Oliver Valves fights back after tough year

CHESHIRE engineering company Oliver Valves,  which designs and manufactures high performance valves for the world’s biggest oil and gas firms, says it is back on track and targeting revenues of £50m this year after a tough period.

The family-owned group said it had been helped by a recovery in several key overseas markets, after seeing sales fall in the year to the end of September 2010.

Oliver said sales had dropped to £33.4m from £42.3m in the pereviosu year as a result of the impact of the recession and project delays which hit its pipeline and instrument valves divisions.

Demand from high flying new economies such as Brazil has helped the company, founded in 1979 by chairman Micchael Oliver, to fight back and amass a record order book

Its performance has also been boosted by revenues from its sub-sea valves business, Valvetek, which increased 38% last year, as well as improvements at its pipeline and instrument valves divisions. 

Oliver Valves is the largest privately-owned valve maker in Europe, employing around 250 staff at its Knutsford head office and another 600 around the world.

More than 60% of the group’s sales come from overseas markets, where the business is continuing to invest in its technical and sales teams, particularly in the Americas, Middle East and Far East.

Michael Oliver, said: “Like many businesses operating in the oil and gas supply chain, we faced a lot of pressures from around the world in the last financial year.

“Despite those challenges, we managed to grow several important parts of our business, thanks to our unrelenting focus on innovation, product performance, service and value – things that are critical to our customers.

“Unlike other businesses, our capital structure – based on a policy of incredibly low bank debt – combined with strong fiscal discpline throughout the period helped us achieve a strong financial return, further improving liquidity and working capital reserves.”

He added: “Our specialism and focus on designing world class subsea, instrument and pipeline valves means there are very few companies who can match our product range offering.

“This, together with returning confidence in our markets and a strong start to the year, has put us firmly back on track for growth in 2011 and we’re excited about the propsects ahead of us.” 

Mr Oliver was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Cheshire in October last year. Last week he was runner up in TheBusinessDesk.com’s North West Masters awards in the Pride category, which recognised outstanding philanthropy in business.