Dundee specialist topside and subsea equipment group PressureFab has significantly increased its manufacturing capabilities after completing a £1 million investment programme.
The Riverside-based firm said it had created 25 jobs, taking its total workforce to more than 100, as a result of the seven-figure cash injection.
The company said it had upgraded its manufacturing equipment and significantly improved its industrial coatings and shotblasting facilities as part of a two-year improvement project.
Significantly, Pressurefab has also invested in a new state-of-the-art CNC machine shop to produce precision tooling for oil and gas and subsea applications.
The investment programme has been supported by a £250,000 regional selective assistance grant from Scottish Enterprise, but the bulk of the cash has been self-funded.
Managing director Hermann Twickler told The Courier yesterday that further investment was already in the pipeline, with larger capacity CNC machinery expected to be delivered to the firm early next year.
He said he expected the total outlay in new manufacturing kit to be in the region of £2m once all of the elements were in place.
“The upgrade has transformed the Dundee-based facility into one of the most technologically advanced steel manufacturing and industrial coating businesses in Scotland,” Mr Twickler said.
“I am confident that it will enable the PressureFab Group to take advantage of future demands from the oil and gas industry, as well as the emerging renewable energy sector.
“I am really thankful for the continued support, in both professional and monetary terms, that we receive from the Scottish Government.”
Mr Twickler said the uprating of the manufacturing plant meant the company was now realising its ambition of being a one-stop shop for customers.
“Now we have the full turn-key solution that we always wanted,” he said.
“We hardly every outsource anything, but this is the last gap that we had that we are filling now with the CNC machining centre capability.”
Mr Twickler said PressureFab is now looking to further diversify its customer base it does not want to be over-reliant on a single source of income but said the business had good forward visibility and strong prospects.
“We have a good order book into 2015,” he said.
“We replaced a main customer successfully that had moved a lot of its fabrication into the States, and now we don’t have any customer above 20% of capacity any more.
“The company has changed as the customer base has changed.”
He said they have further diversified into plate rolling and, with the new CNC machine shop and more CNC machines ordered, to be delivered early next year they are “in a good position, with good infrastructure and good, highly trained personnel”.