, margins, and current skillsets.

How is Score thriving?

World class valve management services provider Score Group has turned a corner after focusing on its emissions reduction capabilities. Having identified that valves account for 60-75% of operational leaks, the company has launched a new Emissions Elimination Program (EEP) underpinned by a unique four-step process. Score’s program delivers major reductions in customers’ total carbon footprint, as well as multi-million-pound savings annually for a wide range of clients throughout the world.

The challenge

Like many companies operating in the energy industry, Score found itself navigating significant turbulence spanning several years, driven by a combination of price uncertainty, energy transition and covid-imposed challenges that had resulted in postponed projects.

As the global drive to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions accelerated year on year, oil and gas exploration activities waned. Equally challenging to growth postpandemic, the company has suffered at the hands of industry skills shortages.

At the same time, Score was undergoing its own transition. Having been a family-owned enterprise for almost 40-years, the firm was acquired by private equity firm SCF Partners. Score was left facing a tricky predicament, with revenues down during the pandemic period, and several staff exiting.

The ultimate goal? To tap into new markets and help clients to reduce their total emissions, all while growing Score and ensuring the business remained an attractive and prosperous place for current and future employees to work in.

The solution

In 2021 the firm changed its tack as it shifted focus to supporting emissions reductions through a newly developed service offering. This service is called the Emissions Elimination Program (EEP), which offers a new and unique four-stage, end-to-end solution for emissions management.

Firstly, they survey with the best available technologies and tools (including some of their own in-house developed equipment) to measure and benchmark emissions at source. Secondly, they then analyse the survey results, to allow them to prioritize and deploy their repair methods and technologies, targeting maximum emissions reduction. Thirdly, Score’s elimination process commences delivering their repair services, methods and technologies that measurably mitigate total emissions. Finally, their “closed loop” approach leads into a continuous improvement phase, where they seek to engineer out recurring failures.

All work is managed through their unique software solution provided by their digital partner, enabling the client to monitor the environmental performance of their entire asset and track any / all emissions through to repair.

Critically, in recognising that 60% to 75% of emissions come from valves, as a valve specialist company, Score saw that it could make a massive difference to its clients’ performance.

Scott B Will, Business Unit Director Europe and Africa

While the company had essentially been working to support emissions reduction for 40 years, it had never marketed itself in such a way, and therefore repackaged its offering to demonstrate the prospects and customers the sustainability impacts that its solutions could deliver.

Score has invested in looking at how it could make better use of existing skillsets and technology. In doing so, it has developed an EEP tool kit including its in-house developed and award-winning acoustic monitoring equipment, while also working with their digital partner to develop a bespoke software solution, which will hold and manage all survey data and provide clients with detailed evidence, reports and actionable insights.

The company’s focus has changed, with its attention being turned towards building a sustainable future for all stakeholders. By expanding its horizons and taking on new projects, Score has demonstrated the difference it can make to clients, gaining the confidence to further invest and grow its EEP service provision.

The results of this change of tack are striking. Whilst this new offering remains in its infancy, customers have already intimated they have been very impressed by Score’s survey results, and the capabilities and competencies of their newly trained in-house emissions elimination technical experts.

For one customer, the company surveyed 62 relief valves, finding that eight were leaking into flare lines. In fixing these, the firm reduced the loss of 147 pounds/hour of flared gas, equating to a £250 saving in lost product per hour, or £2.2m annually. For another, Score designed a tailored integrity clamp to eliminate a highly unique leak. Following the initial survey, the clamp was designed, tested and installed within five days, with the client benefitting from eliminating the release of 18.3 tonnes of methane annually.

With tougher legislation in relation to emissions measurement, reporting and management anticipated to emerge moving forward, Score is working hard to optimise and improve its offering that is already delivering major, measurable benefits for its customers. Between upfront works delivering remarkable cost reductions and the organisation’s efforts to continuously monitor and eliminate emissions and avoid legislative penalties, the value to customers of its new approach cannot be understated.

About Score Group

Score Group was founded in 1982, by the late Charles Ritchie as an engineering services provider for valve management, and industrial gas turbines solutions. Today, the company is a global market leader in valve management and associated services for the upstream oil and gas industry. The company is now owned by private equity firm SCF Partners.

Story type

#sustainability (main category)

#culture, #innovation, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Score’s survey results delivered major benefits to customers.

• Improvements and optimisations in Score’s offerings to clients.

Key findings

For industry

• Be adaptable and think outside the box to have more than one product in your portfolio.

• Changing people’s perceptions and culture can be tough, but it can be the most rewarding outcome.

For government

• Drive through oil and gas methane partnership methodology.

Score Europe at a glance:

Key products and services: Specialist in valves and associated equipment.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 89%

• Conventional power – 3%

• Others (non-energy) – 8%

Headquarters: Aberdeenshire, UK

Year established: 1982

Number of employees: 820

Revenue: £93m

Revenue from exports: 19%

Servomex

Recentring strategies around sustainability

Recognising the demand prospects in this domain, Servomex opted to pursue a new direction. It could see that there was an opportunity to provide more suitable measurement products for carbon capture projects, with many existing solutions harbouring issues such as high energy demands or maintenance requirements.

How is Servomex thriving?

Gas measurement solutions specialist Servomex has successfully realised a strategic overhaul around sustainability. From uncovering a range of opportunities for operational improvements to investing extensively in R&D to better support clients’ energy transition requirements, the company has futureproofed and established itself as a market leader.

These efforts have been recognised and rewarded with the EcoVadis Sustainability Gold Medal, placing Servomex in the top 7% for sustainability among hundreds of thousands of companies globally after just one year.

The challenge

Having started out in process oxygen monitoring more than 50 years ago, Servomex has garnered a long-standing reputation for measuring process gases using cutting edge technologies such as infrared, lasers and sensors.

However, it was becoming apparent to the firm’s leadership that it would need to align with changing needs. Indeed, the number of carbon capture (CC) projects the firm was being asked to bid on was growing exponentially every year, with more companies actively leaning into energy transition.

Nevertheless, transitioning was more complex than simply making product development tweaks. Many clients insist on seeing supplier sustainability credentials to ensure the benefits cascade throughout their own supply chains, while Andrew Heath, CEO of Servomex’s holding company Spectric, had also set targets to achieve net zero across scopes 1 and 2 by 2030, and scope 3 by 2040.

The solution

This overhaul began in late 2021 when Servomex began to properly consider market demands, aiming to identify issues it would be naturally placed to support with as a gas analysis expert in the future.

The firm determined that many existing energy and cement plants won’t be decommissioned and will still emit for decades to come. They would therefore need to be adapted with practical, retrofittable carbon capture solutions.

Serving this market became a strategic imperative for Servomex, the company investing extensively in R&D in order to develop and deliver a market leading suite of solutions. However, at the same time, it also began to optimise its own operations, improving its sustainability credentials.

All company processes and activities from energy use to ethics to governance were meticulously analysed. Further,

Mike Proctor, Director of Sustainability and Strategic Projects Stephen Firth, Product Manager – Strategic Products

intense programmes to reduce the carbon footprint of its manufacturing processes and logistics networks were launched, the organisation also redesigning its whole offering to be more sustainable.

This process was supported by Spectris’s robust ethics and governance procedures, as well as external experts. Specialist consultants were looked at the environmental impacts of all components used in the Servomex’s products to drive design changes, for example.

Through these efforts, the firm secured the EcoVadis Sustainability Gold Medal, putting it in the top 7% of hundreds of thousands of companies. This was achieved in the space of just one year of efforts, despite it typically taking companies five years to achieve.

Having also successfully become ISO 14001 accredited and Investors in People accredited, the firm is demonstrating sustainability best practice across its own operations, this serving to benefit both Servomex and its clients.

The idea that improving sustainability will create a domino effect of benefits has become the company’s new mantra. More sustainable solutions will offer lower electricity usage, less maintenance requirements and less failures, for example – all desirable characteristics for end users.

Moving forward, the firm is now mapping out its future product development programme for the next seven years, completely realigning it towards sustainability. And other incremental steps will be made across the board.

For instance, it has achieved 100% recycling and zero waste to landfill in its operations and implemented smart lighting solutions across its facilities. Also, the company is now planning to have the whole roof of its flagship warehouse covered in solar panels (spanning three football pitches and costing £3m) by the end of 2023.

Having developed a culture of continuous upgrades, Servomex has been completely transformed in a short space of time, serving to dramatically improve its prospects moving forwards.

About Servomex

Founded in 1952, Servomex has placed good business practice as the cornerstone of our business. The company is committed to continuous improvement across all aspects of manufacturing and management systems, from compliance with internationally-recognised business standards to global investment in staff development. Servomex’s aim is to instil a positive business culture that empowers staff to engage with stakeholders in a manner that is honest, transparent and trusted the world over.

Story type

#energy transition (main category)

#sustainability, #technology

Benefits

• Achieved 100% recycling and zero waste to landfill in its operations.

• Awarded the EcoVadis Sustainability Gold Medal.

Key findings

For Industry

• Listen carefully to your clients, not what you think they want, really listen, because the world is changing rapidly.

• Simplify the business and the technology to enable faster growth.

For government

• Get us back into the European Union.

Servomex at a glance:

Key products and services: Design and manufacture of process gas analysers, and related solutions.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 48%

• Conventional Power – 5%

• Nuclear Power – 1%

• Others (semi-conductor and industrial gas, manufacturing) – 46%

Headquarters: Crowborough, UK

Year established: 1952

Number of employees: 425

Revenue: £85m

Revenue from exports: 95%

Shipham Valves

How a 225-year-old business successfully started over

it had lost nearly all its staff, with a distinct lack of internal knowledge of the business.

The solution

How is Shipham Valves thriving?

Shipham Valves has survived eight years of hardship to emerge stronger than ever. Under new ownership, the company has invested £4m in manufacturing and R&D, doubling revenues in 2023, with strong markets, great teamwork, skills and culture, and a 225-year reputation to draw upon.

The challenge

Shipham Valves is one of the longest established, highly trusted and most respected valves manufacturers in the world. Founded all the way back in 1798, the longevity of the business speaks of its track record, experience and quality of service and solutions. Through time, the firm has continued to adapt to cater to market needs.

However, that is not to say that the company hasn’t faced tough times.

Back in 2012, Flow Group (the former owner of Shipham Valves) was acquired by Hamworthy, then Hamworthy was acquired by Wartsila in late 2012, putting Shipham Valves in a precarious position. Internal frictions started to emerge and during 2018 the entire management team decided to leave the business, compounding internal conflicts as Wartsila had closed Shipham Valves’ machine shop and made many of its machinists redundant.

Shipham Valves resultantly found itself in a position where

Where Wartsila’s acquisition of Shipham Valves’ had not worked out as intended, the subsidiary was eventually put up for sale in January 2020, with Managing Director Rob Moulds, who had initially joined in July 2018, finding a buyer in October 2020.

Resultantly, the company resumed operations as a standalone SME, Moulds having laid much of the groundwork ahead of the sale to ensure it could embark on this new chapter in the firm’s extensive journey successfully, bringing expertise back in house.

The immediate focus post-acquisition centred around reinvesting to rebuild internal capabilities. Indeed, £3m was spent on machines, with a further £1m being invested in research and development – significant expenses that were made amidst the uncertainty of the pandemic.

A new ERP system was also installed and the firm’s QMS system redeveloped, various audits being passed to reestablish Shipham Valves reputation as a market player with leading capabilities. Further, all of the company’s products had to be standardised once more.

It was a prolonged and tricky period of rebuilding lasting 18 months in total, the company having to work hard to repair the reputational damage it had suffered during the previous eight years. The company had lost all its approved vendor lists (AVL) approvals, for example, while it also took two years for it to bring good engineers back on board.

However, having worked hard to iron out a multitude of

Rob Moulds, Managing Director

operational and reputational creases, the organisation has laid the foundations for a new, more prosperous era moving forward.

In order to bridge the skills gaps it has faced for the longer term, Shipham Valves has both reinstated its apprenticeship scheme and partnered with Ron Dearing UTC to gain input into the priorities for technical training. As a result, it is now able to provide tailored training to push talented employees forward into new roles with tailored development programmes, enabling it to build high performance teams over the long term with improved talent retention.

The company’s culture has also been revived, driven by the setting of a clear vision and values that are now at the centre of everything the organisation does. Specifically, this approach was set and delivered by Moulds, who has taken inspiration from Goldman Sachs’ training programme.

Come April 2022, the Shipham Valves machine shop had become fully operational again, and the company’s order book began to grow in tandem. Indeed, having entered 2023 with £9m of projects on the horizon, the company is now targeting revenues of £17.6m for the year (it already has £13m booked) – double what it achieved in 2022.

Equally, its offering and footprint have begun to simultaneously expand. Indeed, the company is in the process of rolling out new product ranges spanning the LNG and hydrogen markets as it seeks to participate more actively in net zero opportunities. Further, after establishing a presence in key export markets including UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, India and UK, the firm opened a new sales office in Houston and Dubai, with a further site set to open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, soon.

Albeit a business 225 years in the making, the company’s startup mindset which it has adopted over the past two years has provided reason for optimism. Taking the time to lay the optimal foundations for its revival, the company is now well set to reach even greater heights as it embarks on this latest, exciting chapter in its ever-expanding story.

About Shipham Valves

Founded in 1798, Shipham Valves started life as a brass foundry supplying products including brass valves, bells, cocks, gauges and whistles to the shipping industry. Since the 1930s, Shipham Valves has become one of the longest established and most trusted and respected manufacturers of high-quality alloy valves for severe service and safety-critical applications involving seawater and other corrosive media.

Story type #transformation (main category) #culture, #resilience, #people & competency

Benefits

• Partnership with Ron Dearing UTC resulted in tailored training and development programmes for employees.

• New product ranges spanning the LNG and hydrogen markets.

Key findings For industry

• Get the right people, with the right attitude. For government

• Business is difficult enough already, stop adding more complexity. Why would people set up a business right now? Make it easier.

Shipham Valves at a glance:

Key products and services: High-quality alloy valves for severe service and safety-critical applications involving seawater and other corrosive media.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 80%

• Conventional power – 5%

• Energy Transition – 2%

• Others (sea water utilities, marine, desalination, fire suppression) – 13%

Headquarters: Brough, UK

Year established: 1798

Number of employees: 80

Revenue: £8.2m

Revenue from exports: 85%

Siemens Energy

Supporting the world’s largest renewable-powered LNG facility

become one of the largest and greenest energy projects the world has seen to date.

The solution

How is Siemens Energy thriving?

After years of stop-start progress which delayed the Woodfibre LNG facility, this highly anticipated project is finally becoming a reality. Selected as the key compressor, auxiliaries, electrical equipment and expertise partner, Siemens Energy stands ready to support the project and make it the greenest of its kind in the world.

The challenge

Getting a new greenfield LNG project off the ground has not been a straightforward task in recent years.

The current energy crisis, triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has once again thrown the dynamics of the sector off balance after the Covid-19 pandemic brought global economies and industries to a near standstill through the course of 2020 and 2021.

For Siemens Energy, identifying which green energy projects to focus on, as well as how to shape their approach to them, has been a highly complex process during this period that has tested the company’s agility and ability to respond to rapidly changing circumstances.

However, the company’s involvement with Woodfibre LNG in British Columbia, Canada, is a tremendous piece of business that places it at the heart what promises to

Located between Squamish and Vancouver, Woodfibre LNG is based on a former pulp mill site and, once operational, will be the world’s greenest LNG export facility.

The demand for low-emission Canadian natural gas is high, especially in countries looking to make a transition to cleaner energy systems from their current base of coal as a primary fuel source. In order to export Canadian natural gas to overseas markets it must be cooled to -162 degrees, and by using renewable hydro-electric power to fuel this process, the site will become the lowest-emission LNG export facility globally.

Compared to conventional LNG facilities, Woodfibre will be able to reduce carbon emissions per tonne of LNG by approximately 86%. In addition, the project will create more than 100 jobs and contribute around US$80m in taxation to the Canadian government every year.

Siemens Energy will be playing its part as the project enters the construction phase. Siemens Energy’s scope includes providing all the major rotating equipment (including large compressors and synchronous motors), connections to the grid and electrical systems (including variable speed drives and complete power houses).

The task is complex. Because the site will be powered by hydroelectric, Siemens Energy had to carry out several analyses with the client to ensure it correctly specified

Patrice LaPorte, VP Sales Compression Americas

all electrical equipment and avoids reliability issues in operation. Additionally, the reliability of the grid must impact the operation of the LNG facility. Meanwhile, other complicating factors include raw material price increases, current material delivery impacts, CSA requirements and the remoteness of the site itself, which adds in extra considerations when it comes to installation and decommissioning of the facility.

Risk has also been added by the project’s stop-start status ever since it was initiated in 2017. Financial difficulties caused delays in these early years, before the Covid-19 pandemic arrived and put the brakes on progress. Finally, in early 2022, Woodfibre LNG was ready to move forward, only for the Ukraine crisis to ignite a matter of weeks later. However, rather than scupper the project, the war in Europe has highlighted the urgent need for LNG developments such as this to advance as quickly as possible.

Despite the complex nature of the project and everchanging backdrop against which it is being developed, Siemens Energy secured the contract in March 2022 by impressing on a number of fronts, including its e-LNG electrical experience for large motors and drives; complete technical support of the EPC and the client during - the FEED and demonstration phases. Acquiring certification has also been no mean feat, especially given the stringent processes adopted by Canadian authorities.

Today, Siemens Energy stands ready to help Woodfibre LNG into the engineering and construction phases with a view to delivering equipment in 2025. The current schedule will have operational by as soon as 2027. When it comes online, the facility will have a storage capacity of 250,000 m3 and produce approximately 2.1m tonnes per year of LNG.

About Siemens Energy

With its portfolio of products, solutions and services, Siemens Energy covers almost the entire energy value chain – from power generation and transmission to storage. The portfolio includes conventional and renewable energy technology, such as compressors as well as gas and steam turbines, hybrid power plants operated with hydrogen, and power generators and transformers. An estimated one-sixth of the electricity generated worldwide is based on technologies from Siemens Energy.

Story type

#energy transition (main category)

#sustainability (main category)

Benefits

• Project currently fully under execution.

• Start-up expected in 2027.

Key findings

For industry

• Don’t believe that technical solutions that are true one day will remain true for the rest of your life.

• Believe that energy transition can be driven with gas.

For government

• Help companies to get tax incentives and facilitate permitting processes.

Siemens Energy at a glance:

Key products and services: Power generation gas turbines, grid transmission, compression, steam turbines and wind business.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas - 80%

• Energy Transition – 20%

Headquarters: Berlin, Germany

Year established: 2020

Number of employees: 91,000

Revenue: £24bn

Revenue from exports: 17%

Smulders

Sticking to its strengths after a setback

How is Smulders thriving?

Smulders has more than 50 years of experience in the engineering, construction, supply and assembly of steel constructions. Through its network of coastal yards and fabrication facilities in the UK and Europe, the company is successfully delivering large orders for some of the region’s most important renewable energy developments, all while refining its methods and learning from its experiences.

The challenge

Even the most established of businesses are prone to shocks and setbacks. Founded in 1979, Belgiumbased Smulders has built a proud reputation around the engineering and design, fabrication and delivery of bottom fixed and floating foundations for offshore wind turbines, offshore high voltage substations and hydrogen production platforms, as well as steel constructions for the civil and industrial sector.

In 2011, the decision was taken to pivot the business into the provision of jackets, a shift which required a huge investment in a new fabrication yard. However, the market soon plummeted, leaving Smulders with a hole in its finances and in a crisis situation – the company needed

to go back to its roots and play to its strengths.

The solution

In the foundations space, Smulders has long held a competitive advantage due to the sheer volume of projects it has executed in the past – historic experience that continues to feed into a culture and way of working that customers buy in to.

Preparedness and proximity are everything. The company opts to have supply chains nearby and actively integrate into the local community when setting up in a new port or city, these bases then serving as launchpads from which to invest and grow.

Planning typically takes 12 months, with 60% of the people used on a project typically working in the prep stages alone. This work centres around visualisation using 3D modelling, as well as ensuring the yards are appropriately equipped to fabricate the foundations, and that the supply chain is ready to deliver on key materials such as steel.

Detailed planning helps to ensure experience from previous projects is not lost, the company constantly updating its handbook and procedures that underpin its approach.

Indeed, since 2011 Smulders has successfully rebuilt its track record, delivering on several projects and journeying on a growth path once again. In the Netherlands, for example, it supplied more than 100 units for a single

Eric Finé, BD Mgr

project for the first time, the site in question being the Gemini Wind Park which lies 85 kilometres off the Dutch coast.

Rampion Offshore Wind Farm is another notable case study. Comprising 116 turbines on a 70 square kilometre site located off the Sussex coast in the English Channel, the project saw Smulders deliver another 100plus order, the experience of scale gained from Gemini proving invaluable. Meanwhile, off the North East coast of England, the company is in the midst of fulfilling 277 foundation pieces for Dogger Bank, a development which will be able to power six million homes and promises to be the largest of its kind in the world.

Central to the delivery of further projects is Smulders’ site in Newcastle, the company investing a further £50m into the facility to improve its workshops, cranes and access, as well as build a new fabrication hall. The investment coincides with another important project win that will be largely delivered from the Newcastle yard – in joint venture with Sif, Smulders will manufacture 64 transition pieces for the He Dreiht offshore wind project in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the North Sea.

From a revenue perspective, the company is also showing signs it has recovered from the 2011 setback. In 2022, it turned over €470m, a year-on-year growth of around 15% driven by orders for larger units and a scale-up of orders to supply sub-station foundations. And with plans to enter the US market being developed, the crisis of a decade ago appears to be well and truly left behind.

About Smulders

Smulders is an international organisation with more than 50 years of experience in the engineering, construction, supply and assembly of steel constructions. It helps to realise unique and challenging projects in offshore wind and civil and industry. Smulders is a member of the Eiffage Group, a leading figure in the European concessions and public works sector.

Story type

#culture (main category)

#innovation, #optimisation

Benefits

• Improved site in Newcastle, with revamped workshops, cranes and access and a new fabrication hall.

• Increase on revenue, recovering from the 2011 setback.

Key findings

For industry

• Never think you have made it. Look outside and see what has changed. Deal with it immediately.

• Stop increasing turbine size, it’s killing the industry!

For government

• Lift the permitting procedures to UK/European level.

• Put all people together to figure out all territories, so they can agree on new rule and then move forward.

Smulders at a glance:

Key products and services: Engineering and design, fabrication and delivery of foundations for offshore wind turbines, offshore high voltage substations and hydrogen production platforms, as well as steel constructions for the civil and industrial sector.

Main industries served:

• Renewables – 89%

• Others (civil and industry constructions) – 11%

Headquarters: Arendonk, Belgium

Year established: 1979

Number of employees: 1,200

Revenue: £404m

Revenue from exports: 90%

STATS Group

Prioritising people to drive forwards its international strategy

expansion also requires the development of a functional leadership model to support regional delivery teams.

The solution

How is STATS Group thriving?

STATS Group has continued to deliver on its growth strategy. Key to its ongoing plan is to expand in international markets, a task which requires sustained investment in people to ensure its high criticality, high speciality activities are conducted safely and efficiently.

The challenge

As market leaders in the supply of pressurised pipeline isolation, hot tapping and plugging services to the global energy industry, maintaining and building on this position requires STATS Group to continue its growth drive in international markets.

This is easier said than done. Growing internationally very niche products and services is a complex undertaking –much of STATS Group’s work involves conducting safety critical activities on live pipelines with the potential for severe consequences to people, property and the environment.

To carry out these highly specialised tasks in greater volumes, the retainment and recruitment of staff in its key operating regions, and ensuring they are competent to conduct the work safely, is paramount. Sustainable

Although people development has been a priority theme for the past decade given the continuing importance given to international growth in activities and associated staff numbers, several recent advancements have turbocharged staff development efforts and the employee experience in the past 2-3 years.

Within the context of the pandemic, a strengthened focus on employee health and wellbeing has been established, a process which has involved upskilling leaders and managers in the business to equip them to deal with the ever-changing needs of STATS Group’s employees.

In terms of staff development, there are several schemes that the group operates. For example, the group has launched a new, enhanced graduate development scheme to complement its existing iMechE accredited global graduate development scheme, the latter having seen several of its project and design engineers receiving chartership status.

Meanwhile, a core priority in terms of business continuity revolves around training existing and future leaders via the leadership development scheme. The programme matches participants with existing leaders who act as mentors in support of their development, challenging them with development projects and giving them feedback on performance at regular intervals. The scheme is underpinned by a series of leadership development modules aligned to the standards expected of a STATS

Derek Smart, Director – QHSE & HR Leigh Howarth, CEO

Group leader and is providing a clear pathway for employees to contribute to the growth and success of the business.

Alongside these two programmes is continual personal development, an ongoing process designed by STATS Group to ensure its employees are always enhancing their knowledge and skills, and aligned with the firm’s performance management cycle which aims to monitor and improve employee performance relative to core values and business objectives.

The company’s in-house technical training is central to these people development initiatives and activities. The group’s training school, opened in 2014, has obtained ECITB accreditation – a vital step in demonstrating training to a recognised independent standard. Such was the early impression it made, STATS Group won the ECITB Skills and Training award for SMEs that very year. Several training layers and systems have been worked on since, with the group hiring a dedicated training and competence manager in 2021. Today, each of STAT’s operating regions now has trained trainers and on the job assessors, an approach which has contributed significantly to its regional expansion plans.

All of this has made it easier for STATS Group to recruit and retain staff, not least by showing staff clear routes of development throughout the business. The company’s model is to develop its staff, even recognising the risk they might leave in the future – if they do leave, they will do so with a positive experience and lasting impression to take with them. Indeed, some may go on to become future clients or advocates of the company.

Proof that the approach is working can be seen in the numbers. The average years of experience for the business is 6 years and the average age of employees is 38.5 –figures that are testament to the success of its strategy to develop from within.

About STATS Group

STATS Group are market leaders in the supply of pressurised pipeline isolation, hot tapping and plugging services to the global energy industry. STATS DNV type approved isolation tools provide leak-tight double block and bleed isolation that enables safe and efficient maintenance and repair of onshore, topsides and subsea pipeline infrastructure.

Story type

#people & competence (main category)

#scale up

Benefits

• Delivery of jobs, safely and on time.

• Revenue and EBITDA of £59m and £9m respectively (2022).

Key findings

For industry

• Plan ahead – niche businesses have to look internally to solve problems.

• Ensure competence is core to business strategy and meets standard, risk of failure is too high.

For government

• Abandon short-term approach to oil and gas – it’s a long-term investment and transition market.

STATS Group at a glance:

Key products and services: Supply of pressurised pipeline isolation, hot tapping and plugging services to the global energy industry.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 100%

Headquarters: Kintore, UK

Year established: 1998

Number of employees: 340

Revenue: £59m

Revenue from exports: 85%

Tata Steel UK

Supporting energy transition by servicing solar with high quality, British-made steel

to contribute towards the country’s transition to a more sustainable energy system.

The solution

How is Tata Steel thriving?

As the largest steel producer in the UK, Tata Steel is one of the country’s most important industrial firms that supplies major sectors such as infrastructure and construction, automotive, packaging and engineering.

With the UK government accelerating with its energy transition push, the company is successfully repositioning itself as the steel supplier for renewable energy projects. This is particularly true in the field of solar, where it is already making significant strides towards its ambition to service up to 70% of national demand.

The challenge

Government policy around energy and sustainability has had a huge impact on large industrial producers such as Tata Steel, with even the smallest of changes having the potential to disrupt strategies and investment plans long into the future.

Prior to the launch of the UK’s energy security strategy in April 2022, the company was working alongside the government’s 10-point plan to net zero, a framework which mandated it to diversify and pivot its product portfolio by 2030.

This is in spite of the fact that Tata Steel currently provides a very small amount of steel to the UK energy sector, creating a situation whereby the firm needed to find ways

Solar was quickly identified as a promising avenue to explore for the steel producer. The UK is currently working towards a target to install 70GW of ground mounted solar by 2035, and with 55GW of that capacity still to be developed (or 2mn tonnes of steel’s worth), the opportunity for Tata to enter this space is clear for all to see.

While Tata Steel cannot produce the volumes to meet all of this demand, the company is able to position itself as a steel supplier of extremely high quality with a durable product that carries a 25-year warranty. Its hot-dip zinc coating is alloyed with aluminium and magnesium, the product is produced in steel coils and is then slit by a steel service centre into narrower slit widths and then roll formed by fabricators who integrate it into ground mount structures.

Significant time and effort have been invested, along with £1mn in financing, to recruit the necessary skills and build up the capabilities needed to serve the UK solar market. Now, Tata Steel is able to supply products in various sizes and tolerances while also providing a competitive edge over international competitors on lead times due its location.

This strategy is already starting to pay off. To date, 10,000 tonnes has been supplied or is on order for solar farm fabricators, and while this is still a small fraction of the 3mn tonnes of steel it produces each year, the trend is certainly moving in the right direction. Indeed, the company now holds a 15% UK market share for steel

Kamal Rajput, Strategic Business Development Lead

in the solar sector having started from zero just three years ago.

The aim now is to continue building on that momentum. By 2030, Tata Steel is aiming to hold a market share of somewhere between 60% and 70%, a target which can certainly be hit if UK projects are subjected to stricter local content requirements.

Alongside the drive into solar, the company is also exploring the UK’s offshore wind market. Tata Steel already supply structural hollow sections globally for secondary structures in the offshore wind sector. However during the past 12 months it has been developing its own component offering for floating offshore wind installations, signing an cooperation agreement with Renewables UK covering its plans for the Welsh coast. The agreement involves sharing knowledge to understand and explore the production of steel components that could be used in high-tech floating wind foundations and turbines for projects in the Celtic Sea. If successful, it could open an important door for Tata Steel in its bid to widen its involvement in the UK’s energy transition journey.

Rather than stand still, Tata Steel has proactively engaged in the country’s ongoing commitment to net zero by 2050, offering the option to procure critical steel products that can underpin many renewable energy installations on land and at sea. If the UK government commits to local procurement for these projects, the company is wellplaced to play an even more influential role in the future.

About Tata Steel

Tata Steel is one of Europe’s leading steel producers, with steelmaking in the UK and Netherlands, and manufacturing plants across Europe. The company supplies high-quality steel products to the most demanding markets, including construction and infrastructure, automotive, packaging and engineering. Tata Steel works with customers to develop new steel products that give them a competitive edge.

Story type #diversification (main category)

Benefits

• The company holds a 15% UK market share for steel in the solar sector.

• Tata Steel is also exploring the UK’s offshore wind market.

Key findings

For industry

• Personal and business relationships still count, especially for large decisions. It’s people who matter.

• Be open minded in decisions you make. Don’t close off something if the ‘maths’ don’t work – think longer term growth and value.

For government

• Mandate for local content to support the UK manufacturing economy and targets that all net zero projects must comply to.

Tata Steel at a glance:

Key products and services: Metallic coated steel, cold-rolled steel, hot-rolled steel, electro-plated steel, electrical steel.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 0.3%

• Nuclear power – 0.1%

• Renewables – 0.1%

• Others (auto, construction, packaging, manufactured goods, lifting and excavating) – 99.5%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 1901

Number of employees: 8,000 (UK)

Revenue: £3.5bn

Revenue from exports: 40%

TEXO

Much more than a video streaming solution

How is TEXO thriving?

TEXO believes in innovation. Rather than being content with the way things are, the Group and its divisions are always looking for ways to improve and offer greater value to customers. TEXO Technologies already knew that its video-streaming platform was a great tool. But the team felt it had much wider applications across multiple sectors. In order to tap into that market, the division took the decision to investigate that growth potential. After listening to customers, testing the waters with different marketing campaigns, developing a new training programme and building a portfolio of successful use cases, the business is gathering financial and reputational momentum.

The challenge

Expanding TEXO’s technologies across several new markets presented a range of challenges, the most pressing of which was creating market awareness. The division, established in 2022, had two product lines: a remote streaming solution; and a data management platform

The original market focus for the technologies relied on meeting survey, inspection and maintenance needs. However, senior leaders in the business saw an opportunity to rebrand both product lines, expand their use cases and demonstrate the considerable value they can bring to customers.

The video platform was identified as a gamechanger. Traditional video streaming solutions offered limited

functionality for industrial users, whereas TEXO’s product offered features including remote snapshots from a video stream, live annotation, footage storage and facial recognition redaction. The ability to live stream from a bodycam also offered numerous advantages for energy sector customers, especially around conducting and viewing asset inspections remotely.

The challenge lay in branding this technology properly, getting the right messages out to the market, and building a team that could maximise the product’s potential. Now called ‘Fuse’, this solution was much more than a video streaming solution.

The solution

TEXO built a plan to address these two key challenges: Messaging and building a team.

First, the company undertook a major listening exercise. This involved talking to customers about their own challenges in light of the operational changes they experienced during and after the pandemic period. TEXO used the results of these conversations to build a clear idea of how Fuse could support these customers to work more efficiently, safer and across borders.

Alongside this, TEXO Technologies developed a series of test marketing campaigns and carefully tracked their performance. The firm examined the success of and response to different types of content – for example, using streaming cameras on machinery such as cranes to create a small campaign directed at construction and port services. This revealed what messaging was having an impact, helping the team to focus its efforts and budget in the most productive markets.

Secondly, the division started to look for the perfect

Pat McKay, Director

balance of expertise to meet its commercial targets. With a strong management and operational team in place, it was the technical team that needed expanding – and within a short time frame so that the business could capitalise on its opportunities.

To manage this challenge, TEXO Technologies set up its own Graduate-to-Industry training programme, a means of fast-tracking new entrants into the business. This has been extremely successful, and the division is now seeking to roll out the scheme to other businesses and training providers. With a focused marketing strategy and a pipeline of emerging technical talent on stream, TEXO Technologies is now far better placed to bring Fuse to market.

Indeed, the company has already had commercial success in the port services market. In Rotterdam, it successfully supported the installation of a new 1,500-ton J-Lay tower onto McDermott International’s newly converted AMAZON vessel. Partnering with body camera hardware firm Halo, TEXO’s Fuse system was operated live in areas where the client did not want to place people due to heavy lift hazards, offering a much safer means of installing the tower.

Meanwhile, for ORE Catapult, TEXO’s technology has enabled the annotation of live video footage capture by a drone to instruct local technicians working on a wind turbine. Located 200 miles from the client’s base, this has saved considerable time and resource by removing the need to transport more people to the site.

Overall, given the early stage of the business, the signs are extremely encouraging. Having posted healthy but small returns in 2022, TEXO Technologies is on track to double its turnover this financial year, with significant returns coming from its bodycam video streaming solutions – a clear sign that its newly focused commercial strategy is starting to producing a significant return on investment.

About Texo

TEXO is an Aberdeen-based multi-disciplinary industrial services company that provides services in the oil and gas, renewable energy, nuclear energy and marine sectors. The company’s team is made up of engineers, constructors, surveyors, designers, creative thinkers, service-givers and problem solvers. TEXO offers seven distinct services: Engineering & Fabrication, Workspace Solutions, Asset Integrity, Recruitment, Port Services, Livestream and Land & Aerial Surveys. Between them, these services support customers both onshore and offshore to design and complete essential projects on time and on budget. TEXO Group won “Young Business of the Year” at the Courier Business Awards 2019, “Transformation Award” at the EIC Awards 2021 and “Business Transformation” at the Scottish Engineering Awards 2022.

Story type

#digital (main activity)

#innovation, #people & competency

Benefits

• TEXO Technologies calculates to turn over £450,000 in 2023.

• ‘Together we are one’ approach enabled £40m in revenues for group.

• Insertion in new market bearing fruits.

Key findings

For industry

• Having a passion and drive is great but it’s not always enough, you can still push in the wrong direction. Listening more and talking less does have its benefits.

• Seriously look at solid technical skills shortages and address them.

For government

• Support businesses that are taking it upon themselves to address skills training (a fund that helps businesses develop training programmes internally).

Texo at a glance:

Key products and services: One-stop shop with services for the whole asset life cycle: engineering & fabrication, workspace solutions, asset integrity, recruitment, port services, livestream and land & aerial surveys.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 50%

• Renewables – 20%

• Others (building, utilities, marine) – 30%

Headquarters: Aberdeen, UK

Year established: 2018

Number of employees: 100

Revenue: £40m

TNF Energy

Overcoming eight challenges through key strategic changes

down potential profit margins, and fourthly it faced the challenge of convincing prospects that its solution was technically sound and commercial sound as a new enterprise.

How is TNF Energy thriving?

Despite being founded only five years ago in 2018, TNF is already making headway as a survey technical support and engineering specialist. With unique expertise in providing professional laser scanning and 3D modelling services, the firm has successfully completed more than 500 surveys, mapping, engineering projects and converting asset to digital twin data.

Having overcome a series of issues through a major change in strategy, the firm is now able to combine its significant suite of the latest technologies; laser scanner, UAV, GNSS & GPS and generate 3D models for clients, accelerating production and uncovering major cost savings.

The challenge

A company that is just half a decade in the making, TNF Energy has had to overcome several challenges as it navigated significant uncertainty in the years following its inception. Broadly, these can be split into eight key categories.

First, the company found it hard to talent familiar with key technologies such as PDMS and S3D software, both owing to geographical and budgetary constraints. Second, the firm also required significant capital to launch as a digitalisation company, investing in key tools such as laser scanners and software licenses.

Thirdly, the firm faced stiff market competition, driving

Budgetary constraints and approval durations proved to be a fifth issue, while the sixth stemmed from the fact that discussions and proof of concepts required to demonstrate the viability of its solutions were lengthy. The seventh challenge then related to considering market share and untapped opportunities, while the eight surrounded contractor concerns of job opportunities being slashed due to displacement by technology.

The solution

Despite the odds being stacked against it on several different fronts, TNF Energy has continued to preserve, adapt and evolve in order to iron out client concerns and gradually build its reputation as a survey technical support and engineering specialist in the market.

In the middle of 2019, the firm embarked on a new market strategy, implementing a dedicated proof on concept (POC) and targeting the operation and maintenance (O&M) department. In addition, the firm introduced a new way of working with full visibility that emphasised the high accuracy through 3D digital twin technologies.

The latter offered several benefits. With digital twin technologies, TNF Energy can mitigate site reworks, accelerate production times, reduce downtime and more for its clients.

Critically, Petronas Sabah (SBA) was one of the earliest beneficiaries of this switch in emphasis, this successful contract paving the way for others to follow suit, providing

Tengku Faiz Tengku Yusoff, CEO

TNF Energy with a proven reputation and significant market credibility.

Where the company had previously experienced several points of friction with its clients relating to hook up and commissioning, prolonged shutdown times, lost injury time, and the lack of availability from 3D models and digital twins, it has adapted specifically to mitigate each and every one of these potential combative challenges.

Today, TNF is now able to combine its significant suite of tools, including laser scanning, UAV, GNSS and GPS, to generate the digital twins that can then be converted into 3D formats with realistic photo image for its clients. Further, the firm is also developing an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm for the detection of corrosion, enabling it to produce accurate inspection, expedite and improvise the corrosion preventative maintenance reports digitally.

These changes have been transformative. Indeed, TNF is now providing its customers with full visibility into the design and construction aspects of projects to improve alignment, relationships, as well as enhancing its execution of projects and restoring assets into digital format, make it more valuable data to all asset owners. Not only has production been accelerated, but the change intact has also provided tremendous cost savings and an expanded project schedule with 0% HSE issue and 0% nonconformance report (NCR).

The figures speak for themselves. Where revenues sat at RM172,800 (USD$38,740) with a profit margin of 22.9% in 2018, this has growth significantly to RM7,997,329 (USD$1,792,922) and 59.35% in 2022. The growth also come along with the increase of manpower resources. TNF started with only 15 personnel in 2018, and now has more than 100 personnel on the field that are always ready to serve the industry.

Indeed, after a bumpy start, the future looks unquestionably bright for TNF Energy with a new branch opened in Bangkok, Thailand and Lumut, Brunei.

About TNF Energy

TNF Energy is a 100% Bumiputera company, focusing on its expertise in providing total solution from survey up to engineering services. As a licensed company with PETRONAS, and with over 12 years of experiences, TNF has served most of the mega players in the oil and gas industry such as PETRONAS, Shell, ExxonMobil, PTTEP and has completed more than 500 surveys and mapping, including engineering, oil and gas projects, non-oil and gas projects, in and outside Malaysia. Throughout the years, TNF has always focused on striving to be at the top on possessing up-to-date technology know how on its field

Story type

#innovation (main category)

#technology

Benefits

• Technology suit for technical & non-technical personnel.

• Production enhanced and accelerated.

• 0% LTI, 0% NCR.

• Commercially attractive product and adaptable to any local market.

• 3D digital available 24/7.

Key findings

For industry

• R&D must be part of the business plan. Small improvement on innovation can bring big changes to the company revenue, profitability, and also sustainability.

• Always seek to improve services or products and avoid comfort zone attitude.

For government

• Embrace technical, commercial, and local content criteria when evaluating any tender or development grant.

TNF Energy at a glance:

Key products and services: Engineering, laser scanning, as-building, underground mapping, soil investigation, artificial intelligence and digital twin.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 60%

• Conventional power – 15%

• Renewables – 10%

• Others – 15%

Headquarters: Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Year established: 2018

Number of employees: 105

Revenue: £1.5m

Revenue from exports: 20%

Triplefast Middle East

Exploring new markets to de-risk from global shocks

components, coatings and pipeline packages to the world’s energy markets.

How is Triplefast Middle East thriving?

Like many firms entrenched in the oil and gas value chain, Triplefast Middle East faced a challenging period when the price crisis of 2016 reached its peak. Indeed, that event has triggered what has been a volatile and uncertain period ever since, with critical events such as the Covid pandemic and Ukraine war adding several layers of complexity and risk.

However, the decision to pivot towards the clean energy and energy transition markets has proven invaluable, with the company broadening its expertise through a series of acquisitions, which has allowed it to serve both existing and new clients in their own transition journeys.

As a result, Triplefast now stands strong as a US$300m organisation with healthy profit margins and an even more ambitious growth pipeline ahead of it.

The challenge

Triplefast Middle East has a long legacy behind it, with its origins tracing back to the 1950s. Today, it is part of LoneStar Group, a global manufacturer and supplier of high-performance fasteners, sealing, precision-engineered

Up until the middle of the last decade, the company predominantly served customers in the oil and gas space. However, when the 2016 price crash hit, the whole value chain suffered, including essential parts suppliers such as Triplefast, who suffered from delayed and non-payments as well as a drying up of its pipeline.

A few years later, the Covid pandemic and crisis in Ukraine brought similar instability to the oil and gas market, a reality which further reinforced the need for the company to turn its attentions to new energy markets.

The solution

Fortunately, Triplefast began exploring energy transition opportunities in the aftermath of the 2016 crisis.

Indeed, the firm had been able to ride the 2016 and Covid waves, keeping most of its staff in place – however, the company’s leadership realised it had to properly reposition the business globally in line with clean energy.

This has involved identifying and filling expertise and resourcing gaps, as well as localising supply chains to get closer to customers wherever possible. Acquisitions have been pivotal. A series of purchases have given Triplefast a larger footprint in key markets such as the UK, Europe, and US, allowing it to fill in some key gaps. As its clients began to pivot into renewables, the firm followed suit,

Steve Kettle, Vice President MENA-APAC

gradually coming to understand the size and scope of the market.

During this time, the company has also moved into new facilities, consolidated some of its departments, uplifted its manufacturing capability and increased stockholding to better serve customers. Alongside this, it has recruited experts in the clean energy field who understand where this transition would take the company, their added experience bringing credibility to the new-look Triplefast operation.

This is helping the enterprise to secure several longstanding partnerships with large blue-chip clients, including the likes of Shell and new customers such as AirLiquide and AirProducts and Linde. In addition, customers are responding well to satisfaction surveys, while staff retention has also been strong since the pivot towards energy transition markets was made.

In terms of revenue, Triplefast is not far away from achieving the 50-50 split between conventional and clean energy business that it is seeking, with particular success coming from markets such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Crucially, profitability is looking extremely healthy compared to a few short years ago, with the US$30m in profit recorded in 2022 representing a threefold increase on 2020 when Covid struck. And looking ahead, the company seeks to expand its horizons even further, both organically and through acquisitions.

With the business trending in the right direction, it is safe to say that its decision to diversify in 2016 was an extremely wise one.

About Triplefast Middle East

Founded in 2002, Triplefast Middle East was established to act as the Group’s manufacturing and supply centre in the Middle East. As it is known today, Triplefast Middle East supplies fasteners, sealing and gaskets to the Gulf, Middle East, Caspian, Indian subcontinent and surrounding areas.

Story type #diversification (main category)

#resilience

Benefits

• Diversification plans laid out in 2016 underway.

• Profit of US$30m recorded in 2022.

Key findings

For industry

• Gone are the days of simplicity and where size would allow you to plough on – one must adapt and change but maintain their values.

For government

• Help smaller companies – we are not singular as a market or country, access and support are needed, as we live in a fully global world.

Triplefast Middle East at a glance:

Key products and services: Global manufacturer and supplier of high-performance fasteners, sealing, precision engineered components, coatings and pipeline packages to the world’s energy markets.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 55%

• Renewables – 20%

• Nuclear power – 10%

• Energy Transition – 5%

• Others (industrial) – 10%

Headquarters: Wednesbury, UK

Year established: 2002; 1956 (Group)

Number of employees: 200; 1,350 (Group)

Revenue: £24m

Revenue from exports: 80%

TRS Staffing Solutions

Finding the sweet spot for a bespoke recruitment service

companies to look at the managed service provider (MSP) model, not least because it could help drive cost efficiencies by as much as 5-15% within the first year.

The question for TRS, therefore, was how to manoeuvre itself to plug the gap.

How is TRS Staffing Solutions thriving?

While the covid pandemic caused upheaval and hardship for many companies, it presented TRS Staffing Solutions an opportunity to adapt and reposition itself. Drawing on a recruitment model it had already successfully deployed to several firm in the US, it launched a managed services provider (MSP) division in the form of TRS Workforce Solutions in 2022. Today, it offers bespoke, projectbased services for oil and gas companies seeking to streamline resourcing costs and plug their knowledge gaps.

The challenge

The covid pandemic has fundamentally changed the way organisations work. A conduit for change, it brought about a shift in mindset between employees and contractors amid what was also a highly challenging oil and gas market to operate in. Many people left the industry or shifted their careers towards energy transition and sustainability, leading to a situation that left oil and gas firms facing a shortage of knowledge and talent within their ranks.

For TRS Staffing Solutions, part of the Fortune 500 Fluor Corporation which has 40,000 employees spread around the world, the covid backdrop presented an opportunity. The changing oil and gas labour market forced many

The solution

Indeed, the company has already been providing this type of solution as a bespoke service to major US companies since 2017. When the pandemic hit, and amid the market challenges and movement of people away from the sector, TRS’s leadership soon identified a sweet spot for its offering within the oil and gas arena.

In 2022, it launched a new division under the name of TRS Workforce Solutions delivering cost-efficient, compliant workforce solutions that gives clients visibility and control over their talent needs.

This typically involves managing the contingent worker recruitment program for organisations, along with reporting and tracking, and coordination of the recruitment supply chain and invoice consolidation. For complex engineering projects, TRS Workforce Solutions has developed ONEMSP, a new MSP offering specifically designed for quick deployment with recruitment solutions aligning to project milestones and contingent worker attraction and retention.

The company also offers services via a recruitment process solutions (RPO) model. This involves the handling of all or part of a client’s permanent and direct hiring

Darren Rowan, Director, Business Development

needs – as an RPO provider, TRS Workforce Solutions takes primary responsibility for the entire recruitment process through a dedicated program manager and direct sourcing team.

These new service lines compliment the staffing services TRS already delivers, the difference being that it can now capture a larger share of the market and drive accelerated growth.

Another key feature of this strategy is the firm’s targeting of mid-market clients. Typically, its competitors go after enterprise-wide solutions which are big and expensive, leaving a gap which TRS is seeking to fill.

And it is supremely well-positioned to do so. Already built around a global presence with local expertise spread across key markets around the world, TRS can also lean on the knowledge, experience, and reach of its parent company Fluor. As an EPC contractor, it houses decades of first-hand knowhow with regard to projects and how human resourcing requirements are handled. Indeed, this knowledge inspired the development of the ONEMSP product which provides bespoke solutions to projects with their own goals, timelines and deliverables.

Although the division is relatively new, the TRS Workforce Solutions team is already packed with the experience needed to deliver for clients, with its headcount continuing to grow steadily. Having identified a gap in the market for an MSP to provide project-based recruitment services, momentum is beginning to build.

About TRS Staffing Solutions

TRS Staffing Solutions is a world leading engineering recruitment agency specialising in the recruitment and supply of professional, engineering, technical and field talent. With 23 offices across the globe, they bring local expertise to international markets and have the industry knowledge to help match the right candidate to the right role.

Story type

#service & solutions (main category)

#resilience

Benefits

• Mid-market clients now under TRS Staffing’s radar.

• New divisions ready to support upcoming projects.

Key findings

For industry

• The company must always be moving forward and keeping up with change.

• You must be consultative in solving problems rather than be transactions. This is the way you add value to your client.

TRS Staffing Solutions at a glance: Key products and services: Recruitment services covering workforce solution, managed services programs, recruitment process outsourcing and temporary worker supply.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 40%

• Conventional power – 2%

• Nuclear power – 2%

• Renewables – 5%

• Energy Transition – 5%

• Others (infrastructure, metals and mining, life sciences, industrial and manufacturing) – 46%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 1984

Number of employees: 256

Revenue: £322m

TS Electrical

Shoring up the supply chain and moving into new markets to remain competitive

obstacles come and go – however, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the company found itself facing an unprecedented set of challenges.

How is TS Electrical thriving?

Covid-19, for many industries and sectors, has created something of a race to the bottom – competition for business has intensified, with firms slashing prices in order to retain market share.

For TS Electrical, this presented a dilemma. While it recognised the need to do all it could to keep customers on board with affordable prices, it was unwilling to sacrifice on the quality of product and service delivery that had enabled it to entrench itself as a market-leading operator over the course of 30 years. However, by making some changes across its supply chain, moving outside of its comfort zone and making inroads into the oil and gas and energy markets, the company looks to have emerged from a disruptive and difficult period in better health.

The challenge

TS Electrical has built up its reputation over three decades by providing high-quality electrical components and customer service to clients. The company delivers highly customized power and control solutions to suit the needs of its clients, which typically have come from food and drink, edible oil processing, water, healthcare, power generation, rail and chemicals sectors across Malaysia and the ASEAN region.

During this time, its leadership team had seen many

Profit margins became squeezed when competitors moved to slash prices in order to compete for business. This created a dilemma, whereby TS Electrical knew it couldn’t compromise on the quality of its products, but also recognised the importance of compensating staff fairly in the face of increased competition.

The solution

Several important steps were taken to help the company remain competitive while not compromising on quality for customers and its loyalty to staff.

Firstly, it re-examined its supply chain. Knowing it had to be cost-effective to be competitive, TS Electrical looked across its entire vendor network and made significant changes, negotiating better prices with all suppliers.

The firm has also examined new markets and partnerships to broaden its horizons. For example, it took the decision to diversify by moving into new lines of business – chiefly, it has started exploring opportunities in the oil and gas sector and has also pivoted from dealing with predominantly low voltage businesses to start selling into medium and high voltage products and solutions.

In regard to the oil and gas sector, becoming an EIC member has been a key step and opened doors to knowledge and data on the industry that TS Electrical previously lacked. Furthermore, the company’s leadership started to move outside of their comfort zone, attending several large exhibitions in Europe to understand global trends and see

Nathan Chiam, Business Development Manager

what other similar companies are doing or planning. These visits have been influential, opening the firm’s eyes and inspiring it to become more of a part of the global business community.

Knowing that 2020 was a critical year and that standing still was simply not an option, the bold steps taken are starting to pay off, with new green shoots emerging. Despite the significant set of challenges posed by the pandemic, TS Electrical has been able to weather the storm and emerge even stronger on the other side.

The company’s commitment to quality, customer service and staff satisfaction has helped it to maintain its position as a leader in the industry, these values not being sacrificed at any stage of its moves to become more cost competitive and diversify into new areas.

Looking ahead, the aim now is to build more momentum and acquire more clients from numerous industries that operate in the ASEAN region. As the world continues to recover from the pandemic and absorbs other economic shocks, TS Electrical is poised to build further on its legacy of excellence and innovation for years to come, including in the newly opened up oil and gas space. Other than that, assisting customers to meet their ESG goals through energy monitoring and electrically driven boiler systems. Also, digital transformation through operations control and engineering industrial software.

About TS Electrical

TS Electrical design and manufacture low voltage switchboards and control cabinets with IEC61439-2 & IEC60529 accreditation and are registered with various Malaysian authority bodies like the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Works and Energy Commission. Their affiliate companies are in the business of industrial automation, system integration, SCADA, energy management, energy monitoring, software development and developing industrial IoT. This allows them to deliver highly customised to-suit solutions for clients

Story type

#culture (main category)

#resilience

Benefits

• Rev Energy offers bespoke support and build client relationships centred around candid conversations and comfort.

• Big increase in revenues.

Key findings

For industry

• Passion for the business, people and the desire to help others succeed are essential criteria to enable the company to grow.

• Help others succeed and create a culture of openness that allows the expression of ideas for improvement, whilst maintaining strict conformance to the values and objectives of the company.

For government

• Rev Energy were able to secure the needed facilities from the financial institutions to run its business with the government’s help on a partial guarantee through SJPP, which provided an alternative solution to collateral requirement needed to secure the necessary loans. The government policy on this has been instrumental on the survival of SME companies such as Rev Energy which has made it viable with the necessary fundings gap.

Rev Energy at a glance:

Key products and services: Comprehensive solutions for valves, actuators, fire protection, sealant and other equipment.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas - 90%

• Conventional power – 9%

• Energy Transition (CCUS) – 1%

Headquarters: Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Year established: 2017

Number of employees: 18

Revenue: £6.2m

Turner & Townsend (UK)

Empowering energy transition projects with a renewed purpose

with clients. At the heart of the challenge is wholescale change, the management of risk and a deep understanding of commercial viability.

The solution

How is Turner & Townsend thriving?

Turner & Townsend is at the leading-edge of global net zero developments. Its purpose and strategy are focused on imparting positive benefit for clients and society alike and it is successfully helping projects and programmes to develop and deliver energy transition strategies that are sustainable and cost effective, while achieving energy security.

The challenge

An independent global consultancy headquartered in the UK, Turner & Townsend employs more than 10,000 people worldwide through a network of 118 offices in 50 countries. Working across the real estate, infrastructure and energy and resources industries, it recognised early the challenge that energy transition presented due to its complexity, pace and scale in an unstable market facing increasing supply chain demands.

The firm is no stranger to challenges, having clients in many complex programmes around the world. Critically, it’s a company committed to driving and assuring the performance of projects and programmes that deliver successful outcomes. Right now, that means a major focus on energy transition.

Turner & Townsend sees the delivery of energy transition infrastructure as a key issue of our time – one that the organisation is working to help overcome through innovative solution developments and by closely working

Turner & Townsend’s emphasis on energy transition began with a strategic pivot back in 2020 to align with global targets of reaching net zero by 2050. Recognising energy and resources infrastructure as a fundamental piece of the puzzle and key hurdle to overcome to support both its own and industry-wide sustainability aspirations, the firm began to showcase its expertise more actively as a partner capable of accelerating the delivery of such projects.

Drawing on its global expertise, it invested in a team to develop a clear and executable solution for the delivery of carbon reduction. the company then road tested this with the launch of its own net zero strategy, built upon Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidance and the Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi).

The drive for change from senior management has been key. The firm’s leadership recognise the responsibility that Turner & Townsend has to society and the environment, placing purpose and people ahead of profit.

For Turner & Townsend, a key objective is finding ways to adapt and impart positive benefit while sustaining current operating levels. The company seeks to be an enabler, not an activist, for change – sentiment that’s embodied by its vision to transform performance for a green, inclusive, and productive world.

“Turner & Townsend recognises the complexity of low carbon solutions and understands there is no one size fits all approach. Our implementation strategies are shaped to the specific needs, objectives, and business environments of

Jason Martin, Global Head of Clean Energy and Decarbonisation

our global clients to deliver cost effective, sustainable and secure outcomes” says Jason Martin.

Underpinned by four key pillars of productivity, collaboration, leadership and digital transformation, its new sustainabilityfocused strategy has already resulted in several major and lasting changes. Within the energy and resources industries, its clients span oil and gas, mining and metals, clean energy, natural gas, and chemicals.

The merits of its strategic shift are clear in several positive projects, the first of these centring around the support of Santos. The Australian energy pioneer had outlined ambitions to become a net zero business by 2040, providing cleaner energy and clean fuels that are affordable and sustainable. To achieve this, Turner & Townsend has been supporting the company’s decarbonisation efforts with multi-disciplined services including procurement, contract services, and project controls including schedule, cost, risk and reporting. The decarbonisation programme includes operational efficiencies, electrification and renewables integration, deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and direct air capture (DAC) technologies. Turner & Townsend has helped the company to progress through its stage gate process and meet investment criteria on several projects.

Elsewhere, the company has supported TenneT, the transmission system operator in the Netherlands and North Germany following their concern that the Covid-19 pandemic was impacting fabrication of the transformer platform topsides needed to connect the energy generated at the Hollandse Kust Zuid offshore wind farm to land, and critically, their forecast completion date. Collaborating with TenneT’s EPCI contractor, it mobilised and led an independent joint task force comprising planning, project controls and quantity surveying specialists at the fabrication site in Dubai, providing assurance that schedule, including onshore testing and commissioning, was on track to meet the project’s Ready For Sail Away (RFSA) date, and all subsequent transportation and installation commitments.

Turner & Townsend has a proven ability to enable the seamless and successful development of energy and resources infrastructure in abundance. For companies looking to follow in similar footsteps and launch or expand sustainable energy projects moving forward, Turner & Townsend now stands as a highly capable partner.

About Turner & Townsend

Turner & Townsend is a global professional services company with over 10,000 people in 50 countries. Collaborating with clients across real estate, infrastructure and natural resources sectors, Turner & Townsend specialise in major programmes, programme management, cost and commercial management, net zero and digital solutions.

Story type #energy transition (main category)

Benefits

• Thanks to Turner & Townsend’s assistance, major industry players have been supported in journey to net zero.

Turner & Townsend (UK) at a glance:

Key products and services: Global consultancy business in the real estate, infrastructure and natural resources sectors.

Main industries served (within natural resources segment):

• Oil, gas and chemicals – 40%

• Clean energy and decarbonisation – 40%

• Mining – 20%

Headquarters: Leeds, UK

Year established: 1947

Number of employees: 10,000 (Group)

Revenue: £779m (Group)

Turner & Townsend (US)

Training the consultancy experts of tomorrow through a ramped up Graduate Development Program

motivated workforces to the longevity of organisations the world over, with those finding an answer to the Great Resignation having been able to emerge in the strongest position.

The solution

How is Turner & Townsend thriving?

Turner & Townsend is looking to the future. Not only is it turbocharging its commitment to be a net zero business by 2030, but it is also seeking to secure its position as a global market leading consultant for major projects by investing in skills. The company plans to do so with its Graduate Development Program (GDP), an enhanced structured learning environment that, since 2008, is enabling up and coming talent to accelerate their careers. Started 12 years ago and refined in numerous ways ever since, including a formalisation of the scheme in the US, the initiative has provided significant return on investment for both Turner & Townsend and its client base.

The challenge

The energy sector is not immune to a cyclical hire and fire culture. The past decade in particular has thrown up peaks and troughs which have forced firms working across the entire value chain to expand and contract in response to market conditions.

For Turner & Townsend, a reliable and robust pipeline of talent is essential to the long-term sustainability and security of the business. As a revered consultant working across some of the largest infrastructure projects in the world, its value proposition is squarely based around its human expertise. Furthermore, the pandemic period shone a spotlight on the importance of stable and

Central to Turner & Townsend’s workforce futureproofing is its Graduate Development Program.

Running for over a decade, its primary purpose is to bring more talent into the marketplace by offering graduates a learning environment that supports them to become a well-rounded consultant and plot out a career path. Indeed, the programme is designed to be: a platform to enhance knowledge and gain first-hand experience; a training schedule to support and capture learning and development needs and achievements; and a learning tool document to track and report the development of capabilities.

Participants are provided with a development path that is not only aligned to the company’s internal competency frameworks, but also supports professional development and qualifications, including RICS, APM, CIOB and ICE. Spanning two years, the GDP covers four broad pillars –project management, controls and performance, cost and commercial management, and data and technology. This content is backed up by internal mentoring and coaching, as well as an abundance of opportunities to gain first-hand exposure to real-life projects (and some of the world’s largest organisations). Once complete, graduates can take on a full-time role within the business. Crucially, the programme is open to any graduate and not limited to those with construction-related qualifications, with Turner & Townsend more interested in individuals’ unique qualities than skills which it knows it can teach through the GDP.

Finlay McLay, Executive Vice President, Natural Resources

In the US, the company has spent the past five years formalising and entrenching the GDP into its setup. This has involved partnering with major academic institutions such as Colombia, LSU, A&M, UH, Stanford and Perdue, with the first rotation taking place in 2019 and now fully in motion. Today, Turner & Townsend onboards an average of 50 US-based graduates each year.

Across the board, graduate intake at the firm increased by 50% year-on-year over the past 12 months, with overall employee headcount rising by 25% during the same period.

Social mobility and offering opportunities to people from a diverse range of backgrounds has also been a priority within the expansion of the GDP. The broader goal of bringing talent into the sector is one of three key aims of Turner & Townsend’s Making the Difference global fund, which devotes a percentage of profits to turbocharging green innovation, growing social mobility and contributing to international efforts which support the resilience of communities in need.

Employees are also actively involved in supporting their communities. As part of the company’s 75th birthday celebrations, it held its inaugural Global Challenge which saw one in five colleagues virtually walk, run, swim or cycle the distance between all its offices worldwide. The event raised £75,000 for important causes supported across numerous regions.

Alongside investment in people, Turner & Townsend is also accelerating the roll-out of NewLeaf, its long-term commitment to be a net-zero business by 2030. This has involved sustained investment in green technologies across its existing assets and activities and has been central to new office selection and set-up, as well as how the firm approaches the balance between international travel and virtual communication. Meanwhile, the firm’s continued push to digitise projects globally will also support more efficient and ultimately sustainable construction, engineering and asset management practice.

Having emerged from the uncertainties of the pandemic period with a more diverse and purposeful business, Turner & Townsend is helping to build a more sustainable, modern marketplace that has the human capital to thrive in the future.

About Turner & Townsend

Turner & Townsend is a global professional services company with over 10,000 people in 50 countries. Collaborating with clients across real estate, infrastructure and natural resources sectors, Turner & Townsend specialise in major programmes, programme management, cost and commercial management, net zero and digital solutions.

Story type

#people & competency (main category)

#innovation

Benefits

• High job satisfaction rates among GDP participants.

• Since 2018, over 300 employees are enrolled in GDP annually.

Key findings For industry

• We must take risks in our careers. Be bold in your solution and dream big.

• Invest in your people and let ideas flow freely throughout your generational work force.

Turner & Townsend at a glance:

Key products and services: Global consultancy business in the real estate, infrastructure and natural resources sectors.

Main industries served (within natural resources segment):

• Oil, gas and chemicals – 40%

• Clean energy and decarbonisation – 40%

• Mining – 20%

Headquarters: Leeds, UK.

North America Head Office is in New York.

Year established: 1946

Number of employees: 1,356 (US); 10,000 (Global) Revenue: US$163.1m

TÜV SÜD Energietechnik GmbH

Making the most of renewed opportunities in nuclear

The solution

Fortunately for TÜV SÜD ET, February 2022 saw the proposed inclusion of specific nuclear and gas energy activities, under certain conditions, in the list of environmentally sustainable economic activities covered by the EU Taxonomy.

How is TÜV SÜD Energietechnik GmbH thriving?

Civil nuclear technical safety evaluation services provider TÜV SÜD Energietechnik GmbH (TÜV SÜD ET) has benefitted from the huge spur of interest in the nuclear market that resulted from the recent EU taxonomy changes. With the repositioning of the company and the establishment of a new independent and expert advisory service to support the realization of projects, the company is now maximizing the new opportunities with an improved and diversified business model.

The challenge

With a history dating back to the 1960s, TÜV SÜD ET has a long-established reputation as a formidable player in the civil nuclear market in Germany, backed by a demonstrable track record in assessing and supporting key projects from cradle to grave.

Come 2011, however, the firm’s home market voted to shut down all nuclear reactors by the end of 2022.

The challenge was clear for TÜV SÜD ET: it needed to look towards the export market in order to compensate for the loss of order volume, yet new build nuclear projects around the world had begun to be delayed. At the same time, COVID added additional complications to the mix, making it more difficult for TÜV SÜD ET to look towards export markets.

This was a game changer, bringing nuclear back to the fore as a key pillar in Europe’s efforts to decarbonise. Further, while the pandemic made it more complex for TÜV SÜD ET to access international markets, the firm found that the decommissioning work available in Germany required much more effort than had originally anticipated so that these projects offering great respite during the uncertainty.

That said, while the domestic market still bigger than originally thought, the company remained behind where it wanted to be internationally. To explore how this could be overcome and a healthier revenue split obtained, it explored several options, looking at how it could offer support and training for other companies, governments and consultants to help them with their nuclear plans.

In this sense, TÜV SÜD ET actively stepped away from exclusively inspecting and assessing things to also advising others.

This was an easy transition. The company already had the expertise in house, and so did not need to build its advisory business from scratch. Instead, its staff were simply able to share their knowledge with external parties, shifting to a mindset of taking an advisory stance on these new contracts on the one hand, and a reviewing and controlling stance on the other.

To supplement this, TÜV SÜD ET also established a

Dr. Lars-Thilo Voss, Business Line Manager Nuclear Power & Decommissioning

dedicated sales team. While this was initially launched in early 2021 with limited success, the sales team was then re-established with renewed focus in October 2022.

Of course, it has been a process involving several challenges. The firm’s overall mindset had to change, encouraging its professionals talk to people even in scenarios where they did not have clear answers from the outset. Its advisors needed to learn to listen and guide rather than regulate, measure and test as they were used to. It was a new approach that required new skills. Yet this learning opportunity was embraced, enabling TÜV SÜD ET to establish itself in the advisory arena.

Indeed, several key contracts have been secured, the firm having helped to draft a set of requirements for one client that was looking to align with both European Utility Requirements and unique, separate requirements in its domestic market in planning a nuclear power plant project.

Here, TÜV SÜD ET helped specify exactly what was needed in order to align with these specific regulatory demands while also ensuring the project could be as successful as possible.

Through such projects, the firm is finding its feet in the advisory capacity, it now specifically focusing on offering support in three core areas.

First, it is helping companies to bridge the gaps between old and new approaches, regulations, standards and skills as the nuclear energy market continues to change rapidly. Second, for those coming into Europe from outside, it is helping to provide better understanding in dealing with EU special regulations, which can be a huge burden to take on in respect of harmonising codes and standards. And thirdly, it has been successful in advising to help to build up training and education systems, working with universities and using its expertise to short cut learning processes. This includes the establishment of a small nuclear training academy.

Backed by both this new advisory offering alongside an active nuclear market that its traditional expertise can continue to tap into, TÜV SÜD ET is now able to lean on strong drivers in new areas of opportunity – a position that will set it up for success for many years to come.

About TÜV SÜD Energietechnik GmbH

Since 1959, TÜV SÜD Energietechnik is an independent and neutral service provider for assessment, inspection and advisory services in field of technology, which present a high-risk potential, focusing on activities related to the safety of nuclear facilities. A one-stop service provider, TÜV SÜD ET supports clients with assessment and advisory services and a comprehensive range of trainings.

Story type

#service & solutions (main category)

#culture

Benefits

• Offerings expanded to new areas.

• Key contracts secured.

TÜV SÜD Energietechnik at a glance:

Key products and services: Technical safety evaluation services for civil nuclear industry

Main industries served:

• Nuclear power – 100%

Headquarters: Stuttgart, Germany

Year established: 1959

Number of employees: 203

Revenue: £29m

Revenue from exports: 10%

UCT Fluid Solutions

Maximising the hydrogen opportunity with a defined automotive market strategy

stood up to a variety of regulatory requirements, and quickly found that many of its products were readily compatible with the hydrogen sector.

How is UCT Fluid Solutions thriving?

With more than a half-century of experience supporting process control applications, UCT Fluid Solutions develops, manufactures and distributes high-performance industrial flow control systems-connectors, fittings and valves for gases and liquids.

With a broad portfolio of proven products and decades of extensive experience, UCT Fluid Solutions offers its diverse range of clients a one-stop-shop for hydrogen applications. Having successfully identified new opportunities in the automotive sector, UCT has adapted to serve customers successfully in this segment with an emphasis on collaboration, quality, and providing custom solutions to support a cleaner future.

The challenge

The challenge lay in penetrating new, unknown markets, with UCT ultimately setting its sights on the automotive sector to garner new business opportunities.

UCT Fluid Solutions conducted a strategic portfolio review to see if its existing product line could support hydrogen applications, or if adjustments or innovations would be required to optimise its solutions in accordance with market requirements. Researching several hydrogen applications and analysing its raw materials to see if they

Given its long-standing reputation, UCT Fluid Solutions doesn’t shy away from opportunities for innovation or adaptation in accordance with market demands. Indeed, with many energy companies under pressure to reduce their carbon footprints and adopt more sustainable practices and solutions, UCT recognises the key role that it can play in supporting enterprises in the use of hydrogen as a cleaner, greener alternative fuel.

In 2021, a renowned automotive enterprise requested that UCT develop specific, custom-made hydrogen solutions, something the company was unable to deliver at that time. However, after a strategic rethink in how to approach the sector, highlighting the potential opportunities available that could be capitalised upon, UCT found a solution.

The solution

Once UCT was sure its products could serve the automotive sector’s needs effectively, it began to cultivate a go-to-market strategy for the industry. Extensive efforts were made to expand awareness of UCT’s products and potential, from identifying opportunities to implement its solutions and aligning with certifications to understanding client operations, approaches and requirements.

Many of these efforts have been spearheaded by a newly recruited business development manager that has focused solely on the hydrogen market. Having located potential prospects, roadshows were initially scheduled. However, these initial efforts proved to be limited in their returns.

UCT recognised it needed to drill down further and

Liat Pasternak, Product Marketing Manager Yehuda Salhov, Senior Director of Marketing

understand the specific pain points of its prospects. It developed a questionnaire that was sent to customers that opened up collaborative relationships and provided a forum for key prospective voices to be heard. In turn, UCT gained a better understanding and appreciation of its customers’ needs while also building stronger relationships. Customers soon became more forthcoming in sharing details about their specific problems, and through detailed and open discussions, UCT now provides bespoke solutions, overshadowing its competitors in the process.

The company has also continued to attend key hydrogen conferences across the globe, further consolidating its market reputation. UCT has also been able to attract business by deeply collaborating with key existing accounts, partnering with them into the hydrogen arena. These relationships have been vital, supporting UCT with its research efforts and providing valuable feedback that has enabled it to refine and improve its offering.

Key corridors of dialogue don’t just apply to customers and prospects. UCT holds bi-monthly training sessions for its employees, sending out quarterly questionnaires to receive important information and feedback about how these sessions are received resulting in a continuous cycle of improvement can be achieved on all fronts.

And continually improving is what UCT remains focused on. Between a strong and growing reputation that has initially opened doors for several new customers and business opportunities, and an emphasis on building close relationships to develop tailored solutions, the company is already building a renowned reputation in the automotive sector.

Despite being a relatively new entrant to the automotive market, UCT has been able to displace its competitors in several instances as a key hydrogen partner – a positive and proven base on which it can build moving forward as it continues to invest in product development and certification.

About UCT Fluid Solutions

UCT Fluid Solutions addresses the demanding requirements of a broad number of industries: semiconductor, power generation, chemical, oil and gas, petrochemical and more. UCT factories are equipped with the latest manufacturing and inspection technologies enabling precise solutions for industry opportunities, and encouraging innovation for the creation of new, advanced components and systems.

Story type

#energy transition (main category)

#diversification, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Stronger relationship with customers enabled the company to provide bespoke solutions.

• Several new customers and business opportunities.

Key findings

For industry

• Go for it! We need to push to zero emissions. Everyone is there and you also need to be there. Start now!

• Check what you already have, and it may be able to de adapted for other markets. For government

• If you decide on a regulation, stick with it.

UCT Fluid Solutions at a glance:

Key products and services: Development, manufacturing, and distribution of high-performance industrial flow control systems-connectors, fittings, and valves for gases and liquids.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas - 25%

• Conventional power - 5%

• Renewables – 5%

• Energy Transition - 15%

• Others (non-energy: semiconductor) - 50%

Headquarters: Nof Hagalil, Israel

Year established: 1950

Number of employees: 750

Revenue from exports: 90%

Vahterus

Sustaining quality and service excellence in a period of rapid expansion

anticipated, it faced difficulties in meeting its customers’ requirements on price and lead times. And while scaling up in such a short period would be incredibly challenging, the task was made greater as a result of the strains that had been placed on critical supply chains by both the pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine.

How is Vahterus thriving?

In the face of a rapid rise in demand for its products across all core sectors and regions, Vahterus has been successful in overcoming key challenges including skills shortages and supply chain issues to maximize market opportunities. Thanks to savvy investments in facilities expansion, R&D scaleup and US collaboration, the firm has sustained its emphasis on delivering premium solutions to customers while doubling its order intake to €100m in the space of two short years.

The challenge

Plate and shell heat exchanger technology specialist Vahterus entered 2021 in an extremely positive position. The firm had begun to experience exceptional demand for its products, with its sales in all sectors across EMEA, APAC and America having achieved unprecedented growth. The firm’s order book was filling up at a dramatic rate, driven by recent forays into the LNG, heat pumps and hydrogen markets.

This was of course positive. However, such high level of growth needs careful management, and it presented several challenges. Owing to its partnership approach of working with customers to develop bespoke solutions that meet specific needs, the firm was accepting orders that did not immediately have the answers to – particularly as it had begun operating in new markets involving new technologies.

As it experienced higher growth than it had ever

The solution

Vahterus had to quickly adapt to respond to this rapid and extensive growth and continue to meet customer requirements while maintaining its core values on quality. The main challenges the firm encountered were in expanding its manufacturing capacity to meet the global demands for its product, the company opting to further develop its local manufacturing facilities and assembly capabilities to support its key business regions.

Here, the decision was taken to extend its core facilities in Finland and in mid-2021, the company successfully doubled its plate pack assembly production capacity with a new 3,000m² production facility, Vahterus’ biggest expansion yet. With the building now complete, the manufacturing machinery is expected to be in place by the end of March that will compromise of critical robotics solutions which will serve to improve factory performance.

Alongside this, the firm eyed expansion overseas. Having opened its first assembly facility in China for the Asian market with great success 10 years ago, the decision was taken to replicate that very same model in the US. This process started at the end of 2021 when the company acquired US-based manufacturing entity Harliss Specialties to support its supply chain capabilities in North America and decrease the delivery times in the region. With the newly improved manufacturing headquarters in Finland providing the foundation for the business, Vahterus also

Leighton Nicholas, Key Account Manager

successfully enhanced its regional footprint with its own US-based facilities.

Enhancing its square feet in manufacturing was only part of the puzzle, equally, the company’s headcount also had to be expanded appropriately. This was no easy task. Indeed, the firm needed to quickly acquire many more highly skilled individuals with specific expertise in R&D, welding and manufacturing – a task that was made difficult in current markets with high employment rates. Any new welders also had to be vetted, tested and assured – a process which can take 3-4 months. However, in successfully persuading many overseas experts to relocate and join the company, Vahterus successfully raised its headcount from 350 at the start of 2021 to 450 just two years later.

This rapid expansion has been a taxing process, demanding long hours from its R&D, project and manufacturing teams to meet the demand of new technologies, and requiring the training of 100 new employees over a sustained period of months. However, the firm has ultimately been extremely successful.

Not only has it seen its turnover explode but it has been able to sustain its core values focused on people, quality, service and delivery, whilst continuing to provide a tailored approach to its customers and successfully establishing itself in its new core markets of LNG, heat pumps and hydrogen.

Vahterus has achieved an incredible amount in such a short space of time and is now looking on continuing the growth and development into 2023, better and stronger than before.

About Vahterus

Established in 1990, Vahterus is a Finnish family business focused on sustainable heat exchanger solutions. The main drive was to invent a new type of heat exchanger, combining the benefits of the shell and tube heat exchanger and the plate exchanger, and Plate & Shell Heat Exchanger (PSHE) technology was born. The PSHE heat exchanger is utilised in various demanding processes in the oil and gas, chemical and process, energy and refrigeration industries worldwide. Vahterus currently employs more than 450 people globally, with headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Finland and subsidiaries in the UK, Germany, China and the US, and a global network of more than 50 distributors.

Story type #scale up (main category) #collaboration, #diversification

Benefits

• Biggest expansion yet: new 3,000m² production facility.

• Reached €100m barrier in order intake in 2022.

Key findings

For industry

• Follow your dreams – you can start your own business in your garage (as CEO did in Vahterus).

• Don’t rely on your legacy equipment to survive just hiking prices – keep investing through the tough times as well or instead.

For government

• Keep the investment flowing consistently to keep people in employment and investors committed to deliver on net zero.

Vahterus at a glance:

Key products and services: Market leader in custommade plate & shell heat exchanger solutions.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 15%

• Conventional power – 10%

• Energy Transition – 5%

• Others (refrigeration, heat pumps, pharmaceutical, chemicals and process) – 70%

Headquarters: Kalanti, Finland

Year established: 1990

Number of employees: 450

Revenue: £84.9m

Revenue from exports: 95%

Venterra

Building a business to support the growth of offshore wind and its role in energy transition

OEMs and Tier 1 contractors, and the multitude of small enterprises with project-enabling capabilities are often undercapitalised and struggle to hold their own in the contracting chain.

How is Venterra thriving?

A new entrant to the renewables market, Venterra is on a mission to build a leading services business to support the offshore wind sector as its influence on the net zero journey grows. Through acquiring and partnering with technology-led companies that are leaders in their fields, and adding its management support and finance to fuel their expansion, the firm is turning itself into a go-to provider of various skills, solutions and services.

And its approach is clearly working. After doubling revenue and headcount in its second year through a ramp up of acquisition activity, Venterra is now on track to repeat this achievement in 2023, and accelerate the much needed consolidation of the offshore wind supply chain.

The challenge

If global targets around the installation of offshore wind capacity are going to be met, numerous shackles need to be removed in order to make progress easier. So far it has taken two decades to install around 55GW worldwide, about one seventh of the 380GW that is needed by 2030 according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

A major hurdle is a highly constrained and fragmented supply chain that the offshore wind sector is reliant upon for projects to be developed and delivered. The offshore wind delivery model is dominated by very large developers,

Recognising this problem, Venterra was formed in 2021 to bring together specialist businesses and group them into coherent, joined-up packages that serve market needs across the major phases of offshore wind developments – a cradle to grave partner that can manage and mitigate risk, and not resort to pushing liabilities down the supply chain to smaller contractors. To achieve this, the industry needs strongly capitalised specialists with management support to help them accelerate and meet this urgent demand.

The solution

This is, ultimately, why Venterra was set up by Executive Chairman, Ayman Asfari and CEO Rob Jewkes, with colleagues and a consortium of other stakeholders.

The original analysis and business proposition was carried out in February 2021, with the company officially launching later in the year in October with three member companies on its books.

To date, its strategy has revolved around four major priorities, the first of which being to find companies that fit with each other and can offer something more significant and valuable together than they otherwise would by remaining independent. The second pillar is about matching member companies with the right functional support to maximise their potential, a process which involves corporate Governance, ISO Certification, HR, Marketing and Business Development support as well as –

Rob Jewkes, CEO

foremost - working on a common safety culture. The third focus is on creating a board and governance structure that facilities growth at pace by being able to raise capital at the right time and operate as a public company. The final strand concerns positioning Venterra as a provider of both discrete and joined-up services that can help to accelerate offshore wind development by minimising the number of interfaces and streamlining procurement processes.

These strategic priorities have been implemented in parallel since day one. Much has hinged on finding the best capabilities to join the effort, and then onboarding member companies successfully ensuring that each member companies’ unique success factors are protected, and this has required Venterra to take them on their journey in the truest possible sense. For instance, Venterra has established functional working groups, with representation from each member firm, across HSSE and compliance, finance and systems, business development and marketing, building a culture around people and workplace safety.

Five further companies were added in 2022, the cohort of eight now growing strongly thanks to a strong focus on organic growth and revenue synergies between entities. Indeed, 2022 saw overall group revenues double, with headcount increasing to 500. By the end of this year, Venterra’s existing companies are forecast to turn over £120m and expand to over 800 people, with further growth planned from new acquisitions.

Although the start has been impressive, the company’s leadership still have their feet fixed to the ground. Venterra remains a start-up in the nascent stages of its journey, and in the coming period the plan very much is to continue this growth trajectory with the ultimate aim of becoming the premier services and solutions provider to the offshore wind sector.

And with end markets growing at compound rates of up to 20%, the opportunities ahead appear to have no bounds. The large and established developers, while housing huge resources of their own, still require specialist technical expertise, while new entrants such as infrastructure investors with limited in-house capacities require immediate services and solutions to meet their needs. Venterra is placing itself into a position to take advantage of both dynamics.

About Venterra

Venterra helps the world’s energy transition through wind power. As the world decarbonises, demand for renewable energy, especially wind power, is soaring. Venterra is building a best-in-class services company to meet this demand by acquiring and integrating select companies in the sector, adding its management expertise and capital to fuel expansion.

Story type

#culture (main category)

#collaboration, #scale up, #service & solutions

Benefits

• Revenues doubled to £104m in 2022, with company expecting to increase revenues substantially again in 2023.

• Headcount reached 500 (800 expected in 2023).

Key findings

For industry

• Get a training and qualification in engineering –there are so many ways you can contribute to the energy transition.

• Build a partnership between developers and the supply chain. There is no other way for the industry to fulfil its potential.

For government

• Allow shorter permitting and consenting times and a more sustainable auction price which recognises bottom-up costs.

• Develop a more strategic regulatory approach that brings together the skills, capacity and functions of disparate bodies in offshore development (i.e. a more centralised body/regulator).

Venterra at a glance:

Key products and services: Support services across the engineering, construction and operation phases of projects.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 9%

• Renewables/Energy Transition – 89%

• Others – 2%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 2021

Number of employees: 500

Revenue: £104m

Revenue from exports: 70%

Venture Services

Streamlining PRO services to make doing business in the UAE easier

ensure its clients remain compliant across a range of areas – this includes public relations, with PRO services among the most important line of business.

How is Venture Services thriving?

UAE-based Venture Services continues to provide valuable consultancy to homegrown and overseas companies looking to establish themselves in the country.

As well as providing support on business setup, market entry, human resources and corporate sponsorship, the firm offers public relations officers (PRO) management in a way that challenges the status quo and streamlines the traditional model. Thanks to its digital approach, it has been able to solve numerous PRO related challenges for clients, helping them to make key productivity improvements.

Since its foundation in 2009 as a spin-off of parent company Al Yaseah & Khalid Alqubaisi Investment, Venture has advised more than 60 companies in the energy sector on matters spanning market entry, mergers and acquisitions, interim management, and operations. And as word of mouth gathers momentum, the firm’s client base is rapidly expanding, last year increasing by 25%.

The challenge

Whether in the UAE or any other global market, businesses face many challenges as market demands change and new regulations and directives are published by governing authorities.

For Venture Services, the ongoing challenge is to stay abreast of these dynamics so it is best positioned to

PROs are important to doing business in the UAE. As government certified professionals, they are responsible for establishing a channel of communication between businesses and the government and carry a wide remit of duties covering legal compliance, HR, admin and more. Overall, they serve as a crucial management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between the company and the public, on whom its success and failure depend.

The solution

Venture has set about streamlining and digitising PRO services to the benefit of its clients in the energy sector.

Indeed, the company has sought to overcome the one-man show of public relations by introducing D-PRO ERP, an exclusive software for PRO activities. This digital offering, first launched in 2015 and continually enhanced ever since, helps to reduce the communications gap by giving more transparency through multiple points of contact and clearly identifiable steps (features which are not in place with traditional offerings).

Essentially, Venture is making it easier for firms to access essential and highly sought after PRO services in a way that is cost effective and efficient.

The impact this has had can be told through several success stories with clients. For instance, in 2018 Venture supported an oil and gas company as it took over a multinational project. Following continued absence, the PRO eventually resigned and left behind incomplete work

Mohammed Malayampalli, Finance & Compliance Manager

which threatened to derail the development, with Venture stepping in to solve the challenges. Within a couple of weeks, the company provided a fully-digitalised platform that has reduced PRO workload and expense by around 35% per month.

This reflects a similar situation faced in 2015, when a client saw its PRO depart without informing the relevant authorities, a situation which led to the company being confronted with a huge compliance burden due to the multinational makeup of its workforce. Facing heavy fines and delays to important projects, Venture Services stepped in to provide cost-effective answers, including the deployment of a local employment arrangement. Specialist Services remains a regular customer to this day.

In 2019, another oil and gas field company was faced with an emergency when its PRO failed to arrive on site after repeated attempts to make contact. On this occasion, the firm outsourced the physical PRO work to Venture Plus and its dedicated human PRO team. Working in tandem with its digital capabilities, Venture provided services both onsite and within the client organisation, a key step being to reduce the amount a PRO needs to be physically present.

These examples all contribute to a track record that is helping Venture to build a solid reputation as a PRO problem solver. It was ahead of its time in 2015 when it launched D-PRO, and with the UAE government now favouring a more digitised approach to public relations, the company is supremely well positioned to support organisations in the energy sector that seek to do business in the country.

About Venture Services

Venture Services is the centralised management and shared service centre for the AL Yaseah Group of Companies. Currently they are extending these services to outside firms established in the UAE and companies who are keen to open market in UAE. Their objective is to offer an exceptional level of service facilitating company formation in UAE and offering a broad range of legal, financial and business services for business operation and sales outsourcing.

Story type

#digital (main category)

Benefits

• Several success stories with clients.

• Good reputation as a PRO problem solver.

Key findings

For industry

• Implement new technology to improve your business.

Venture Services at a glance:

Key products and services: Corporate sponsorship, business set up, market entry consultancy services, public relations services and human resources services.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 56%

• Renewables – 16%

• Nuclear power – 8%

• Others (Fintech sector, retail sector) – 20%

Year established: 2008

Number of employees: 19

Revenue: £1.4m

VOOVIO

Striving to become a supplier of choice

How is VOOVIO thriving?

Having entered the energy market little over a half decade ago, VOOVIO is already garnering a reputation for excellence as a provider of market-leading digital support solutions for field operators in the mid and downstream segments. It has already amassed positive client feedback, seen its sales pipeline grow fivefold and its global revenue double – now, the firm is well placed to drive towards its goal of becoming a supplier of choice in the energy industry.

The challenge

Launched in 2008, VOOVIO’s technology (recognised by Gartner) is a 24/7 virtual subject matter expert, using digital replicas and simulators to enable the process industry to onboard operators more efficiently, reduce downtime, increase productivity and ensure competency faster than ever before.

The technology was originally developed for various applications, but a gap in the energy sector was identified, repurposing VOOVIO to create a cost-effective, supportive guiding tool for field operators that is accessible via an easy-to-use web-based platform.

Like any disruptive and innovative technology, the firm’s primary challenge in its infancy has been demonstrating the value of its product to the market and finding early adopters willing to implement the solution.

While it has largely been successful in this regard, building reputations with established and reputable firms at speed, its current challenge is to build upon this. For VOOVIO, the goal is to become the solution of choice for any company that has a challenge with operator skills development in the energy industry.

The solution

Realising the gap in the energy sector for such a solution has been key for VOOVIO, the firm already establishing itself in the market through several different avenues.

Trade shows have proven vital to increasing its exposure. Having identified several key exhibitions, the firm has been able to conduct 10-minute product demos to customers and prospects in real-time, helping to showcase its solution, improve understanding and demonstrate its value.

Much of the company’s focus has been on targeting organisations operating in the mid and downstream, such as refinery and petrochemical manufacturers, and particularly those in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where it launched four years ago. This was deemed to be a low-risk market, the firm seeing value in position itself in the KSA and UAE having already established a strong client base in the US and Europe.

In working with new customers, VOOVIO has served to replace traditional technologies and approaches that have been more manually driven and delivered in the field with its innovative, digital solution that can provide field operators with key learnings and insights prior to entering the field.

The firm has also supported one company which had a new

Ahmed Alaa, Sales Director MENA

facility in which risk needed to be minimised across the board from the outset. By adopting VOOVIO’s solution, the client has been able to achieve higher standards of operation underpinned by human error reductions, higher competency levels, and 50% reductions in onboarding time.

For VOOVIO, the plan is to now build on these successes and leverage its increasingly proven track record to expand its customer base both in the MENA region and beyond.

Not only is it already in advanced discussions with several potential new clients, but the company also continues to receive positive feedback, providing significant cost savings to blue chip clients with its technology.

Having cultivated these strong foundations, VOOVIO has seen its sales pipeline grow fivefold in a short period, while its global revenue has also doubled in the last three years after it thrived during the height of the pandemic. Indeed, as a company able to continue delivering significant aspects of its solution remotely, helping its clients to save on costs while providing a more efficient service, the lockdowns and social distancing restrictions that posed problems for many energy firms actually offered a conducive environment for growth for VOOVIO.

With some semblance of normality having returned in the post-Covid era, however, VOOVIO looks well placed to excel as it drives towards its ambition of becoming the first-choice virtual subject matter expert for the energy industry globally.

About VOOVIO

VOOVIO is a digital platform for the operational excellence of field operators. The platform uses Enhanced Reality technology (patented by VOOVIO) to create a Digital Replica of an operating asset and Standard operating procedure simulators.

Story type

#digital (main category)

#innovation

Benefits

• VOOVIO’s global revenue has doubled in the last three years.

• VOOVIO is helping its clients to save on costs while providing a more efficient service.

Key findings

For industry

• Understand very well the size of the opportunity.

• The growth plans laid out by some Countries require attracting and retaining skilled workforce. There will be a big shortage of it so you must think out of the box to tackle this problem.

VOOVIO at a glance:

Key products and services: A guiding tool for the field operator for all his life cycle, from onboarding, qualification, refresher training and field execution.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 80%

• Conventional power – 10%

• Others (utilities) – 10%

Headquarters: Madrid, Spain

Year established: 2008

Number of employees: 56

Revenue from exports: 100%

Vysiion

Futureproofing through a brave investment in diversification

in 1996, it was finding it difficult to scale, and whilst it had begun life in the operational technology space, there was a risk that the early day propositions would fall out of fashion.

How is Vysiion thriving?

Having made the bold decision to seek private equity investment in 2015, and the ensuing sale of the business to fast paced technology company Exponential-e in 2020, Vysiion has a firm foundation for accelerating their growth.

Today’s revenue is balanced between the delivery of high value project work, and thanks to the advancement and diversification of its expertise, the provision of more sustainable reoccurring support services that include, field maintenance of edge and core smart assets, connectivity, Enterprise IT, and cloud-based solutions. These services are supplied to support operational technology applications within a critical national infrastructure (CNI) customer base.

Thanks to this transformation, which has helped to create a long-term order book, Vysiion is able to be far more proactive, invest in their mid- and long-term strategy, and better serve its clients.

The challenge

As a provider of operational technology and IT solutions, along with installation, integration, and technical support services, the Vysiion of today has a wide and valuable offering, highly relevant and aligned to the needs of clients operating across an array of CNI subsectors, including the energy sector.

However, rewind to the early-mid 2010s and the company was faced with a futureproofing problem. Having started out

The early 2010s saw the IT market transitioning away from legacy infrastructure. As Vysiion’s customers sought to accelerate their digital transformation plans to meet operational and regulatory demands, it was faced with several pressing challenges. First, it needed an agile technology team conversant with the latest systems, processes, and applications, as well as an understanding of how they could be applied within their customer based, a reality that would require serious investment. Second, it needed to build a cybersecurity capability, giving it the ability to address the issues of an expanded attack surface brought about by the sectors increased deployment of new smart assets and capabilities. And third, its operating model needed to realign to incorporate OPEX and CAPEX lines of business, as new digital systems require frequent support to ensure high availability.

The solution

In 2015, the company took a risk by bringing private equity investors on board, a move which resulted in the firm’s original owners being diluted, with the view of a longerterm gain. This proved to be a vital turning point.

The investment enabled Vysiion to adopt the radical approach it needed, and build a team capable of embracing emerging technology, as well as understanding the challenges and disciplines of delivering into a regulated sector where system availability and security are paramount. To this end, another crucial step, also made in 2015, was the acquisition of an IT support company and investment in a 24/7 support function.

Success did not follow overnight. The investments

Peter Clapton, CEO

impacted the firm’s margins, while time was needed to develop its offering and build credibility. Meanwhile, access to the depth of knowledge required was not achievable purely through recruitment and upskilling, hence the move down the acquisition route.

However, over time this investment in people and product has produced a platform that will allow Vysiion to scale by tackling the emerging challenges presented by increasingly connected CNI assets.

While the firm was acquired by Exponential-e Group in 2020, it continues to trade independently while enjoying increased access to a range of relevant products and services. Indeed, continued growth and success has defined recent years, the company now typically delivering higher value contracts and working from a more balanced revenue base comprised of 50% new projects and 50% ongoing support. In 2022, Vysiion turned over £28m – double what it generated in 2018.

In terms of its current client roster, the firm trades with all the UK utilities, large systems integrators, and contractors, and has worked on some of the country’s most significant renewable energy assets. This includes the Moray East offshore windfarm. The CAPEX phase involved a £1m build project for a major System Integrator, which included the design, installation, and commissioning, of OT network infrastructure on the offshore and onshore substations, used to connect critical protection and control assets. Today, Vysiion provides a wide reaching and ongoing 24/7 support service, a process which involves the controlled update of customers digital assets, including general operations and maintenance for stakeholder companies involved in the generation, transmission, and distribution of power. In addition, the firm has built expertise in the design, build, and maintenance, of increasingly complex DMZ gateway platforms.

These types of CNI projects have been a game-changer for the business and a true test of its new modus operandi and extended offering. Despite being more digitised than ever, Vysiion knows its greatest assets have and always will be its people – looking ahead, transparency between all parts of the business, including senior management and how challenges are approached, will be a key priority.

About Vysiion

Part of the Exponential-e Group, Vysiion provides innovative edge to core IT and telecommunications product and solutions, supported by an agile, proactive, and responsive technical service capability. Customers include system integrators, companies, and organisations within the CNI sector. The solutions supplied include IT on premise, private and public cloud technology, critical network infrastructure often referred to as OT, and IDS and IPS cyber security.

Story type

#diversification (main category)

#culture, #service & solutions, #transformation

Benefits

• Learnt that people are a fundamental piece for scaling up.

• Transparency within the company increased; flat culture built.

Key findings

For industry

• Create space for everyone, success counts on innovation, operational flare, and reliable hardworking people.

• Understand the value of your propositions.

For government

• Be more consistent with standards.

Vysiion at a glance:

Key products and services: OT and IT digital technology product and solutions, their installation, integration, and technical support.

Main industries served:

• Renewables – 20%

• Conventional power – 10%

• T&D – 10%

• Oil and gas – 5%

• Energy Transition – 5%

• Defence, transport, public sector – 50%

Headquarters: Chippenham, UK

Year established: 1996

Number of employees: 160

Revenue: £28m

Revenue from exports: 5%

Vysus Group

Driving forward with diversification and strategic divestments

and regulatory consultancy business, the firm most recently underwent a major structural transformation in H2 of 2022, underpinned by the divestment of three key businesses.

The solution

How is Vysus Group thriving?

Vysys has kicked on with its transformative vision to invest in higher-value technical and regulatory consulting services, underpinned by a major structural overhaul that saw three core business divestments in 2022, alongside continued rapid international growth in business driven by promising renewables and energy transition ambitions.

The challenge

Vysus Group hasn’t been shy of transformation in recent times. Having separated from its former parent company Lloyd’s Register to become an independent business in 2020, the organisation has undergone radical change, launching a five-year vision to position for net zero and implementing a new 30-30-40 vision – where revenue is driven by 30% oil and gas, 30% infrastructure, and 40% renewables.

It has been no small undertaking. Where the old business had been significantly underperforming and suffering in challenging markets, Vysus has turned attentions in a completely new direction, leaving behind a legacy footprint and reliance upon upstream oil and gas revenue generation dating back to the 1930s. And that undertaking didn’t slow in 2022.

To better deliver its core offering as a high value technical

This was by no means an easy decision to make. Indeed, the company’s now divested transportation advisory business had been built organically from three to more than 30 people in three years, while a US business (primarily a field-based service provider) and its Senergy Wells business had improved performance and scaled up in recent times. Yet all three were divested as they did not fit with the longer-term future vision of the company.

Upon becoming independent back in 2020, the firm had outlined a core strategic objective of focusing on investing in higher-value technical and regulatory consulting services, that could be deployed across multiple regions and sectors. If business activities didn’t align, they would be divested – a strategy that came to fruition in 2022.

This was no simple undertaking. Divesting the three businesses while continuing to drive improved profitability across the Group has been a major challenge, yet one that was achieved thanks to the unwavering efforts of the firm’s staff.

An internal team was set up to manage and complete the divestments, doing so in line with the firm’s targets on timings and value and in alignment with board expectations, and allowing the rest of the business to remain focused on improving wider performance.

David Clark, CEO

At the same time, Vysus Group also furthered its diversification journey, evolving its toolkit and capabilities. Business systems and information tools were upgraded, for example, including a new ERP and intranet that enabled the firm to begin making better, faster and smarter commercial decisions. Equally, cultural improvements were also made, focused on enhancing collaboration and communication, as well as efforts to build brand recognition both externally and internally.

As a result, the firm was able to transform its offshore survey and geo business, moving from 90% oil & gas driven to being 55%, well on track to meet the 30% five-year vision, all while continuing to expand activity in core markets along with growth in Asia and the Middle East

The achievements don’t end here. Indeed, the firm is now involved in five key ScotWind projects, this having already played a key part in supporting the development of hydrogen guidance as part of the European workgroup on new safety standards for hydrogen, and also working on several transition energy pilot projects.

Without question, it has been another year of significant change for Vysus.

Having delivered over £100m revenue in 2022, exceeding profit targets, the business starts 2023 with a smaller headcount following the 2022 divestments. However, with over 375 staff deployed across more than 20 countries, the company enters 2023 in a strong position to continue its ongoing transformation to deliver on the business vision and strategy.

About Vysus Group

Vysus Group is a leading engineering and technical consultancy offering specialist asset performance, risk management and project management expertise across complex industrial assets, energy assets (oil and gas, nuclear, renewables) and the energy transition.

Story type

#transformation (main category)

#diversification, #energy transition

Benefits

• All targets achieved for timing and value of divestments.

• Successful diversification and expansion processes.

Key findings

For industry

• Don’t underestimate oil & gas’ role in energy transition.

• On energy transition, connect the entire life cycle, from source, to transport and storage and then consumption.

For government

• Bring cross-energy stakeholders together and get them aligned on deliverables.

Vysus Group at a glance:

Key products and services: Technical and regulatory consultancy across energy, renewables and complex infrastructure.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 50%

• Renewables – 20

• Energy Transition – 5%

• Infrastructure & Process – 25%

Headquarters: Aberdeen, Scotland

Year established: 2020

Number of employees: 375

Revenue: £60m

Revenue from exports: 80%

Waves Group

Leveraging extensive marine knowledge to mitigate challenges in offshore wind

to date has often come into projects during the latter stages, and therefore has little scope to influence matters or impart positive change.

How is Waves Group thriving?

Leading marine consultancy Waves Group is successfully applying its deep expertise in ports and harbours as well as the logistical challenges in offshore construction projects as it seeks to diversify its offering, the firm now also advising offshore wind developers on how best to mitigate lifecycle risks at project inception. Backed by exposure to a huge number of legacy projects, a diverse skillset, an ability to link knowledge to mitigation approaches, an agile culture and focus on smaller developers which potential competitors don’t always consider, the firm’s newly established and fruitful niche is already paying dividends.

The challenge

Founded in 2005, Waves Group is an established organisation specialising in marine consultancy, providing its expertise to the offshore energy and maritime shipping sectors.

Of late, the key challenge facing the company has centred around applying the skills and experience it has in port and harbour development and operation, along with those acquired through marine warranty to offshore wind farm construction projects in order to bring additional value to clients and capitalise on market opportunities.

Key for Waves is delivering its unique expertise in a manner that truly makes a difference. As a marine warranty surveyor, it has exposure to a range of best practices, yet

In an effort to change this and be a more valuable client partner, it is now working to apply its knowledge and offering to customers at an earlier stage in projects to ensure best practice is implemented during a projects’ inception. Its primary goal is to understand the genuine challenges associated with constructing each unique offshore wind farm, to then mitigate these from the outset and impart operational and cost benefits for clients throughout project lifetimes.

The solution

This vision began to come to fruition in 2018 when the firm began engaging selected clients for early-stage projects. Through these engagements, Waves quickly found it would better understand their needs and could in turn help to refine the recipes for success on given projects.

The whole focus is around mitigating challenges by having greater influence upfront. And while the firm is still refining the way in which it markets this specific service, it has already seen both significant demand for and many merits of its approach, with smaller project teams having been notable beneficiaries.

Critically, this renewed approach was all kickstarted by Renewable Infrastructure Development Group (RIDG) – a key client that had been looking to apply for and secure the ScotWind leasing rights to develop the 2GW West of Orkney Windfarm.

Despite its ambitions, RIDG recognised that this was a

Jeremy Panes, Director

particularly tricky location, with limited infrastructure in a harsh environment. And while it had some experience, it was presented with several challenges that weren’t within its typical remit.

Resultantly, Waves was consulted and asked to support the project application by first outlining the full extent of the challenges, and in turn developing a methodology that was robust, workable and feasible for a technical solution.

Valued at around £60,000, Waves delivered on the contract comprehensively, creating a robust methodology that could be clearly presented to RIDG’s investors and the Crown Estate. And the project was subsequently successful in its application, even in the face of an extremely competitive leasing round.

This has been game changing for RIDG and their project partners. The West of Orkney Windfarm, which is expected to start producing renewable power come 2030, represents approximately £4bn of investment. Further, it is anticipated that the windfarm could also deliver renewable power to the Flotta Hydrogen Hub –a key large-scale green hydrogen production facility that has been proposed in Orkney.

Of course, this is just one example among several success stories, the firm now seeking to proactively expand this proven line of business moving forward. And while Waves is still taking its time to productise what is currently an informal and unstructured approach, it has laid the groundwork for success in a major diversified line of business, improving its resilience for years to come.

About Waves Group

Operating as Waves Group, but originally established in 2005 as Mwaves and Cwaves - recognised sources of expertise in the offshore energy and marine sectors, the company provides its clients with a range of bespoke technical advice, assurance, and expert guidance. Waves is focused on improving confidence and certainty, reducing risk for offshore engineering and renewable energy projects, as well as managing casualties, incident response and investigations for P&I Clubs and other shipping clients across the maritime industry. Waves Group is strategically located to serve its clients worldwide, with offices located in the UK, Houston, Rotterdam and Singapore.

Story type

#service & solutions (main category)

Benefits

• Successful solution to client’s needs despite challenges.

• Enabled wind farm’s schedule to set start of operations for 2030.

Key findings

For industry

• Understand your market and the value of what you have.

• It’s easy to become tunnel-visioned and just provide a narrow service, see the wider opportunity.

For government

• Support growth of further new renewable projects and disincentivise fossil fuels.

Waves Group at a glance:

Key products and services: Marine consultancy, providing expertise to offshore energy and maritime shipping sectors.

Main industries served:

• Renewables – 48%

• Others (non-energy: maritime, shipping) – 52%

Headquarters: London, UK

Year established: 2005

Number of employees: 56

Revenue: £7.5m

Revenue from exports: 45%

Weidmüller

Evolving to maximise opportunities in bespoke engineering solutions

Engineering was established at the end of 2020 as a new division of Weidmüller.

How is Weidmüller thriving?

To improve resilience and better align with market needs, Weidmüller has worked to consolidate its new division, Klippon Engineering – an entity designed to support process industry specialists with activities such as extending plant life, increasing production efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing safety. With in-house engineering hubs around the world, the newly formed division is enabling the delivery of flexible, local, fully engineered, bespoke and compliant solutions for hazardous and non-hazardous areas.

The challenge

Weidmüller is a renowned international company, operating through 31 sales organisations, and over 60 representatives worldwide, positioned today as a leading firm in Smart Industrial Connectivity.

Ongoing strategic innovation has been critical to the evolution of Weidmüller – a core value that the firm once again looked to at the turn of the decade.

The leadership team saw great opportunities to target and expand into the process market (comprising downstream as well as oil and gas). However, for this objective to be realised, a sound strategy and renewed structure were required.

The solution

To maximise opportunity in the process market, Klippon

Creating this new division was a real challenge. Indeed, the company needed to develop a new organisational structure supported by project managers, engineers, and an execution team to ensure that it had the means of delivering in the market effectively for any potential clients. Since new skills were also required, Weidmüller recruited a number of additional engineers with software, mechanical, electrical and automation expertise.

It wasn’t simply a case of establishing a new team (now standing at 40 members strong), however. Equally, the success of the new division was dependent upon new approaches and an overall shift in mindset.

While Weidmüller traditionally sells components offthe-shelf, Klippon Engineering works to take individual solutions (of Weidmüller and/or third parties) and bring these together to deliver bespoke packages that address specific client needs. The idea of this approach is to offer the flexibility to solve unique problems by delivering fully engineered, compliant, bespoke solutions.

For this reason, the team of Klippon Engineering had to be trained to think solutions, not products, this gap being bridged by several initiatives such as internal workshops.

Indeed, Klippon Engineering’s establishment wasn’t a rushed process, but a carefully considered journey. Having been established in 2020, the senior team was then onboarded in 2021 and remaining structures and employees put in place by the end of 2022.

While these efforts have been worthwhile, challenges still remain. Indeed, the firm has had to develop new

Stuart Bell, Vice President Global Sales

positioning strategies, from component to solution. Meanwhile communicating the new solutions approach of Klippon Engineering to achieve effective market positioning is equally an ongoing process. However, the division’s success has already been proven through several successful ventures and partnerships.

While end-user MOUs had never before been signed in Weidmüller history, Klippon Engineering was able to secure them with major oil players ADNOC and a major NOC in Southeast Asia in a period of only three months. This has been possible by the establishment of new manufacturing plants, such as in Saudi Arabia, and proven useful in helping to grow local business.

In the case of Saudi Arabia, the firm recently won contracts doubling its business of the previous 12 months, in the first weeks of 2023. In UAE, meanwhile, the firm has been supporting ADNOC in developing a network of remote I/O cabinets to reduce its infrastructure and running costs.

According to the firm’s renewed engineered solutions model, underpinned by a combination of in-country facilities and industry experts, Klippon Engineering has successfully enabled a major step in both revenue stream and types of contracts. The figures speak for themselves, the division having secured revenues of €118m in 2021 and €135m in 2022.

With its new offering of services that includes the extension of plant life to increasing production efficiency, as well as a proven track record in delivering solutions successfully, the new division is now well positioned to continue expanding its innovative new model moving forward.

About Weidmüller

Weidmüller supports customers and partners around the world with products, solutions, and services for Smart Industrial Connectivity and the Industrial Internet of Things that shape the digital transformation. The company knows the technological challenges of tomorrow, continuously developing innovative, sustainable, and useful solutions for the individual needs of its customers. Weidmüller owns manufacturing plants, sales companies and representatives in more than 80 countries. In the fiscal year of 2022, the company reached sales of over €1bn with around 6,000 employees.

Story type #service & solutions (main category)

#diversification, #people & competency

Benefits

• Revenues increased €17m from 2021 to 2022.

• Paramount works secured in the UAE.

Key findings

For industry

• Don’t be afraid to take risks if you have the right people beside you.

• Don’t give up – if clients want it, push on.

For government

• Invest for the future, not for now. Focus on consistent, country-based (not government), longterm policies for the whole UK.

Weidmüller at a glance:

Key products and services: Manufacturing and engineering for the power, signal and data sectors.

Main industries served:

• Oil and gas – 10%

• Conventional power – 10%

• Nuclear power – 10%

• Others (industrial machinery, infrastructure, consumer electronics) – 70%

Headquarters: Detmold, Germany

Year established: 1850

Number of employees: 5,200 (Weidmüller), 47 (Kipplon)

Revenue: £1.05bn (Weidmüller), £118m (Kipplon)

Revenue from exports: 3% (Weidmüller), 10% (Kipplon)