Major Saudi contract sees Hiley set to deliver large-scale conveyor system

The contract secured by the Halifax-based Hiley Engineering several months ago was to design and supply a large scale bespoke conveyor system to Saudi Arabia – marking the firm’s first undertaking in the country.

Nigel Hunt, financial controller at the firm, told the Yorkshire Post that the system was due to be shipped early next week.

He said: “We have dealt with them [Kraft] previously. This is the Kraft Saudi Arabia but we have dealt with them through the American company before.

“It is quite a significant order. But we have dealt with orders of that volume previously.”

Mr Hunt said the market in the Middle East was “fairly level”, adding: “It’s not running on the bottom as such but it’s not totally buoyant either.” He said UK export was the way forward for economic recovery, adding: “We are pushing the company forward on the international scene as well as promoting British industry abroad.”

Mark Hiley, the company’s managing director, said: “The project is proving to be an exciting and demanding piece of work – however, the level of experience within the company has ensured that everything is running to agreed timescales and budgets, even though elements of the job have required answers that demanded innovative and inspired design work.”

The system has been manufactured and assembled for the factory acceptance test, which was recently successfully completed.

On arrival, the conveyor system will be installed and commissioned under the supervision of Hiley Engineering.

The news comes after Hiley Engineering secured a contract to design and supply a large scale cooling and packing conveyor system for biscuits and crackers to a Russian food producer.

Mr Hunt added: “The UK market is fairly flat at the moment and the company is avidly pushing the export drive. We are exporting quite a lot of work at the moment. We are looking at overseas markets more.”