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Manufacturing

Revenue and profits jump at subsea tech specialist SMD on the back of electrification strategy

The firm is due to open a new production and servicing facility in September

Stephen Hill has recently been recruited as chief operating officer at SMD.(Image: Soil Machine Dynamics)

Revenue and profits have jumped at Tyneside subsea robotics specialist Soil Machine Dynamics on the back of recent innovation.

The Wallsend-based maker of subsea equipment and provider of services to the offshore energy sector saw revenue climb to £76.5m last year, up from £55m the year before. Pre-tax profits leapt from £1.48m to £4.79m in the same period.

Growth comes on the back of extensive development work by the firm’s engineers on the electrification of its underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and patented technology that shows where cables have been placed deep below the seabed to protect them.

Newly appointed chief operating officer Stephen Hill said the firm had made savvy decisions which put it ahead of a rise in the market for electric ROVs - with SMD’s Quantum and Atom models offering greater reliability and more energy efficiency having replaced their hydraulic counterparts.

The longstanding firm - part of Chinese giant CRRC Corporation Ltd - is thought to be the first in the world to bring electric ROVs to market, and is now under way with an expansion to house research and development work, servicing capacity and production of the products at a 30,000 sqft facility at Neptune Energy Park - due to open in September - that will include a test pool to put the technology through its paces.

Mr Hill said the market was being driven by countries wanting to tighten up telecoms and energy security - part of which involves burying cables deeper to offer more protection - and the burgeoning renewables sector, particularly the growth of offshore wind.

He explained: “SMD got its strategy right a few years ago with the product innovation it has developed and brought forward to the market. From that innovation, two things have happened: customers have woken up to the fact they can get an even better product from SMD and also the market is growing, for political and industry reasons.

“If you actually have the forethought to develop products before the market starts rising then you can go with the market when it starts to rise. From an SMD point of view, the management team here got that absolutely right.”