Technica Ltd

Technica are pleased to announce that Andrew Ward has joined us in the role of Project Manager.  He has joined from the International Chemical Company Cristal. In his previous position Andrew held the role of Strategy and Capital Manager and was responsible for a team of 40 delivering strategic programmes which delivered over £15M per annum savings and prior to that he was Engineering Manager for the site.  Andrew also deputised as Site Director of the site which employs approximately 400 people and has a turnover of £200 M.

Andrew has a 1st class honours degree in Chemical Engineering, has chartered status and is a Fellow of the institute of Chemical Engineers and he has over 20 years’ experience in projects and engineering, gained within the chemical industry

Andrew will have full responsibility for the management of major project teams and successfully delivering those projects, technically and commercially, for Technica.

One of the hardest challenges a business can face is taking the steps from being a small, to a medium sized, business. Technica believe that with his experience in senior positions Andrew will be able to help us as we continue on our journey to becoming a professional, medium sized business.  We believe Andrew’s experience will help strengthen our management capability across all departments of the business.

On his decision to join Technica Andrew commented “I have known Technica for many years and it is a company I have grown to admire for their quality and customer commitment. I am excited about joining them and helping them develop on the next phase of their journey to a medium sized engineering business”

Thursday the 11^th May saw Technica, for the first time, enter a team in the South West IGEM Golf competition. The day is a charity event with raffle prizes and an auction which was to raise money for local cancer support services, “The Brighter Futures Radiotherapy Appeal”.

The South West IGEM event was superbly organised by Ross Walton of Rush Construction and Ian Marshall of Wales and West and is a great opportunity for us to network in a more relaxed atmosphere than a meeting room.

The Technica team which was made up of Tom Bateman of Lightning Group, Laurence Rimmer of Hargreaves Jones, Paul Clarke of SGN and our own Dave Wilkie, came a very creditable 3^rd overall in what were very tricky conditions. The day started out very warm and humid and ended with a heavy downpour and thunderstorm warnings, which badly affected the last third of the round. So expectations were not very high in the clubhouse and 3^rd place came as a pleasant surprise. The other notable high point of the day was Tom Bateman winning the longest drive competition with a massive 320 yard screamer that nearly reached the green.

John Davison, Technica MD, kindly contributed to the charity auction with a framed, signed, Justin Rose cap. The auction and raffle prizes helped to raise £2,650 with the biggest contribution to the auction actually coming for the Justin Rose cap! A fitting way to cap the day off….(pun intended).

We are proud to announce that Technica has been awarded the Fire and Gas Replacement project for National Grid (UK Transmission).  This significant project involves taking a design through from concept to site installation and commissioning and has been issued by the Capital Delivery team. It is the single largest UK project we have received from National Grid to date. It is also the first time we will have worked for the Capital Delivery team.

The fire and gas replacement project will allow Technica to showcase its competency in the majority of our services including EPC, site construction, control panels, functional safety and software engineering.  Technica will also carry out duties as Principal Contractor and Principal Designer in accordance with the CDM 2015 Regulations.

Managing Director John Davison commented “this has been a fantastic achievement by our UK Gas team; we are determined to deliver a successful project for National Grid and believe we will achieve this through close, open and honest communication at all levels of the project”.

Technica’s engineering and installation teams have recently completed CDM and RAMS refresher training.

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) underpin all our design and installation work and set out how we plan and manage risks during the course of a project. The training covered the various phases of a project and the specific roles and duties defined in CDM2015 including Principle Designers and Principle Contractors, preparation of Construction Phase Plans and Health and Safety Files.

Risk assessments and Method Statements are used to plan all Technica workshop and site based work to ensure associated Health, Safety and Environmental issues are considered, work is planned and risk is removed or reduced.

Our project engineer Andy Smith who organised the training said “safety is paramount in everything we do and this is achieved by ensuring our teams are engaged, competent and fully aware of current requirements”

We have continued to strengthen the Technica team by engaging the services of Ian Southcott.  Ian has joined the team as mechanical engineer and his extensive experience will help us to further develop our mechanical delivery.

John Davison commented “For some time we have documented, through this newsletter, the efforts we have been making to take Technica to the next level and Ian’s appointment is another significant step in that process.   Ian initially joined us via a recruitment agency for our last international Gasport project and following the successful completion of that we are delighted he has decided to stay with us for further challenges.  Ian commented “I have worked for many companies in the oil and gas industry and have rarely found one where the Directors genuinely listen to both staff and clients and act accordingly in an effort to continually improve both staff and client relations.

I started my career in the power generation industry but in the early 80’s moved into the oil industry.  Since making this move I have worked in the UK, USA, Holland, Norway and Singapore.  I have designed a wide range of oilfield related equipment from special purpose drilling rigs, remotely operated vehicles and well servicing systems.  Particularly interesting and challenging has been the design of life support systems and gas management systems for large saturation diving systems.

I am pleased to be able to bring to Technica the skills acquired during a long career in the industry and am pleasantly surprised at the eagerness of the team to learn and broaden their personal knowledge base.”

Jennifer Atkin, our charity champion , presenting a cheque and an X-Box gaming machine for the clients to use at Harbour Place.  The money was raised by the staff of Technica during their Christmas celebrations. Receiving the donations are Robin Barr, Project Director and Steve and Mary who attend Harbour Place.

Robin Barr said: “This is a fantastic donation and money will be used to support new services this coming year and the X-Box will go down a treat with our clients”.

Jennifer said: “We decided to raise money and donate an X-box to Harbour Place during the Christmas period, the real meaning of Christmas can get lost amongst all the bustle and it is important to remember that for some people life can be very tough. The staff work so hard and we wanted to support a local charity and we hope to raise more money for Harbour Place in the future”.

Technica are pleased to announce that Andy Smith has joined the team as the manager of our UK Gas team.

Andy has a wealth of experience gathered from time in the chemical, oil and gas industries to accompany his experience in management systems.  Andy is NEBOSH qualified and this will add strength to this area of the business as well.

In his career of over 20 years Andy has developed his knowledge of engineering across a broad spectrum, in particular control and instrumentation, as well as increasing his experience of managing teams in a process driven, performance management environment.  Andy commented, “I became aware that Technica were looking for someone to lead their UK Gas team and I was attracted by the reputation for quality engineering services and focus to client requirement and delivery.”

John Davison commented “We see this as a key role within Technica and we have been looking for the right candidate for some time. From Technica’s point-of-view the character and attitude is as important as the technical ability and we wanted someone who would share our ambitious vision for the future.  The patience has paid off and in Andy we feel we have finally found the right person to help drive the business forward”

We have continued to strengthen the Technica team by engaging the services of Ian Hawkyard.  Ian has joined the team as technical authority and his extensive experience within the gas industry will help us to move towards our ultimate goal of excellence in our project delivery.

John Davison commented “Technica has been going through steady change for the last two years and I am particularly excited by the thought of how we can accelerate the changes within the business with the help of someone with Ian’s experience and knowledge.  Our objective is to develop a highly experienced and competent team, who all share our vision of where we can take the business and what we can achieve, in the coming months and years.  I feel Ian’s contribution will be invaluable in progressing towards the fulfilment of these objectives.

Ian commented “John has a commitment to develop the technical knowledge and expertise of the team.  Understanding customer requirements and turning them into designs which are compliant and customer orientated is challenging within a fragmented gas industry. I hope to be able to provide expertise and knowledge to develop the team, thereby  enhancing Technica’s commitment to improve quality and customer satisfaction”.

Technica’s charity champion, Jen Atkin has been hard at work again orgainising charity activities at Technica.  Earlier this year Jen organised the Jeans for Genes day (a charity that supports research into genetic disorders) and had a great response raising £80 for this charity.

Jen is pictured with another of her charity events; the Macmillan coffee morning, staff were treated to a range of delicious home made cakes to go with their morning coffee.  This raised an amazing  £90 for the charity.

Not content with her success so far, Jen has the Christmas Jumper day in her sights and furthermore this year’s Technica annual Christmas dinner is going to feature a charity auction in aid of a local Grimsby charity, Harbour Place.  Jen commented “ Harbour Place is a local Grimsby charity that supports a wide range of socially excluded groups including the homeless.  The real meaning of Christmas can get lost amongst all the bustle  and it is important to remember that for some people life can be very tough.  Hopefully we will raise some money that can help in some small way.”

On the 30^th June Bryan Creed, Technical Director and co-owner left Technica Ltd after more than 10 years with the company.  In Bryan’s farewell to the staff he commented on how enjoyable it has been seeing Technica grow from small beginnings to the successful business it has become.  Bryan went on to say that when he and John Davison (Managing Director) started the business neither of them could have foreseen where that decision would have taken them.  Bryan thanked the staff, past and present, for all their efforts and hard work over the years and contributing to putting Technica where it is today.  Bryan made a point of singling out John Davison for thanks for the support John has shown over the years and especially recently as Bryan struggled with his decision on where he wanted to go with his future.

Bryan explained that building a business from scratch had been challenging, sometimes stressful but also very rewarding.  He went on to say that Technica had come such a long way as a business and now had a strong customer base and a very competent team to take the business forward to even greater heights.  Bryan continued; “I have been doing a lot of self-analysis in the last year as I came to terms with what would be required personally to take the business to the next level and during this personal development realised that I had come to a cross roads.  For over 10 years I have put Technica first and I realised that what I wanted now was to put my family and myself first; obviously I have had long discussions with John as this would affect him almost as much as myself; we have been busy preparing a contingency plan over the last few months in case this was my final decision.  We are now happy that everything is in place to allow Technica to move forward and fulfil John’s ambitions for the business. He, with the support of his management team, is confident that Technica will carry on moving forward and continue in the success we both have built. I am an engineer at heart and will remain in engineering going forward but my initial plans are to simply have a break and spend time with Maria, my wife.

John Davison concluded; “Bryan and I started our careers as apprentices many years ago so his departure is going to take some getting used to personally.  We have been putting a strong team together over the last few years and we have an established client base. Together with the recent development of a number of exciting opportunities I am confident Technica will go from strength to strength”.