Tees Business Tees Business Issue 14 | Page 35

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