Serving the Teesside Business Community | 35
Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald joins
Mike Styan and Greg Hynes at the official
opening of Prosafe Engineering’s impressive
new Riverside Park premises.
Words: Adam Steel
Picture: Doug Moody
GROWTH SPURT
A
chance meeting between two
ambitious Teesside engineers in an
Aberdeen bar laid the foundations
for a new start-up company enjoying
soaraway success providing safety solutions
for the global process industry.
Greg Hynes and Mike Styan worked on
and offshore in the Granite City but had
never met until a mutual friend introduced
them on a night out in 2015, suggesting they
would be an ideal fit with their outlooks and
skillset.
The experienced duo hit it off immediately
and - armed with impressive contacts books
and sensing an opportunity to help improve
standards within their specialist sector - quit
their jobs to set up Prosafe Engineering.
Fast forward to summer 2018 following
some hard graft and Greg and Mike have
already rocket-launched their initial £2,000
investment into a forecasted turnover of
£1.3m this year - and won a brace of North
East Business Awards in the Best Newcomer
category.
To top it all off, they have just moved
Prosafe into brand new premises on
Middlesbrough’s Riverside Park Industrial
Estate to keep up with demand and
anticipated expansion, with a turnover of up
to £1.6m predicted next year.
It’s been a rapid rise for the 30-something
pair, who started out in a two-man office
in Plenary BV House - the former home of
Middlesbrough’s pioneering ironmasters
Henry Bolckow and Joseph Vaughan.
Prosafe’s plush new Bowes Road offices
include a workshop, boardroom and training
room and full disabled access facilities.
The firm currently has 11 staff, and the plan
is to appoint four more by mid-2019 and man
their satellite office in Aberdeen full-time
from next year onward.
“It’s been an exciting journey so far,”
Prosafe managing director, Greg, 32, told
Tees Business.
“When we first started out, we didn’t
get paid for about four months. But we just
thought, ‘Right, we will keep going.’
“When 2017 arrived, from the first week in
January until this moment in time it has just
been relentless.
“All of our hard work started to come to
fruition, and it ended up where a decision
had to be made that we had to move into
larger premises.
“What we’ve moved into is five years
away, really, but everything is under one roof
now and will help us grow."
Prosafe are the UK’s exclusive distributor
for world-leading process safety product
manufacturer Sofis, and are one of their-top-
performing agents’ as they export worldwide.
Sofis manufacture mechanical interlocks
which enforce safe valve operation in
industries such as oil and gas, while Prosafe
are experts in their field at designing
interlocking systems.
“The products and services we supply
enhance safety because a lot of the time
they either reduce the risk of human error or
take the danger away,” Greg explains.
“Having Sofis on board is massive for us,
and we are looking to build on this in the
future.”
While Greg and Mike are proud of their
giant strides, they take great satisfaction
in being able to play a part in maintaining
Teesside’s rich industrial heritage which
Bolckow and Vaughan started.
“We have both worked away from the area
throughout our careers,” said Greg. “But the
driving force was that we wanted to be at
home and set something up here, and that’s
what we’ve done.
“It’s a good area to be based in because
we can compete against other areas where
overheads might be more expensive, and we
have the transport infrastructure here and
industry on our doorstep as well.
“We want to be involved with new
projects - potentially with the old SSI site
- and be ambassadors