Expansion in the pipeline as engineering firm opens Austria factory

Pipeline inspection specialist Mini-Cam has invested £430,000 in a new factory in Austria to increase its production capacity.

The purpose-built facility has been developed Mini-Cam subsidiary company InPipe Innovation.

The purchase has enabled InPipe to move from a small workshop to a 7,500 sq ft facility in the Alpine village of Riezlern, Kleinwalsertal, near the German border.

The facility is managed by Dietmar Jochum and currently has eight staff, with further recruitment planned.

It is used for the mechanical design and manufacture of precision parts and pre-assembly of Mini-Cam’s range of crawler and push camera inspection systems, which are deployed in underground surveys in more than 40 countries.

Final assembly of the systems takes place at the company’s headquarters in Warrington.

Mini-Cam managing director Nigel Wilson said: “This new building gives us a strong European presence and room for expansion.

“We started working with Dietmar in 2010, when the idea for our Proteus pipeline crawler inspection system was born, and it is extremely satisfying to see our Austrian subsidiary grow with this purpose-built facility.

“Austria and southern Germany are renowned worldwide as being centres of engineering excellence, so being in this location also gives us access to the latest machining techniques and skilled staff.”

Mini-Cam, which is backed by private equity firm LDC, supplies customers in the water and wastewater industry as well as municipal authorities and companies in the oil and gas, petrochemical, construction and engineering sectors.

It had a turnover of £10.6m for the year to the end of January 2016.