Severn Trent order for busy Saftronics

Leeds, UK – UK process control systems manufacturer Saftronics Ltd has won a £4.5m order from Severn Trent Water for its Minworth waste water treatment plant near Sutton Coldfield. The order follows an eventful year for the £11m turnover company, which has recently carried out a £75,000 investment in the current production space at its 130-employee factory in Leeds.

According to Saftronics, the expansion has been funded from entirely within the business, which it said, remains debt-free and continues to invest in its software development team. The company employs 30 programmers, who design and maintain its control systems for a variety of different end users, providing worldwide bespoke process control functionality.

Formed in 1979 as a joint venture between a South African company and Stanningley-based R F Winder, within a couple of years Saftronics became a wholly-owned UK company and a key step change in 2001 saw an MBO by the current team led by managing director Geoff Puckett and commercial director Alan Rayner.

The company supplies process control equipment to the utility industries and chiefly water, now governed by five-year purchasing cycles. Planned diversification into the oil and gas industries has created a steadily growing niche market with US-based contractors working all over the world. The company says it has one major US generator manufacturer standardising on its products and placing repeat multiple orders for Leeds-made motor control centres.

“We’ve coped successfully with the water industry’s drive for lower prices by increasing efficiency and improving customer service levels. Our staff have been totally committed to these changes, hence the success, and a recently launched staff suggestion scheme attracted some 150 entries.  Many have already been adopted into our “working better going forward” plan, bringing important improvements to production processes and product design,” said Puckett.

“We’ve also had 100% acceptance of the new branding campaign and new working practices and a large proportion of the workforce is involved in NVQ training on continuous improvement techniques. This positions us well for attacking the re-developing power industry in the UK, which we believe will present us with tremendous growth opportunities.”