Ecosse Subsea, the parent company of subsea technology specialist Ecosse Subsea Systems (ESS), has more than doubled its turnover to almost £28 million, according to the company’s latest financial results.
Aside from ramping up the turnover from £12.7 million to £27.7 million, the company also increased underlying earnings to £7 million in a period leading to March 31, 2017.
The Aberdeenshire firm attributed the results to the previous R&D spend of more than £10 million, and increased adoption of its SCAR technologies for offshore renewables and interconnector projects, aligned to growth in oil and gas engineering activities.
Mark Gillespie , Managing Director of Ecosse, said: “We continue to invest significantly in R&D which will generate future returns in 2018 and beyond, an example of which is our new trenching tool SCARJet in which we have already invested a large proportion of 2017 profits.
“In the current financial year we have already secured an order backlog in excess of £20 million and we are forecasting that 2018 figures will continue on an upward trajectory. Changes we made to strengthen our management team earlier this year are already paying dividends and as these results show, we are primed to push on and take ESS to the next stage of its evolution.“
“Revenues in Europe over the last financial year grew to more than £9 million, and this expansion out with our traditional UK market signals we have a strong offering which has a wider appeal across a range of major international subsea construction projects.
“Our focus will be on consolidating our leading position in the subsea energy sector and expanding our geographic footprint in to the Baltic, Asia and North America subsea markets.”
Established in 1996, ESS is a subsea technology, equipment hire and offshore engineering consultancy, specialising in oil and gas, offshore wind, wave and tidal industries.
With its roots in the oil and gas industry, ESS has adapted traditional technologies for use in the renewables and interconnector sectors, and designed and patented a range of tools which are used in seabed clearance, route preparation, trenching, backfill, pipelay removal and cable laying operations.
In partnership with other companies, ESS has developed a range of patented technologies, with other patents pending, in pipe lay and spooling, wave energy conversion and subsea lifting.