Balmoral investing in buoyant future
Balmoral Offshore Engineering announced during Offshore Europe 2009 that it is expanding its buoyancy manufacturing facility and is seeking to recruit upwards of 40 people.
While showing its range of buoyancy, insulation and elastomer products at the show, the company said it is investing £2m+ in a new 30,000sq ft manufacturing facility at its Aberdeen HQ.
Designed by Balmoral’s engineering and technical teams, the plant will “substantially increase production capacity” for the company’s buoyancy products, particularly marine drilling riser modules.
Contrary to national trends, Balmoral is also actively recruiting and is looking to fill a range of vacancies from engineering management to skilled and semi-skilled operations personnel.
Jim Milne, chairman and MD of the Group, said: “Because we are seeing an increase in orders for drill riser buoyancy and elastomer products, such as bend restrictors and cable protection, investment is needed in manufacturing capacity and staffing resources.
“We have appointed a number of key personnel recently including a production director and production manager as well as design engineering and QHSE personnel. We have also recruited senior sales managers in Aberdeen and Houston.
“In fact, employee numbers have increased more than three-fold since 2006 to a current head count of over 200 within this division of Balmoral Group.”
The company is working on a number of prestigious projects and has recently shipped product to a roll call of internationally renowned projects including Canapu in Brazil, Gimboa and Kizomba offshore West Africa, MA:D6 in the Indian Ocean, Tyrihans, Scarv and Snorre in Norwegian waters and Thunder horse in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Our engineering reputation, I feel, gives us the edge. Because we are a privately owned independent company clients know that we are highly flexible and our team has enormous global experience which is reflected in the variety of orders that we are working on at the moment.
“Meeting client deadlines with good service and high quality product is helping us maintain our throughput”, said Milne.
The company is shaping up to increase its market share over the next three to five years through its proactive research and development programme. New materials and products are continually being developed that will help Balmoral penetrate markets thus far untouched.
Milne concludes: “We never stand still, that’s the philosophy here. Innovation drives progress and that’s what keeps us at the cutting edge of our industry.
“Our products play a supporting role in the bigger picture and we are crucially aware of the importance of getting it 100% right first time, on time, with no surprises along the way.”
