Teddington Engineered Solutions, a West-Wales engineering business which originally supplied parts that kept the RAF’s Spitfires in the air during World War 2, targeted international markets as part of its growth strategy.
Now, more than 66% of Teddington’s trade comes from overseas, helping the firm to achieve record breaking sales and turnover.
Llanelli-based Teddington Engineered Solutions, which employs over 100 people, designs and manufactures expansion joints for a range of industries including aerospace, marine, construction, nuclear power and defence. The joints compensate movement in pipe work caused by temperature change, pressure or vibration.
Early days
Established in the 1920s in Teddington, the south west London district from which it takes its name, the firm originally supplied its patented bellows to the aircraft industry.
During the early war years, Teddington was responsible for making critical components for British aircraft such as the Spitfire, and it was this crucial role that prompted the Government to move the company away from London to South Wales, where it was thought it would be relatively safe from German bombs.
After the war, Teddington diversified into a range of other markets including the energy sector, opening new doors for it to sell its expansion joints all around the world.
New markets and sectors
International sales have always made up at least 70% of Teddington’s orders. In the last 20 years, with the support of the Welsh Government, the company has exported to more than 100 countries. Its sales span across a range of industries including aerospace, energy, shipping and marine applications, chemical and food processing, steel plants, propulsion and power distribution.
Europe remains a priority market for Teddington with no interruption to existing business in the EU and several new customers since Brexit. Further afield, the Middle East remains a key market for energy and infrastructure projects, with significant growth in America, South East Asia and increasingly Africa. Teddington was the first company to supply bellows in many of the major industrial markets and maintains its reputation worldwide.
Following the Covid-response measures, it was this diversity across geographical and industrial markets that helped Teddington retain its workforce and skills, setting a foundation to take advantage of the growth that has occurred since then.
In the last two years, the company has seen an almost 200% increase to its export order book, leading to Teddington recruiting for various roles across its sales, engineering, quality, production and administration teams to keep up with the demand.
Jason Thomas, Commercial Director at Teddington Engineered Solutions said:
“Our order book has increased significantly in recent years, and this is supported by an ever-growing pipeline of enquiries too. Much of that is due to exports, which remain a large part of our business. We’ve retained all of our customers post-Covid and as they’ve bounced-back and experienced growth since then, so have we. Never being complacent, we’ve also concentrated on winning new contracts and new clients too.
“One exciting new venture we are involved in is small modular reactors (SMRs) which will be key to future energy needs in the nuclear sector. We supplied bellows expansion joints to the very first nuclear reactor in the 1960s, Calder Hall at Sellafield, and have stayed at the forefront of that industry ever since.
“For the past twenty years, we have utilised the Welsh Government’s many options of export support including trade missions, exhibitions, in market assistance and general export advice from extremely knowledgeable and experienced people within the export team. This has without doubt accelerated our export growth over the years.”