Euro award for Cosalt’s joint wind energy venture

The ‘Network Stars’ award acknowledged Grimsby-based Cosalt’s joint venture, Cosalt Wind Energy.

The awards recognise companies which have used the network to find opportunities abroad or to develop their businesses and research.

Cosalt Wind Energy supplies operations and maintenance services to the UK offshore wind industry, providing complete service solutions.

Winston Phillips, managing director of Cosalt Wind Energy, said: “We were delighted to have been presented with this award, acknowledging the joint venture and our achievements.

“The Enterprise Europe Network was instrumental in the facilitation of the initial introduction between our two organisations and has been a great support since.”

The Enterprise Europe Network is made up of close to 600 partner organisations in more than 40 countries, promoting competitiveness and innovation at the local level in Europe and beyond.

The conference was also attended by Leeds-based Targeting Innovation, an Enterprise Europe Network agent, which picked up an award for the support it provided to Cosalt’s venture.

Tim Barraclough, of Targeting Innovation, said: “Cosalt Wind Energy is a great success story for the Enterprise Europe Network.

“It has created over 30 local jobs and is extremely busy. The network is a great resource for companies looking to do business in Europe and I’m happy to have been able to support Cosalt Wind Energy”.

Last month Cosalt said it has a “more stable financial base” after selling 60 per cent of its business to pay off debt and avoid administration.

The company also revealed a new chief executive is to take over from Mark Lejman, along with a new chief financial officer. Trevor Sands will join Cosalt’s board as CEO on October 27 from engineering group Emerson Electric.

Dolores Douglas, a chartered accountant formerly finance director of food and drink manufacturer Big Thoughts Ltd, joins this month as chief financial officer.

Cosalt is now focused on services to the oil and gas industry, workwear, and wind energy after the £31m sale of its marine arm to private equity-backed Survitec.

The sale, which was eventually cleared by the Office of Fair Trading, allowed Cosalt to restructure its finances and took debt from £32m at the end of June to a more manageable £7m.

“Trading has been challenging but the disposal of the marine division will enable us to make a fresh start, ” said chairman and Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross in a statement.

“The sale of the marine division has enabled us to stabilise the business, reduce borrowings and re-focus the business on providing services to offshore industries.”

Cosalt, which has been hurt in recent years by a heavy debt burden, litigation, pension liabilities and tough trading, said revenues in its continuing business edged up to £20.9m in the first six months of the year, compared with £20.1m in the 26 weeks to May 2, 2010.