UKEF Case Study: Carpenter & Paterson

Based in Welshpool, Powys, Carpenter & Paterson has been manufacturing specialist pipe suspension equipment for more than 60 years. With most of its customers in the oil, gas and power generation industry, overseas sales account for 75% of its business.

South East Asia has traditionally been an important export market for Carpenter & Paterson, from Korea to Japan, Thailand and the Philippines. But in the past two years, its exports to India have taken on a new significance for the company.

This boost in business with India is in large part thanks to the company winning 49 contracts with a single client, Reliance India, with the backing of the UK government.

In 2016, UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK’s export credit agency, provided Reliance India with a £300m line of credit to help fund construction work on its refinery in Jamnagar.

Jonathan Lee, Managing Director of Carpenter & Paterson, commented: “The Reliance Project for Jamnagar 3 was the largest single project we’ve ever taken on as a company. The business we won with Reliance resulted in an increase of more than 50% in our revenue, which may not have happened without UKEF’s involvement.”

UKEF financing was provided on the condition that Reliance sourced goods and work on the project from the UK. This resulted in more than 100 contracts being awarded to UK companies like Carpenter & Paterson.

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As a result of UKEF’s backing for the project, Carpenter & Paterson secured over US$9m in revenue over two years, helping to support dozens of Welsh jobs.

Thanks to this success and the continued growth in demand for its products across Asia, the company has now established new manufacturing bases in India and Thailand. The UK HQ in Welshpool continues to provide all technical support, management and financing to the Asia subsidiaries, and supplies the more complex engineered products.

Lee added: “This was a great opportunity for us, and with the additional knowledge that UKEF financing is also available to us as a UK exporter if we need it, we can have the confidence to be even more ambitious with our plans to boost our overseas business in the near future.”

Jon Boyce, Senior Export Finance Manager at UK Export Finance, said: “We know there is a high demand for quality UK goods and services in other countries, and as part of the Department for International Trade, UKEF is here to make sure UK companies can make the most of these opportunities.

“UKEF can offer competitive financing for overseas buyers to help them access the UK expertise they want, as well as helping UK companies realise the full benefits of trading on an international scale.”