Northumberland bolting specialists make growth move

Blyth-based Hire Torque Ltd has acquired new premises to grow the business, following funding from Barclays.

The suppliers of bolting equipment will move to new premises at Nelson Park Industrial Estate in Cramlington to accommodate growth.

Barclays have hailed the move as a success of the Funding for Lending scheme, that has been used to leverage money.

Stephen Jones, managing director of HTL said: “Purchasing the new premises is a major step forward in our growth strategy. We started out in premises the size of a double garage with two employees and now have over 50 staff across three UK facilities in Manchester, Aberdeen and Cramlington.

“The timing of this investment could not have been better with the cash-back payment from Barclays which will provide a buffer to help manage our finances as we expand.”

HTL has begun to evolve from a UK-supplying company to a global provider of controlled bolting equipment.

Official HTL Partners are based in Iraq, Kazakhstan and Malaysia and the company has also opened dedicated facilities in Jakarta, Indonesia to service the South East Asia Oil and Gas Industry.

Richard Hogarth, senior business banking manager at Barclays said: “By participating in the Government-backed ‘Funding For Lending’ scheme, Barclays is able to pass on the whole benefit we derive to our customers and we are optimistic that people will take advantage of this cheap time to borrow, and make the investment decisions that they have been putting off.”

Hire Torque was founded in 1994 and has a current turnover of around £7m.