24 | Tees Business
Going for growth – the Applied
Integration and Applied Scientific
Technologies teams in their new
Stokesley headquarters.
Pictures: Doug Moody
WE’RE APPLYING
OURSELVES
STOKESLEY FIRM APPLIED MOVES TO NEW
PREMISES TO MEET PLANS FOR FURTHER GROWTH
Joanne Barrett discovers why there’s a mood of real positivity at one Stokesley company…
A
sk any business expert on Teesside
what they think of the skill set in
our area and the answer will likely
be the same.
“Second to none” is a phrase that rolls
off the tongue and one which readily applies
to a Stokesley-based business.
Applied Integration, based on the North
Yorkshire market town’s business park,
specialises in providing cutting edge
engineering solutions to the petrochemical,
oil, gas and defence sectors.
Its sister company, Applied Scientific
Technologies, is one of the UK’s leading
independent suppliers of custom robotic
automated systems.
Between them they can boast projects
that include building state-of-the-art, safety-
critical control systems for the Royal Navy’s
Astute-class submarines to developing high
precision robotics for global giants.
Applied Integration played a key role in
ensuring the technicalities behind Europe’s
largest biomedical research hub, London’s
Francis Crick Centre, operate to perfection,
while AST’s robotic autonomous system,
The Hyve, is scheduled to go into full
production.
Panel building also numbers amongst
their expert repertoire – the company
designs and manufactures electrical and
pneumatic panels for the defence and
industrial markets, from the smallest
junction box to intelligent motor control
centres.
Little wonder then, that Applied is
physically expanding.
The company has recently moved in to a
bigger building on Stokesley Business Park
to take in all of the strands of its business.
The new site boasts an impressive 28,000
sq ft of manufacturing and office facilities,
increasing the panel shop floor space ten
times over.
Expanded offices have meant more staff
and Applied has also seen its team grow to
35 in numbers, with three recent additions.
The move marks an exciting time for
the team, which is led by directors Lee
Raywood, Garry Lofthouse, Graham King
and Roy Coleman.
Growth in the panel building side of the
business is what has driven the expansion.
“Panel building has been part of the
business since 2011,” explains Garry.
“In past years we would do all of the
design and systems requirements but
contract out the actual building to a third
party. And then we thought, why not build
them ourselves? That way we could be in
charge of the whole process, controlling the
quality and the build.
“Then we won a defence contract and
building panels ourselves was part of the
requirement. Things just expanded from
there.
“The panel shop has become its own
entity which has driven the growth.
“If somebody just wants a panel built, we
can do that. We can also design and test
panels – as much or as little as the client
requires.”
The building move has incorporated
Applied’s expert engineering teams under
one roof, so to speak.
Changing the location of the business
was never an option. They had room to
comfortably expand on the business park at
Stokesley and that’s where Applied wanted
to remain.
“We didn’t see any need to move out of
the area,” says Garry.
“Our customers really like our location
and it is good for our staff. Some staff travel
a distance to work and we didn’t see the
need to add to that.
“We have a driven team and are looking
for growth.
“The business is changing in nature
and there’s much more of a technical
environment to it.
“We are developing digitally and there’s a
lot of exciting things going on. We are really
advanced in what we do as a business and I
don’t see anyone else offering what we can
offer.”