Abstract
Introducing Ashford Instrumentation…
A new company companion
In August, Ashford Instrumentation had a party to celebrate 10 years in business. Before starting the company, its two founders, Managing Director Jeff Nichol and Sales Director Stuart Cross, were established specialists in pressure, temperature and level instrumentation. Both men shared the conviction that while their industry manufactured excellent products, it was weak on customer service. They set out to change that. The continuing steady growth of Ashford Instrumentation shows just how right they were.
Although Ashford Instrumentation does design some of its own special instruments, which are made to their exacting specification by specialist engineering companies, most of the high-quality products they supply are sourced from a wide range of well-known manufacturers around the world. So why do their customers come back time and time again to what appears, at first sight, to be just another agent? ‘It’s down to knowledge and service’, says Stuart Cross, Our technical team has a wealth of application knowledge, and not being tied to any one manufacturer means that we are free to offer the right product at the right price within a time frame that meets our customers’ requirements.
It certainly seems to be working. Today, Ashford Instrumentation is an eight-strong team with ISO 9008:2001 accreditation and a turnover increasing at a steady 10% year on year. A quarter of the company’s business is now in the export market, and the team currently services 40 countries in five continents. Having outgrown its rented offices, the company is looking for new premises in the Ashford area where it can continue to expand. While much of the business is in the traditional areas of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and the manufacturing and processing industries, Ashford Instrumentation has developed a niche market in diving, marine and subsea pressure and temperature instrumentation. In 2005, Commercial Diving & Subsea Gauges (CDS) was set up as a division within Ashford Instrumentation to promote the Ashford range of high-end, high-quality instrumentation specifically developed for the demanding commercial diving market place. Ashford CDS now has a growing reputation for supplying the widest range of commercial diving and subsea instrumentation in the world and regularly supplies customers as far away as Asia, North and South America, New Zealand and Singapore as well as those nearer to home in mainland Europe.
Process instrumentation needs isolating valves; therefore, Ashford Instrumentation’s customers naturally expected them to be supplied as part of the total instrumentation package. The company began by supplying the usual range of gauges, over-range protectors, snubbers, 3-way inspection and so on, but demand continued to grow. This led, in 2009, to the launch of the Ashford Valve & Manifold division as a specialist valve supplier to complement their range of instrumentation. Their latest Generation 200 Series product range includes needle valves and two-, three- and five-valve manifolds manufactured in high-grade stainless steel. The valves and manifolds are all produced in the United Kingdom to ensure the highest manufacturing standards and quality of product; this is especially important where full material traceability is required, particularly in applications such as petrochemicals and power generation, and there are hygienic versions for the pharmaceuticals, food and beverage markets.
As you would expect, Ashford Instrumentation also carries a wide range of portable calibration instruments including test gauges, comparator pumps and deadweight testers, and the technical team is there to provide practical advice and support for after-sales service and troubleshooting. A measure of the industry’s respect is that Ashford Instrumentation works in conjunction with most of the largest organisations and manufacturers within the instrumentation field.
Asked about plans for the future, Stuart Cross replies that Ashford Instrumentation’s aim is to expand its export activities by enhancing its reputation for technical knowledge and service. ‘We want our customers to enjoy doing business with us’, he says, ‘because that means they will have the confidence to buy from us again and again’.
Booth Welsh …
A progressive company companion
Booth Welsh provides specialist control engineering services within the process industries offering services ranging from initial design through to installation, operational maintenance and decommissioning in addition to in-house process, electrical and instrumentation services. Over the last 20 years, Booth Welsh has built an established blue chip client base in the United Kingdom as well as in overseas markets such as Brazil, Saudi Arabia, China, Monaco and Italy for clients such as Veolia Water, GSK, Diageo, EDF Energy, DSM and SBM Monaco.
A recent addition to the company’s portfolio is its Technical Recruitment arm, a service which specialises in sourcing all engineering disciplines both on a permanent and temporary basis as well as offering specialist consultancy across a wide range of industries. The addition of this new service means that Booth Welsh is not resource-constrained and now has an in-house-based solution to assist with any client’s project and technical resource challenges.
Despite the recent tough economic times, the business has continued to grow and strengthen its foothold within various markets with the company’s most significant growth area being within Oil & Gas. As has been widely publicised recently, Oil & Gas in Scotland is a huge asset and also represents a huge opportunity for Scottish businesses, but Scotland is currently disadvantaged by a ‘skills gap’. There already exists a shortage of skilled employees to fill skilled disciplines from field technicians to design engineering and project management. Booth Welsh has recognised these shortages, and this was the main driver for adding their new recruitment service and further improving their service provision to clients.
Although not based in Aberdeen, they have a very comprehensive offering for the Oil & Gas industry from their Head Office in Ayrshire. They have recognised the issue of project closeouts in oil-related work, and they now offer an as-built drawing and documentation closeout service. They are currently assisting a well-established Aberdeen company with this using their in-depth knowledge of web-based tools and shared cloud services to deliver a seamless service to the market.
They have made considerable investment in their facilities, and their capabilities now include delivering the complete project life cycle from field surveys, front-end engineering, multi-discipline detailed design, functional safety including Safety Integrity Level (SIL) determination, verification and system build/commissioning as well as control system upgrades including life cycle support. Uniquely, they have built their service offering to allow full turnkey capabilities, taking a project from conception to completion from their Scottish head office. Confidence in their company’s capabilities has been demonstrated by a recent visit from Scottish MSP Fergus Ewing who is the Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism. He said, Booth Welsh is leading example of a Scottish SME which continues to grow by exporting its services and expertise to global markets. It is also very encouraging that Booth Welsh is creating opportunity for young people and investing in skills in training as it meets its objective of providing its customers with an end-to-end process engineering and consultancy solution.
Their unique capability coupled with their retained expertise of over 200 staff allows them to offer their clients continuity of service and personnel as well as helping to effectively service the Oil & Gas industry and others for decades to come.
