Promise of up to 100 jobs as firm opens Hull base

CLS Offshore expects to build the team at its offices in the Marfleet Environment Industries park on Hedon Road to 25, with up to 75 new onshore recruits once it has opened a fabrication workshop on the site.

It says most staff will be recruited locally.

The Hull base will mirror CLS’s Great Yarmouth operations where they specialise in modern fabrication work, platform refurbishment and petrochemical plant installation and support.

The firm, which also has an office in Aberdeen, have also diversified into offshore windfarm maintenance and launched a new electrical and instrumentation division.

Managing director Scott McMillan said: “We believe the move will ultimately add £10m to our turnover without diluting anything we do from Great Yarmouth - where we will continue to develop.

“It will strengthen our position on the East Coast, help bridge the gap with Aberdeen, draw on the vast potential of the area and meet a demand from existing clients. One has increased the value of an order from £5m to £7m, with other major companies pledging more business once the Hull office came online.”

Mr McMillan praised the practical help of Hull Council in assisting its move into an Enterprise Zone.

Coun Martin Mancey said it would bring high quality jobs to the city and the opportunity of expansion. “Hull’s location adjacent to the SNS gas fields and the UK’s strategic future development area for offshore wind renewables, together with our Enterprise Zones, makes us an attractive proposition.

“The City Council will continue to work with CLS to fully explore further opportunities and to ensure that their investment decision continues to bring rewards to the company and employment opportunities for the people of Hull.”

CLS finance director Mark Pollard said the move came as the company was showing more than 50 per cent turnover growth year-on-year, with 58 per cent of current profits being reinvested directly back into in to the company. The three-year deal for the new premises cost around £350,000, but the figure was expected to grow conisderably as the fabrication workshops developed.