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Family-owned engineer looking to growth with investment of £1m
ENGINEERING specialist Evenort hopes to win support for a £1m investment to help to grow the family-owned South Yorkshire firm into a £5m to £6m turnover business.
The Dinnington-based company is applying for a grant from Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, to back its business case for new machinery.
Evenort's diverse product range includes raw material processing, the manufacture and distribution of stainless steel and nickel alloy flanges, advanced manufacturing of high-integrity parts for the oil and gas sector and plasma cutting.
The company also acts as an agent for Hilton Metal Forgings, a listed Indian forging business established by Evenort's managing director Joe McKay.
His son Craig McKay, Evenort's general manager, told the Yorkshire Post about the company's plans for the future.
He said: "We have a 1m project we have put together for some grant funding, which we hope to roll out over the next four or five years.
"It will be the next stage in the development of our company which will take us to a 5m-6m turnover as opposed to 4m where we have been for the last couple of years."
An engineer, who came via a knowledge transfer partnership with Sheffield Hallam University, has been working on factory lay-out plans incorporating the new investment.
The company plans to upgrade machinery across its five product ranges and hopes to consolidate two sites into its Dinnington base to increase efficiencies.
Mr McKay is now waiting to see whether the new coalition Government "has the inclination to support projects like ours" through regional development agencies.
He said: "Grant funding and timing is key for us. We need to get the application in and get a response back speedily. The funding is important for us as an incentive to move on with what is an extremely large project for a company of our size. We have our fingers crossed for some positive news.
"When we get some backing we will go forward with our plans.
"If we don't get the funding, we will have to revise our business plan and see what we can do where and at what time."
Evenort, founded in 1982, started life trading in stainless steel raw materials and diversified into manufacturing to produce stainless steel flanges for the pipeline industry.
The manufacturing venture was successful and the company grew turnover to 2m, but Evenort struggled in the recession of the early 1990s. Joe McKay decided to open a business in India and formed Hilton Metal Forgings, which floated on the Mumbai stock exchange in 2007.
Evenort acts as UK agent for the company's steel and Mr McKay remains on the board of directors.
Evenort now has five main product areas and around 40 employees.
It is jointly owned by Joe McKay, his wife, who works at the company, and their two sons Glen, the sales director, and Craig. Craig's wife Karen also works at the company.
Asked if UK manufacturing has a future, Craig McKay said: "Absolutely. There are companies in the UK that are flourishing.
"There is definitely a demand for high-integrity goods and there is a real spirit of innovation in Sheffield and South Yorkshire and there are programmes in place to foster that innovation and drive it forward, like the knowledge-transfer partnership with the universities.
"If you have an idea it can sometimes be incredibly difficult to turn that idea into a working model or finally produce something you can actually sell. To have programmes like the knowledge-transfer partnership where you can spec out your ideas and have qualified engineers research the integrity and the feasibility is definitely helpful.
"If you look at companies like Gripple, AES and DavyMarkham of course there is a future for manufacturing in the UK. It's a future of innovation, not only in the products you produce but in the way you produce them.
"The good companies have all got something in common, which is pursuit of excellence and a culture of continuous improvement. We can see a rosy future."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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