An award-winning Teesside fuel testing company is looking forward to an exciting future as a global business following its acquisition by Lloyd’s Register.
Guardian Marine Testing (GMT), which is based at the Wilton Centre and specialises in the management of marine fuel quantity and quality, was acquired by Lloyd’s Register in a deal agreed in March 2015.
A year on the business has been re-named as Lloyd’s Register GMT Ltd (LR GMT), the business has grown to 56 staff with access to 238 offices around the world.
As part of the buy-out deal the original management team was retained and tasked with running the newly joined up operations from its Wilton Centre base near Redcar on Teesside.
Andrew Shaw, formerly GMT’s MD and now MD of LR GMT, said that the deal is great news for the company which was set up in 2007 with three employees and has expanded ever since.
“We started out with my fellow directors Paul Livingston and Andrew McEwen and I, and then grew to 12 staff by 2011. After doing a deal to service the requirement of Lloyd’s Register (LR) fuel testing that year, our work increased by 200% and we grew the staff to 36 overnight.
“The main significance of becoming part of LR is the fact we have the security of a large corporation which has 9,300 employees in 238 countries, a turnover of £1 billion and is the largest charity in the UK which invests in many beneficial matters on a global basis.
“Whilst our strength previously was very much on a European basis we now have business in all four corners of the globe.”
Andrew added: “A major differential in the marine industry is that we are now the only fuel testing service which is a part of what is known as “class”. This is a policing process in the marine sector where every ship sailing must be “classed” and undergo regular MOT-style checks meaning that they are effectively certified as being sea worthy.
“Our new set-up means that we are now in a position to deliver the world’s best marine testing service with an assured backup financially for any future plans for growth.”
Lloyd’s Register (LR) is a global engineering, technical and business services organisation wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and engineering.
Founded in 1760 as a marine classification society, LR now operates across many industry sectors, with over 9,000 employees in 78 countries.