Subsea Company Records 600% Growth
15 June 2009
Leading flexible pipe specialist flexlife has celebrated its second birthday, recording turnover of £3million.
The Aberdeen-based company is now predicting growth of around 70% in 2009/2010, primarily through work in the North Sea and Brazil.
Flexlife is wholly-owned by directors Stuart Mitchell, John Marsden and Carl-Petter Halvorsen and currently has a 10-strong team with plans to take on an additional eight people over the next 12 months.
Stuart Mitchell said: "The last year has been an excellent one for flexlife with the launch of our breakthrough patented scanning technology and securing commissions up until the end of this year to use that technology by a number of clients including Hess and Statoil. Our aim is to commercialise and launch the next step of that patented technology later this year. ''
"We now have projects on our books for the next three years and anticipate turnover reaching £5million for 2009/10.''
Stuart added: "We are delighted our achievements have been recognised by our peers in the oil & gas industry through us winning the Best Newcomer award at the Subsea UK awards, being shortlisted for a Scottish Offshore Achievement award and furthermore making it to the finals of two categories of the National Business Awards for Scotland.
"flexlife also intends opening premises in Brazil and Australia - we had hoped to do so earlier in the year but it took a little longer than planned because of the volume of work we had so we are now on track for fourth quarter 2009.''
The revolutionary scanning technology is the first to be able to successfully scan flexible risers in situ. The application can scan for a flooded annulus and flexible pipe armour wire corrosion, factors which significantly affect the service life of flexible risers commonly used on floating production vessels (FPSOs).
It is mounted on an ROV and can operate down to 6,000metres, helping to extend the lifespan of flexible pipes and minimise additional cost, personnel and environmental impact for clients.
flexlife also offers a full design, delivery and maintenance service and a further highlight of last year was completing an innovative well-kill off Tunisia safely and for a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.
"We have had a huge amount of interest in our product and services and have had excellent feedback. But most importantly, we have a strong, highly experienced team and this has been a major factor in our success,'' Stuart added.
