Oliver Valves invests £700k in future

OLIVER Valves, the privately-owned Cheshire manufacturer, has boosted its research and development pipeline with a £700,000 investment.

The award-winning company, which makes and supplies high-performance valves to energy companies around the world has just opened a new 5,300 sq ft R&D facility at its Knutsford headquarters.

Staffed full-time by 10 engineers the new unit is equipped with custom-built test rigs which simulate the conditions faced by valves in operation and monitor their performance – a critical process as the products must deliver 100% reliability once in situ.

The investment follows a year of record results for the company , which is targeting turnover of £100m within the next 12 to 18 months.

All three companies in the Oliver Valves group – Oliver Valves, Oliver Valvetek and Oliver Twinsafe – are served by the new facility.

Founder and chairman Michael Oliver said: “The rapid growth we have achieved to this point is thanks to the R&D investment, leading to new product introductions, that we have made in the past and the edge this has given us over our competitors internationally.

“The enhanced development capacity this new facility gives us will help ensure we retain our hard-won position at the forefront of valve technology in the years ahead.

“We are also proud to be carrying out this world-leading development work in Knutsford, providing jobs for some of the extremely talented engineers that we are lucky to have in the North West.”