Vessco Engineering Ltd won a Hinkley Point C contract that's given them the stability for five years. Their advice? You need to understand the culture of the nuclear sector to succeed, so seek the support and help for your business that can be provided by the Hinkley Supply Chain Programme.

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The transcript from the video above is as follows:

Julian Vance-Daniel – Managing Director
We’re a Tier 2 supplier currently supplying two large pressure vessels for GE Power Systems. GE have the Tier 1 contract for the turbine hall at Hinkley Point C. They are making the power generation part of the nuclear power station and we are making two very large pressure vessels for them. Probably the largest pressure vessels that have been made in this area for many decades. So for Vessco Engineering the contract means stability for 4-5 years at an absolute minimum. We also expect it to be the platform for future growth in the nuclear industry.

It will help us to grow in other industries as well. Customers in the oil and gas industry for example will notice our achievements and it places us in a good position for the many years to come. The rewards are potentially huge, it will run into many, many millions of pounds. We will double or treble in size as a result of our work in the nuclear business.

The project is vast, £20 billion worth to spend to date. Whilst it’s considerable, they still have more than ¾ left to spend and yes there are lots of opportunities for SME’s throughout the region. You need to understand the culture of nuclear industry, take professional advice. There are many organisations out there who will help. We’ve had help from Fit for Nuclear, Welsh Government and also from the Hinkley Point C Supply Chain team.

Around about 2010 the nation was looking at nuclear generation again. We thought that there was a requirement for pressure vessels and pressure equipment in the nuclear industry. We decided that we would look in to that sector to see if whether we could gain some new business. We’re a very small business, small medium enterprise, the companies that we were then approaching amongst the biggest companies in the world, because we considered the market early on, we were able to slowly get things ready for entry into the nuclear market.

EDF, Hinkley Point C, Supply Chain team and GE were very well advanced in their preparations, what we did was we involved the NAMLRC in Sheffield and the Hinkley Point C Supply Chain Team. We listened to what they had to say and we made the improvements that they suggested. 

Nick Golding 

[Vessco] They’ve put in the hard work but look at what the rewards are. It’s a long term contract that’s given them stability for over 5 years, puts them in a great position to capitalise on not just the HPC project, but other nuclear projects across the UK. 

All companies should be looking at Vessco and trying to follow their example.