Partner Article

Chemical firm looks to double sales

A NORTH EAST chemical firm expects to double sales over the next three years and increase turnover from £5m to £10m.

Exwold Technology, which operates from three sites in Hartlepool and Billingham has secured a £250,000 investment from UK Steel Enterprise, the Corus-subsidiary that supports businesses in steel areas to support its plans.

The good news for Teesside comes on the heels of a recent gloomy survey that declared parts of the area were the “least resilient” in the UK to economic shocks.

Exwold is investing in new roll compaction technology and a new stock control system and hopes to quadruple its profitability.

“We doubled our profits through 2009 which was a tough year economically and are still growing,” said founder James Robson.

“We now have a high level of expertise in a niche speciality market with 70% of our revenues generated abroad.

“We believe that SMEs like Exwold are key to the North East’s future as a manufacturing base.”

Set up in 1992, Exwold began processing chemicals into granular form for the agricultural sector.

It has since moved into other sectors including flame retardants, surface coatings, biocides and metal treatments.

The organisation, which currently has a workforce of 60, merged with a London-based company in 2006, extending its range of processing methods and it now processes more than 100 chemical products.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .