Alba News

Alba Power are pleased to announce that we will be exhibiting this week, in conjunction with with our local representative PT. Atamora Tehnik Makmur, at PowerGen Asia 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Alba Power’s Business Development Manager, George Kelly, will be in attendance all week and looks forward to meeting our expanding regional customers and prospective new clients.

You can find us at booth G37, located within the Indonesian Pavilion.  Please contact George on george.kelly@albapower.com to arrange a meeting.

We are proud to announce that Alba Power Ltd has achieved ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certification.

Having held ISO 9001 & 14001 certification for many years, Emma Steeley (QHSE Coordinator) commented “recertification to these new standards is recognition of the Company’s commitment to the continual improvement of our quality and environmental management systems – ensuring that our clients, existing and prospective, continue to benefit from our renowned first-class service”

Achievement of the new standards also demonstrates Alba’s dedication to self-improvement and effective management of the Company’s continued growth. Both standards require increased leadership from top management to ensure the quality and environmental management systems are effectively implemented and maintained.

The ISO 9001:2015 standard introduces greater focus on staff development and improvement. Our training and competence procedures ensure that our staff are fully trained and competent to carry out work to the highest standard.

Securing ISO 14001:2015 certification is acknowledgement of the Company’s continued efforts and success in reducing our environmental impact.

Achieving ISO 9001:2015 and 14001:2015 certification has been a company-wide effort. It involved input and cooperation from staff at all levels; as well as feedback from clients, audits and lessons learned. We are now working towards the expansion of our scope to include other services provided by Alba Power Ltd.

All of our current ISO certification can be viewed and downloaded here.

It has been 12 years in a row for Alba Power, in which the independent provider of overhauls, repairs, spare parts, and field services for the oil and gas, and energy sectors have recorded year-on-year growth. Founded in 2000 by its current Managing Director, Terry Alderton, Alba Power hails from Netherley, Aberdeenshire, with its main workshop facilities strategically based to serve the North Sea offshore market. In 2017, the company opened an office in Hamilton, Ontario, its second facility in North America, where it had already established a presence four years ago when it set up a workshop in Houston.

“Last year, we were awarded a big contract in Canada from an energy company, so we opened the office there to support it. We have got several long-term customers in America, especially a major one in Houston, which justified the development of our facility there several years ago. The two sites are part of our endeavours to increase our market share on the continent,” Alba Power’s General Manager and Director and US Vice President, Neil McKenzie explains.

“When we first started the business, we were mainly focused on delivering work in the gas turbine area, as well as the power generation segment in the North Sea. As we have grown, however, we began providing our support to oil and gas companies all over the world. In fact, up to 80 per cent of our work now comes from abroad,” Neil reveals. Alba Power was initially engaged with providing spare parts for the Rolls Royce Avon and Olympus gas turbines. Soon after, it recognised the gap in the market for a company to offer high-quality services in helping gas turbine engines users prolong the life of their machinery at a competitive rate, thus setting off to become the global leader we know it is, today.

Gas turbine services remain the staple of Alba Power’s activities. The company has cut its teeth in the area while working with high-profile and blue-chip customers. Its wide range of offerings includes field service, tooling supply and rental, inspection, and overhaul. Quality first, Alba Power also provides expert balancing, performance testing, modification, and upgrades, as well as full maintenance contracts. Having developed a rich portfolio of services, the company adds tangible value in the areas of reduced downtime, cost control, and efficient and speedy repair.

“Since we moved to the power turbines, having already made a name for ourselves in the gas turbines sector, we have seen particularly strong growth,” Neil highlights. Its maintenance services have been provided for various types of power turbines, such as SK30, RR2103, RT48, RT56, and RT62, always to a superb standard.

Alba Power received a significant recognition in April this year when it was ranked 84th in the 19th Annual Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 league table, which acknowledges those British private companies, which have achieved the fastest-growing profits over the last three years. Commenting on the company’s inclusion on the list, Managing Director, Terry Alderton said: “We are delighted to be one of the only eight Scottish companies on the Profit Track Top 100. This reflects our performance over the last three years and is a testament to our growth strategy, which has seen us continue to invest in our people and facilities despite some challenging trading conditions across the globe. With 2018 starting in the same vein as 2017, with 37 per cent growth in Q1, we look forward to featuring regularly on the league table in the coming years.”

£1m investment
The acknowledgement for Alba Power came after the company recorded its best-ever year, in terms of turnover. 2017 also saw the extension of the business’ main workshop in Netherley. “We invested well over £1 million to double the size of the facility so that we can keep in line with the workflow we have got. The most important benefit of our expansion is that it will allow us to keep our efficiency at the highest possible levels,” Neil maintains.

Peering into the future, he reports his expectations for potential areas of growth in the next couple of years. “We are hoping to see an increase of our market share in the Middle East and Asia. We are already doing a significant amount of work there, but we expect to get even busier in these regions. Some of the engines we maintain are quite old, so we need to continue supporting these, in order to keep them running in the foreseeable future, say, in the next 20-30 years.” As if to confirm his words, the beginning of 2018 brought about the news that Alba Power has secured two significant customer wins with clients from the Middle East that will see it receive a number of engines. The contracts are projected not only to provide revenue of more than £5 million over the next three years but also to consolidate and develop Alba Power’s long-term relationships with its customers in the region.

“We want to continue growing the company and continue to invest using the cash generated by the business in its development without the aid of external investment. It is of utmost importance to us to maintain our customer retention levels, too. I cannot stress enough how customer-focused we are, so we have to continue providing a quality product at a competitive rate and serve our customers to a very high level,” Neil shares his aspirations. “Thanks to the experienced team we have got working for us, and the strong and inspirational leadership of our Managing Director, we are confident we will move forward and continue to grow in years to come,” he concludes.

Article published by Energy, Oil & Gas.

Alba Power has announced that Kevin Grant, formerly Sales Manager and based at the company’s head office in Netherley, has taken on the newly formed role of Key Account Manager.  This new role will see Kevin predominantly supporting Alba’s key European contracts from his new base in Sweden.

Kevin said “I have been at Alba Power for over 6 years and I’m delighted to be able to take up this new post. The post has been created to ensure that we continue to deliver exceptional service to our European customers and shows further commitment from Alba to deliver world class support to all of our clients across the globe”

Neil McKenzie, Alba Power’s Director & General Manager “This investment in placing people on the ground in Sweden is further proof of our commitment of always putting our customers first.  We pride ourselves on our unrivalled ability to offer 24/7 support worldwide and Kevin will be perfectly placed to ensure that our key accounts in Europe receive only the best levels of service”

Published last weekend, the 19^th Annual Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 league table ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing profits over three years.

With profit growth averaging 58% over the last three years to £3.7m in 2016, Alba Power, the Netherley based gas and power turbine service company, have become a new entrant on this prestigious list at number 84. Last year Alba opened a further site in Ontario, Canada to handle increased demand across north America and now employ over 70 people across their Netherley head office in Scotland and their Houston and Ontario service centres.

Terry Alderton, Managing Director, said “We are delighted to have received this level of recognition by being named one of only eight Scottish companies in the Sunday Times BDO Profit Track top 100.  This reflects our performance over the last three years and is a testament to our growth strategy which has seen us continue to invest in our people and facilities despite some challenging trading conditions across the globe. Last year saw us open our new £1million workshop extension in Netherley and open our service centre in Ontario, Canada while have started 2018 with a number of key appointments that have grown our commercial and operational teams both here in the UK and abroad.  With 2018 starting in the same vein as 2017 with 37% growth in Q1 we look forward to featuring regularly on the Profit Track Top 100 in the coming years.”

Martin Gill, partner and head of Scotland at BDO, the title sponsor of the league table, commented:

“These high-growth, high-energy and highly-entrepreneurial companies will be the difference between success and failure in our post-Brexit economic future. These businesses are playing their part by recording strong levels of revenue and profit growth and by creating jobs. We’d like to see the Government do more to help them by focusing on skills, infrastructure investment and tax simplification.”

In what has been a busy few weeks of awards we are delighted to yet again be shortlisted for the most Entrepreneurial Exporter of the Year at the Scottish Export Awards.

This year’s event is being held at the Hilton Hotel, Glasgow on the 22^nd March and the Alba team will be proudly represented by our new Operations Manager, Dave Thurley.

Campbell Archibald, Alba’s Sales Director and President of North America said, ‘We are delighted to have received a nomination at this year’s Scottish Export Awards for the Entrepreneurial Exporter of the Year Award. 2017 was a record breaking year for us at Alba and saw us invest in, and further strengthen our business overseas with the opening of our new service centre in Ontario, Canada.  We successfully tendered for and won a number of large contracts and long term service agreements across the globe, a real testament to the quality of service and efficiencies that we offer across our client base.  Being nominated for this award is further recognition of a hugely successful year, a year that wouldn’t have been possible without the fantastic team that we have here at Alba Power. We are looking forward to the night and wish all the businesses that have been nominated the very best of luck’

We are delighted to have been recognised by British American Business and been shortlisted in the Medium Gold Export Award category at the TAG (Transatlantic Growth) Awards.  The event is being held in London on Thursday 15^th March and we will be represented by Sales Director & President of North America, Campbell Archibald and Head of Sales, Mike Johnston.

Campbell had this to say, ‘We are delighted to have received a nomination at this year’s TAG Awards and although we have been nominated for a growth award that growth has come from our ability and desire to ensure that we always deliver efficiency and world class service to our customers.  It is therefore more of a testament to our service ethos and the quality of service we offer throughout our business that we have been nominated for this award.’

Alba Power are delighted to reveal a new visual identity alongside the launch of a new web-site to support their global marketing strategy.

Terry Alderton, Managing Director, said ‘Although the changes in our branding are subtle and our logo remains instantly recognisable, we feel that our new look is much stronger and dynamic and fully reflects the successful global business we have become over the last few years.

2017 was a record breaking year for us at Alba, and a year that saw us invest heavily in our growth – the start of 2017 saw us open our new £1million workshop extension at our head office in Netherley, Scotland and we finished the year with the opening of our new service centre in Hamilton, Ontario.

2018 has started in the same vein and the launch of our new branding, including our new web-site ensures that our visual identity properly reflects the quality of product and service that we offer globally.’

ALBA POWER is delighted to announce that Gary Naisbitt has recently joined our growing team as Senior Engineer, reporting into Neil McKenzie.

Gary brings over 30 years of engineering experience to Alba having previously worked with the likes of Rolls-Royce/Rolls Wood Group and latterly Technip FMC, adding a wealth of experience from working with Avon, Olympus, RB211 and Tyne and Spey Marine Gas Turbines to our team.

Gary says ‘I am absolutely delighted to have joined the team here at Alba Power. Having worked in the industry for over 30 years I was very aware of Alba’s incredible growth and unmatched service levels and I am now very proud to be part of their fantastic team.  I look forward to being part of Alba’s next chapter and supporting the already expert engineering team here at Netherley and across the world.’

Neil McKenzie, Director commented ‘To have attracted someone with Gary’s pedigree to Alba Power is a reflection on the strength of our business after a record-breaking year in 2017.  Gary brings with him an incredible amount of experience working with Avon, Olympus, Tyne and Spey Marine Gas Turbines and in particular the RB211, a key consideration for us at Alba given our growth in this market.   The appointment of Gary again shows further investment in our engineering team as we continually aim to deliver world-class service for all of our clients.’’

Welcome to the team Gary and good luck in your new role.