8 | Tees Business
Serving the Teesside Business Community | 9
ECCO ARE
THE EXPORT
EXPERTS
MILL GARAGES
ANNOUNCE £500,000
INVESTMENT
AT STOCKTON
SHOWROOM
Increasingly frequent
breakthroughs into the
overseas market have been
rewarded with Ecco Finishing
Supplies being shortlisted for
a prestigious export award just
two years after last winning it.
M
E
xports now account for almost 50% of
sales at the Middlesbrough company, a
five-fold increase in just four years.
The overseas success has been driven
by the development of Ecco’s ES430
PFP machine, market-leading passive fire
protection equipment that now represents
20% of the firm’s total £5 million turnover.
All but one of the 22 hi-tech PFP machines
sold by Ecco over the past 12 months have
gone overseas, with Russia, the Phillipines,
Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Canada among the farflung destinations.
Shortlisted for Team of the Year in the
North-East Export Awards - an award
the company won in 2013 - Ecco is also
celebrating a new customer in Kazakhstan,
with orders for PFP machines, fire-proofing,
blasting and painting equipment set to top
£500,000 before the end of the year.
Managing director Keith Miller, who plans
to make managerial changes to Ecco after
giving daughter Lucy a key role on exports,
said: “It’s so important to get recognition
like this for the whole Ecco Finishing team.
People keep saying to me ‘You’re doing really
well, Keith’. But it’s not just about me. It’s a
team game.
“From getting the order, the paperwork,
the packaging and packing and all the
financials, it takes so many people to make
an export happen.
“So to be in the running to win a
prestigious award like this for the second
time in three years is recognition for all the
staff. I’m the captain and I might be sailing
the boat, but none of us can do it without the
support of the team around us.
”
Closer to home, Ecco’s Teesside
customers include Wilton Group, Tees Valley
Coatings, Hertel, Cape and the Wood Group.
All of this comes at a time when Miller
has also set up a Dubai-based joint venture
company, Ecco SPT Equipment, with the aim
of supplying a range of products throughout
the Middle East including Kuwait, Iran and Iraq.
After investing $150,000 is stock, Miller
and business partner Sandeep K Lohia have
taken on two staff with two more to follow in
the near future.
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