Guest post: Exciting new beginnings

The start of a new year is always a time for reflection as well as a time to inspire fresh thinking and plan new beginnings, says Feritech MD Rob Ferris

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Feritech MD Rob Ferris

The first quarter of 2022 is a particularly momentous time for us. It sees us finalising the build on our purpose-built £3 million innovation centre near Falmouth. The superb new facility has been open for business for a couple of months already but we are now adding the finishing touches. The new innovation centre is both the culmination of a dream and the beginning of the next stage of our journey.

When my wife Gemma and I decided to form the company over a decade ago, we were employees in the offshore geophysical survey industry. We looked at the products and services available in the marketplace and we decided that we could start up a business which would improve on them through a combination of innovation and hard graft. We were convinced we could make a difference and establish an offering that would have a competitive edge over the existing players in the market.

Looking back, we were breathtakingly ambitious, but I am pleased to say the gamble has paid off.  The company has grown rapidly and we now have a huge range of innovative advanced engineering products for the offshore industry for sale or rental as well as managing and delivering operational projects offshore around the world.

Our rapid growth means that we have outgrown our previous premises and now we have built the new facility, we will be able to provide our amazing team with state-of-the-art workplace and equipment which will further enhance their talents and skills for innovation. It’s incredibly exciting.

The new innovation centre will be the only facility in the south west (and one of only very few in the UK) where all aspects of advanced manufacturing projects can be handled on one site. The facility offers everything from initial design and planning through to final testing and manufacture, including provision for precision machining, large scale fabrication, embedded software, electronics and 3D printing. This means streamlined project management and faster turnaround of projects.

As well as continuing to grow our current business, we see the new facility as a launchpad for further innovation and making inroads into new markets in 2022 and beyond. We want to establish a role as an innovation hub for the south west, where inventors in a wide range of sectors can be supported to turn their idea into reality, working closely with our product designers and engineers.

We also want to build new partnerships with other companies in the supply chain, working in collaboration on projects and finding new ways of working which benefit all parties and provide superior customer service.

And we want to bring our innovation skills to help meet the engineering challenges of establishing the floating offshore wind industry in the Celtic Sea, an opportunity given an additional boost by recent UK Government funding.

So, we see 2022 as a time of many exciting new beginnings for us. Our multi-million pound new facility will be the catalyst that enables us to begin the next stage of our business journey and we are looking forward to every single moment of it.

feritech.com