By Martin Walker
Newton Aycliffe Company of the Year Tekmar Energy is celebrating another award this weekend.
The subsea and cable protection specialists, which won the top gong at the Aycliffe Business Park Make Your Mark event last September, won the prestigious Export Award at the North East Business Awards on Thursday night.
Tekmar received the recognition at the annual event that recognises exceptional business and innovation in the Durham and Wearside region.
The award caps a remarkable 12 months for the firm that has seen it begin work in the United States and the Middle East for the first time while continuing to build on its position as the partner of choice for operators in Europe.
In all, overseas sales accounted for an impressive 86% of Tekmar’s total sales in 2014.
The firm’s CEO James Ritchie – star of the ‘Coffee Break’ feature in our next forthcoming issue of Aycliffe Today Business – said: “Our overseas growth has been as the result of a long-term strategy.
“We are continuing to win contracts at home and overseas with the move into new international regions going hand in hand with the opening of our new manufacturing facilities in Newton Aycliffe.
“It has been a busy and successful past year for us and we look forward to this continuing throughout 2015.”
With more than 28 years’ experience, Tekmar is a market leader in the design, manufacture and supply of subsea cables, umbilicals and flexible protection systems for the oil & gas and renewable energy industry.
The company established itself in the US market after forming a strategic partnership with American company Whitman Consulting Group and has gone on to build relationships with developers and installers through the supply of its cable protection systems on numerous US wind farms which are currently in development.
Tekmar has also expanded into the Middle East for the first time and won multiple oil & gas contracts in this region as well as other international markets.
The worldwide growth of the company has been reinforced by the introduction to market of the firm’s latest innovation, TekTube®.
The product has been specifically designed as a solution for future projects to continue to help drive down cost reduction, improve offshore installation rates and ensure cable integrity for the service life typically 25 years.
TekTube has been devised for installation onshore rather than offshore.
Once in place, the system is then transported to the offshore project site to be secured to the jacket, sealed and prepared to be received by the cable installation vessel.
TekTube has been developed utilising the same protection methodology as the market-leading, proven industry standard TekLink system. The TekLink system, which is designed for a 30-year life time, revolutionises the connection of subsea power cables into monopile foundations. TekTube offers an alternative to TekLink for jacket, gravity-base and floating foundations
The North East Business Awards were presented at Ramside Hall, Durham.
Pictured (above) is Tekmar financial controller Eoghan Johnston (left), receiving the Export Award from Chris Simpson of UKTI.
Below is the victorious Tekmar Energy team celebrate winning the Export Award at the North East Business Awards.
