Engineering firm Oliver Valves announced it will invest £700,000 in the research and development base at its Cheshire headquarters.
The new R&D facility will support product development. It will create 10 new high-skilled engineering jobs at Oliver Valves which provides custom valve solutions for instrumentation, subsea environments and pipeline.
Today’s £700k investment announcement will expand and enhance an existing R&D base which company founder Michael Oliver says has been critical to recent company success.
“The rapid growth we have achieved to this point is thanks to the R&D investment, leading to new product introductions, that we have made in the past and the edge this has given us over our competitors internationally. The enhanced development capacity this new facility will give us will help ensure we retain our hard-won position at the forefront of valve technology in the years ahead,” he said.
Money for the R&D base will enhance its testing capabilities. New, custom built test rigs will simulate conditions faced by valves in service to help improve performance and reliability.
The investment comes after a year of record financial results for Knutsford-based Oliver Valves. Its sales grew by 56% to £65.5m in the year to September 2012 and profits more than doubled to £18.8m. It is now targeting turnover of £100m in the next 12 to 18 months.
Oliver Valves employs 1,000 people worldwide, including more than 350 at its Cheshire base.
