A south-west Wales manufacturer is on track to secure a game-changing £1 million export deal in Central Asia which is set to propel its business growth.
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Huntingdon Fusion Techniques (HFT), based in Burry Port, Carmarthenshire, is a leading inventor, designer and manufacturer of weld purging technology designed to remove oxygen from welds on pipes and tubes made of stainless steel or similar materials to prevent their oxidisation, discolouration or corrosion. The process improves corrosion resistance and protects the joint strength of the pipes and tubes.
The firm, a former finalist in the Welsh Business Awards’ ‘Success in Overseas Trade’ category, is close to securing a £1 million deal which will see its products used in a multi-billion-pound project to build a new, onshore gas facility in the oil and gas rich country of Kazakhstan.
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The deal would mean the creation of additional jobs and a possible need for additional warehousing.
The project is the latest in a line of export contracts for the manufacturer which exports its products to more than 45 countries across the globe.
Georgia Gascoyne, CEO and Managing Director of HFT since 2013, said: “Over the last 10 years we’ve experienced significant growth due to the ease of exporting. Some 80% of our business is export now and this deal in Kazakhstan will provide a major boost for us.
“It’s an international project, backed by US oil companies, with many contractors working on it. We’ve been making presentations in regard to this project for three to four years but we’re expecting to hear a final decision in the next couple of months. It’s a game-changer for us in terms of manufacturing and administration.
“It will bring a number of employment opportunities including potential roles for a project manager and assistant and maybe even two or three manufacturing positions.”
Established in 1975 in Cambridgeshire before moving to Wales 15 years ago, HFT deals mainly with the oil and gas, nuclear energy, shipbuilding and process industries. The company sells its products through a network of international distributors and currently has 40 distributors worldwide in markets such as Australia, North and South America, the Middle East and Europe.
Support from the Welsh Government has been key to HFT’s export growth, helping the firm to secure its attendance at trade exhibitions which have led to contracts being secured in Turkey and Japan within the last 12 months.
Georgia explained: “Our turnover has been up 6% to 8% a year for the last five years thanks to our export focus. We’ve recently established a new operative in Turkey through trade exhibitions in the country and have entered markets in Japan thanks to a Welsh Government trade mission we attended in October 2018, where we picked up orders straightaway.
“Japan was a market we had dabbled in previously, with a couple of customers there but we wanted to expand our activities there. When the opportunity arose to travel to the country last year with Welsh Government, on an arranged trip surrounded by industry peers, it made sense. The trip was a great success and we’re returning to Japan in the next couple of months.
“Japan is a difficult market to crack but we seem to have broken into it. We have more work to do but we’re on the second rung of the ladder.”
