24 | Tees Business
Ecco continues rise with new orders
T
Serving the Teesside Business Community | 25
/ HARTLEPOOL NEWS
eesside business Ecco Finishing
Supplies is continuing to break into new
international markets as word spreads
about the quality of its passive fire protection
machines.
The Middlesbrough-based firm recently
clinched new orders from the Middle East
and Kazakhstan – with a breakthrough into
the potentially lucrative Chinese market also
on the horizon.
It is just the latest success since Ecco
made the decision to stop distributing
passive fire protection (PFP) machines for
other companies and develop its own unique
technology.
Potential life-savers, PFP machines are used
to spray fire-retardant epoxies onto a range of
steel structures to increase their resistance to
heat in the event of a major blaze, increasing
evacuation times.
Since launching their own PFP the ES430,
,
just two years ago, Ecco have reaped
the dividends from a growing overseas
market, particularly within the Oil, Gas and
Petrochemicals sectors.
The latest deals in Kazakhstan and the
Middle East follow previous orders from
Canada, Azerbaijan and Russia, while there is
also interest from the USA, Australia, India –
and now China.
Having recently held an exhibition in
Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, Ecco
staff are now preparing to exhibit their
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market-leading PFP technology in the Chinese
city of Zhengzhou.
Just four years ago, exports accounted for
just 10% of Ecco’s overall sales. That figure
has since increased to closer to 50% of the
firm’s £5 million turnover- with the PFP sales
the main inspiration behind the upturn.
It’s the culmination of many years of
hard work for managing director Keith, who
launched the business in the spare bedroom
of his Billingham home in 1995 with the
investment of £40 in a typewriter from Argos.
The achievement has been recognised
with Ecco winning awards for the North East
Export Team of the Year and Teesside Small
Business of the Year over the past 18 months.
“We feel we’ve only touched the tip of the
iceberg so far, reflects Miller. “2014 was a
”
hugely successful year for Ecco, particularly
in terms of exports, but the signs are that
2015 will see global demand increase
considerably.
“As well as our PFP machines, there has
been great demand for our blasting and paintspraying equipment, so these are hugely
exciting times for us.
”
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A
construction firm is on course to
hit the £20m turnover mark – just
four years after it was left facing an
uncertain future.
Hartlepool-based Gus Robinson
Developments Ltd posted a turnover of just
£5m in the 2011/12 financial year, after the
firm’s figurehead Gus Robinson tragically
died suddenly in November 2011.
Gus’s US-based son Dan (pictured) not
only had to fly home and face the grief of
dealing with his father’s death, he also had
to make tough decisions after stepping into
the breach in a bid to stop the business from
going under.
Only three years later, having submitted
his latest figures at the end of 2014, Dan is
anticipating a turnover figure of £20m.
Dan said: “When Dad died, I remember
being on the plane on the way back from
America wondering how I was going to lead
the team through some very difficult times.
I arrived back into the UK the following
morning and immediately got to work on the
transformation that same day.
“It was tough. When I looked at the
business,