Balmoral’s Blaze Manufacturing Solutions is aiming to expand its headcount following a more than £10 million order intake.
The firm looks to grow by between 70 and 100% year on year Blaze plans for a 20% increase in headcount at its Laurencekirk headquarters.
The company is also looking overseas, said Stuart White, operation director at Blaze, while on the show floor at Aberdeen’s Energy Exports Conference.
In renewables, the firm has secured key contracts including a recent integrated maintenance partnership awarded by Ørsted.
This covers fire protection and detection on 9 North Sea offshore wind assets, including Hornsea 1 and 2, for the next five years.
The deal covers inert gas systems, compressed air foam, water mist and all detection including control systems.
White told Energy Voice: “At the moment, a lot of the growth is within the company here in the UK, we’re looking at designers and engineers, as that side of the business is growing.”
This means it’s looking to recruit “designers, engineers, workshop technicians, offshore technicians, pipefitters, etc,” Mr White explained.
“We’ve had more and more of our clients coming to us and saying ‘Can you design and engineer a system for us?’, the workshop then becomes busy, and our supply chain part of the business is busy.”
Blaze looks to the Netherlands for overseas expansion
Mr White added: “About 50% of our business at the moment is export so that means we’re seriously looking at where we need to put our headcount growth, we’re looking into Europe at the moment as somewhere where we need to put a projects office to manage that business.”
As the firm looks to expand, it is laying the groundwork for a new base in the Netherlands.
“That’s a natural starting point,” Mr White added, “But we’ve got an open mind as to where that may subsequently take us.”
In the last 12 months, Blaze has secured projects across both Europe and the Middle East, and 70% of its intake has been in the renewables sector.
This comes as the firm’s parent company Balmoral announced its takeover of Aberdeen’s luxury Marcliffe Hotel and Spa.
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