2015 was a landmark year here at Huntingdon Fusion Techniques HFT®, from a record number of PurgEye® sales to the company celebrating 40 years in business.
Here are some of our highlights:
2015 got off to a flying start, with January being the highest turnover for any January since 2001 when HFT® first moved the business to Wales, with invoiced sales up 127% over the 2001 figures.
In February we made some vast improvements to our website, which included the latest state of the art responsive template, which automatically fits to all mobile devices, meaning our Customers and Exclusive Distributors have access to all the latest information on the go!
Our CEO Georgia Gascoyne attended the Tube Exhibition Istanbul in March. During the visit Georgia met up with Tracey Callaghan of Tube Products International. The bi-monthly trade magazine for tube and pipe products frequently features articles about our products. Georgia also made a visit to a potential Distributor to provide training.
During April we made a company first by selling at least one of each model from our complete Argweld® PurgEye® Weld Purge Monitor® Family within one week. The Family of seven monitors each have their own unique features and can measure from atmospheric content, down to as low as 10 ppm. The range includes two hand-held units and a remote monitor, which can measure up to 1 km away! There was also a day during April where we sold one of each size of our standard Flexible Welding Enclosures®.
At the beginning of May, a two-day exhibition was held at our Exclusive Distributors EWM’s UK office in Morpeth, Northumberland. HFT®’s Luke Keane was on hand to demonstrate our full range of products and answer any technical questions from the large audience that visited the exhibition.
During May, Georgia and Luke went to Egypt to make joint visits to potential customers with our Distributor Manometrique and also travelled to South Africa to visit a potential Distributor and new customers.
In June HFT® exhibited at the British Airways: Explore and Discover Exhibition at Heathrow, which included live demonstrations of our Flexible Welding Enclosure®, designed for making oxide free titanium welds for use in the aerospace industry. This was demonstrated with a PurgEye® 600 computerised Weld Purge Monitor® that reads down to 1 ppm oxygen. British Airways are now using one of our Flexible Welding Enclosures® regularly for carrying out emergency aircraft fleet repairs.
June marked the launch HFT®’s official Instagram page (@huntingdon_fusion). In addition, Georgia visited our Exclusive Distributors in Denmark and the Middle East to carry out product training and to make customer visits.
July was a record month for our PurgEye® 100 sales, with most of our Distributors achieving our target of selling ‘a PurgEye® a day’. This low cost, IP65 rated, hand held unit reads down to as low as 100 ppm and is now recognised as the International Standard Weld Purge Monitor®.
In August, HFT® were once again, proud to be the main sponsor for Burry Port RFC for yet another season. The team have certainly delivered during the start of the 2015/2016 season, with numerous consecutive wins already under their belt.
September marked the official month that HFT® celebrated 40 years in business, with the company being founded in September 1975. Since then we have forged and retained our position at the forefront of weld purging technology.
A visit was also made to the Offshore Europe Exhibition in Aberdeen by Georgia and Luke to get a feel of how the oil prices is affecting the economy and whether there are any signs of ‘green shoots’.
In October HFT® exhibited at Welding Week, the four-yearly welding event in Belgium. We joined our Exclusive Distributor for the Benelux, Pipeq Pipework Equipment on their stand. It was a fantastic turnout and the three-day event saw visitors from right across the globe.
During October Georgia and Luke visited Azerbaijan to deliver a large consignment of our Inflatable Pipe Purging Systems to replace those of a cheaper competitor that failed to work. The contractors were pleased with the instruction and installation assistance given by the HFT® personnel.
Georgia also made a visit to India where she gave talks at various Welding Institute gatherings across the country and spent time providing product training to our Distributor Weldwell.
November’s issue of Tube Products International (TPI) featured not only our Weld Purge Film® but also our PurgeGate® Valve System, our latest state of the art plug-and-play device, designed to stop any over-pressurising of inflatable tube and pipe purging systems.
Georgia visited our Distributors in the USA in November as well as attending the annual AWS Exhibition (Fabtech) in Chicago. Towards the end of the month, Georgia was a speaker at the Stainless Steel World Conference in Maastricht, taking part in the welding sessions along with panellists from Aperam and Fluor.
In December Georgia and Luke gave a lecture on Weld Purging to the Teesside Welding Institute then it was all hands to the pump with a tight deadline to ship a very large stock order to our Exclusive Distributor in the US, COB Industries. We achieved the target date, which meant everyone at the HFT HQ could enjoy their well-earned Christmas break.
As you can see it has been a pretty jam-packed year for us. Visit our Blog for more information and here is to another great year ahead.
Remember, if you'd like a visit to your territory to receive up to date product training and a programme of joint visits to customers and potential customers, then please get in touch.
