Wrapping up the pipe repair market

Aberdeen-based pipeline repair company Walker Technical Resources (WTR) is typical of the new breed of oil and gas specialist service company which works the global energy market from a North East base.

Graham Birnie of Walker Technical Resources WTR is successfully working in far-flung markets like Canada, Mexico, Norway, the Middle East and other hydrocarbon hot-spots – yet until three years ago, as managing director Graham Birnie (pictured right) cheerfully admits, the company was concentrating heavily only on markets which could be serviced directly out of Aberdeen.

“It’s only comparatively recently that we made the conscious decision to go global, rather than international,” notes Graham.

“That’s quite a step-change for a company of our size, but we realised it was one we had to take following a meeting with our account manager from Scottish Enterprise Grampian. We were proudly telling her that we were now a firmly established player in the North Sea and Norway when it became clear to us all that we were now ready to look seriously at more remote, and more challenging, markets.”

Founded in 1992, WTR specialises in composite pipe repair systems – wrapped layers of e-glass and resin which can be applied to damaged pipelines for speedy repairs. The company has nine different composite products branded under the Technowrap name which allow operators to maintain pipeline and pipe work production with a permanent repair life for a duration specified by the customer which can be between two and twenty years.

The company has 18 employees and a turnover in excess of £2 million, operated through an international network of carefully trained service distributors.

Service standards

After twenty-five years with Shell, Graham was persuaded by company founder John Langler to join as managing director in 2001. “In those days, WTR was basically a really good jobbing company, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that,” he notes. “But since then, with a lot of terrific support from various economic development agencies, we have managed not only to break into but also to participate actively in such challenging markets as the east coast of Canada.”

Part of WTR’s success, Graham believes, is its resolute commitment to the highest service standards. “Wrapping a composite pipe repair looks deceptively simple, and, once it’s set rock-hard, it does look for all the world like a miracle repair product,” he says. “But behind that easy process lies a whole load of very complex engineering analysis on pipe tapers, operating temperatures, stress relieving calculations and other factors.”

For this reason, WTR insists on intensive training for all the service personnel working for its distributors, and holds the highest international accreditations in quality, environmental and safety assessments. “I’ve seen newly-appointed distributors so desperate to get out into the field and demonstrate the strength of the system – it’s often quite a challenge to rein them in until they have the technology fully on board,” says Graham.

The Aberdeen factor

Graham Birnie is also very frank about the diverse factors which have contributed to WTR’s success. “I’d love to put it all down to calculated intellectual strategy, but a large part has also been played by the Aberdeen factor – by executives being promoted from the North Sea up to Houston or Calgary and taking their product knowledge with them. We have had a number of calls from ex-Aberdeen customers telling their international colleagues – ‘I know the very company for this’.

“But that’s all part and parcel of being a high-profile international energy capital – there are, I am sure, many other Aberdeen companies who made their overseas break through similar connections.”

Consolidation

WTR has also, however, taken full advantage of the export development services available through BGI members, Graham’s first overseas trip with WTR was a Scottish Enterprise learning journey to Houston, and he has also notched up the air miles with Aberdeen City Council in Norway, Mexico and Canada.

He is unstinting in his praise for the productivity of these missions. “In the first place, you genuinely get access to people whom you would never get near under your own steam,” he says.

“Then you also have the group synergy – I have got to know some of my co-missioners and their companies very well, and we all invariably dig up really excellent leads for each other. It’s always impressive when you say to a new contact – ‘I’m afraid we don’t do that – but I have with me a man who does’!”.

“And don’t just imagine you only use trade missions for early market penetration – use them to consolidate and diversify as well. We broke into Oman through an oil and gas mission, but on a follow-up I noticed all the massive desalination plants, and it now looks as if they will be a really substantial non-oil new business stream for us.”

Marketing awareness

Graham is extremely bullish about future development prospects. The company is already looking beyond oil and gas at the massive marine and defence markets – “marine vessels have a huge demand for a Lloyds accredited composite repair system which will keep them going until they go into dry dock,” notes Graham.

All of which underlines that Graham is a late, although no less zealous, convert to the profession of marketing. “I used to believe that, if you wanted a marketing approach, you called in a consultant,” he admits.

“But Scottish Enterprise pushed me into joining its Marketing Awareness Programme (MAP), and I saw the light. Marketing went from being number twelve on my management skills shopping list to outright number one.

“We are now so committed to serious international marketing that we have signed up for Scottish Enterprise’s Global Companies Development Programme (GCDP), a practical initiative designed to enable Scottish companies to achieve a significant global presence through a robust strategic focus.

Click here for more information on Walker Technical Resources

Click here for more information on GCDP.