Member Article

Profits up at Mersey marine safety firm

Merseyside manufacturer International Safety Products (ISP) is reporting a 10pc increase in turnover following a strong year of worldwide trade.

The Bootle firm - which manufactures and supplies marine safety equipment for the global market - saw turnover rise to £7.6m to financial year end in September, up from £6.9m in September 2012.

Staff numbers also rose sharply by more than 15pc, up from 98 employees to 115 in the same period.

ISP managing director John Rogers said the firm is again entering the new financial year “firing on all cylinders” with sales set to be up 38pc on the first quarter of last year.

“We have enjoyed a terrific year at ISP with greater demand than ever before for our products,” said Mr Rogers. “We take great pride in being one of the world’s largest manufacturers of inflatable marine lifejackets. Our core business has again been in the manufacture and supply of lifejackets to a broad mix of sectors including military and defence, commercial and leisure.

“ISP has an extremely diverse customer base and the tenacity of our sales team has enabled us to drive growth across many markets. The rise in manufacturing activity has also led to employment across the board from machinists and warehouse operatives to design technicians.

“Sales are way up on the first quarter of last year and we are currently enjoying one of our busiest months of trade. This should stimulate further employment opportunities and business growth.”

Mr Rogers said units of manufactured lifejackets had risen in the firm’s last financial year by more than 12pc to well in excess of the previous record set at 110,000 jackets. Specifically, lifejacket sales to the military sector rose by 69pc, with sales in the leisure sector increasing by 14pc and the commercial sector rising by 5pc.

In the same time period, figures for overall manufactured units, including other products such as intrepid immersions suits and tactical waistcoats, rose by more than 30pc to in excess of 200,000.

The increased production has been supported by investment of more than £100,000 in manufacturing machinery including sewing and high frequency welding machines.

“ISP is a truly global manufacturing business with exports accounting for more than 65pc of sales,” said Mr Rogers. “The military sector has featured very heavily again in overall sales. We have enjoyed strong business with the UK MoD and continued to develop our overseas profile with particular success in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia. European sales have also remained strong with growth across Scandinavia.”

“ISP is currently working on a number of exciting new projects including “intelligent lifejackets” which see high-end satellite location technology incorporated in the design to help locate a stranded person. We are passionate about driving innovation in the marine safety sector, through creative design, cutting edge fabrics and first class process techniques.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .