Wessington Cryogenics

An award-winning North East firm has achieved remarkable success through the design, manufacture and, above all, export of cryogenic storage vessels.

When entrepreneur Eddie Rowe started his own business 26 years ago, he had little idea of the rollercoaster ride ahead of him. The first ‘high' came on the very first morning, when he got his first export order. He thought being his own boss was so simple that he went off for a round of golf in the afternoon. He didn't get another order for three months.

But things eventually looked up for the business – and it's riding high again today. In fact, the company, Wessington Cryogenics, has become a shining British success story. The Wearside-based manufacturer now employs 100 people, turns over in excess of £10m a year and, most remarkably of all, exports around 80% of its output worldwide.

Wessington designs, manufactures and installs a broad range of cryogenic storage vessels including ISO tank containers for the oil and gas, bio-medical and science and research sectors. The vessels are chiefly used for storing nitrogen, argon, oxygen and helium. It also offers a repair and refurbishment service enabling it to return used tanks to an ‘as new' condition.

Mr Rowe, a shipyard fitter turned engineer, started the business in 1984 after spotting a gap in the market for the storage vessels. It has now established itself as a global leader in its field, with a client list that includes some of the world's largest blue-chip organisations, including NASA, the Ministry of Defence and the European nuclear research organisation, CERN.

Despite its growth, Wessington Cryogenics remains very much a family business. Now semi-retired, Eddie Rowe has handed day-to-day responsibilities to his son, Paul, and daughter, Gill Southern.

"... We've been manufacturing successfully for 26 years, using traditional metal-bashing skills ... but we've been able to adapt those skills to break into new sectors ..."

- FPB member Gill Southern,

Wessington Cryogenics

Mrs Southern says a key factor in the company's success is that it's operating in a major growth market. Physicists and engineers are using cryogenics – which is the science of very low temperatures – in a vast range of diverse applications such as bio-medical and physical research, MRI scanning, defence, steel-making, extraction of oil, food-freezing, cryotherapy, cryosurgery and many others. "There's been an explosion in demand," she says.

But in operating across borders, Wessington has often faced hurdles. One obstacle has been the excessive red tape imposed in some target markets. Canada, for example, has become virtually off limits because of the bureaucracy involved in its technical licensing requirements.

The company has often been buffeted by wild fluctuations in demand for its products, raw material costs and exchange rates. Somewhat ironically, its biggest crisis came, not with the latest recession, but with the overheated global economy that preceded it. In 2005 the price of steel, the key raw material for manufacturing cryogenic tanks, rose by 280%. Although the company had plenty of orders, it was locked into long-term fixed-price agreements with its customers. The result was that it was fulfilling orders at a loss and struggling to survive.

The family team sought advice and put fresh thought into some of Wessington's manufacturing and commercial processes and, after a tough period of change, the business came through and once again flourished. "Not only did we bounce back, we then had the most successful five years in our history," says Mrs Southern.

That period has included weathering the recession, although the downturn did demand some tough cost control measures, including a handful of redundancies. But the lost jobs have since been replaced and Wessington seems set for a further phase of expansion. In March, it moved to a new 70,000ft manufacturing facility – a £300,000 investment that will allow for considerable growth.

"The move to the new premises has already opened up more opportunities for us to take on new work," says Mrs Southern. "Our new factory is 50% bigger than our old premises, so we are able to build larger vessels. We have also reviewed all areas of manufacturing to optimise floor space and process layout so we will be able to turn around more products more quickly."

Wessington is a great example of how a UK company can take on the best in the world and win. Mrs Southern says the company's achievements defy those who think that manufacturing in the UK is dead. "We've been manufacturing successfully for 26 years, using traditional metal-bashing skills," she says. "But we've been able to adapt those skills to break into new sectors and markets and to develop new products."

Above all perhaps, the message for other small businesses is that now, more than ever, could be the time to take advantage of favourable exchange rates and make a move into overseas markets. With the right planning and advice, exporting could be the spur to new growth.

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