Coup for Sypro as it wins work in Far East

Sypro, based in Melton just outside Hull, has secured a landmark contract to help build a network of electrical substations in Hong Kong.

The firm, which offers specialist online project management systems to the construction industry, has been looking to begin working in the region for around a year.

Managing director Simon Hunt said he believed it would be a significant development for the company and likely to lead to further contracts.

“We are very excited about this,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a coup for us to get this bit of business.

“We’re a small organisation but what we do is very focused. We’re very much a sniper shot at a specific aspect of contract management.

“The interesting thing about the Chinese market is it’s a very much reference-based procurement process. People have a list of potential contractors and they rate them based on who else you have worked for nearby.

“Now we have this, we will be further up that list.”

Mr Hunt will be travelling out to China later this week for the first time, to meet the customers and deliver training on the system for the project.

Up to now, all communication with the developer, China Light and Power, has been online, such as through web-based seminars.

“That’s how it works with the business we’re in,” said Mr Hunt. “We’re in East Yorkshire, but we’re getting to be a global business.”

International links have not been made by Sypro alone, however. Because the company works on NEC, the family of contracts favoured by the Institute of Civil Engineers, it naturally works in areas where the institute is strongest, and they tend to be former commonwealth countries.

“We have been given quite good guidance by organisations like UK Trade and Investment and we’re working with them to put together a roadshow at some point to increase our local presence,” said Mr Hunt.

“There’s a lot of really good opportunities and once you get into a market such as Hong Kong and people start to understand who you are and what you do, it’s an excellent reference for us.

“To do business out there you need to have a foothold.”

Getting that foothold is not something Mr Hunt seriously considered in 2007 when the company was established.

Sypro spent much of its first year developing the product it would offer to its customers. When it began to be rolled out in 2008, the property market suddenly stalled and the number of construction projects plummeted.

However, since 2010, Sypro has found its work accelerating significantly.

Major projects for which its systems have been used include the A164 upgrade and the new Beverley Community Hospital, both in East Yorkshire, and the £840m Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, which is the largest healthcare building in Europe. Its clients include Balfour Beatty, Mansell and Sir Robert McAlpine.

“The last 18 months have seen a direct acceleration in our business,” said Mr Hunt.

“Whether that’s because we have been more focused, we’re speaking to the right people or the market is responding, I don’t know.”

The result of that growth in business is a significant rise in turnover, predicted to be £500,000 this year – representing growth of around 125 per cent.

Similarly, Sypro will be recruiting for the first time, adding a fourth member of staff alongside Mr Hunt, technical director Stuart Kings and financial director Gerard Toplass.

Interviews are currently being carried out for a business development and support role to be filled within the next few weeks, hopefully followed by a fifth person in four to six months.

Whoever comes in will have to be flexible and enthusiastic, said Mr Hunt, and be excited to be part of an expanding business.

“They’ll have to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in,” he added.

“I run the business but I do everything else as well – from debt collection to development.”