Engineering group Tentec targets China for new growth

A WEST Bromwich engineering firm is targeting fresh growth by exploiting export opportunities with China.

Tentec Ltd, which supplies bolt tightening equipment, is supporting the expansion with a focus on product innovation.

The company, which employs 60 people and this year celebrates its 25th anniversary, said it saw China as one of its most important export markets.

Founder and current managing director and CEO Mike Gethings said: “We want to continue providing the best possible bolt tightening products and accessories. We are committed to providing our customers with high-quality tools and customer satisfaction is our prime objective.”

Over the last 25 years Tentec has grown from a small company providing hydraulic bolts to the coal mining industry to a multi-million pound global organisation that supplies innovative bolt tightening solutions to a wide range of industries including petrochemical, renewable energy, offshore and nuclear.

When the coal closure programme starved it of customers in the early 90s, the company was forced to innovate and look for new markets.

“We had started exporting our products and realised that we needed to diversify the business, certainly in the UK,” said Gethings.

By 1992 the business was in a position to expand and start the diversification process, although bolt tensioning would remain at the core of its business. It began designing and manufacturing bolt tensioners for the oil and gas industry and from 1992–1999 saw its products used in a number of different industries including petrochem, steel and power generation. In 1994 it entered the subsea market.

It continued to innovate to the point where it was providing customised tools, manufactured exactly to customers’ requirements. In 2008 it launched a new range of products for the wind energy market.

Tentec continues to innovate and over the last few years the company has added a range of torque wrenches to its product portfolio and new bolt tensioners have been launched for the offshore and subsea markets.