Arbroath-based engineer John M Henderson (JMH) is on target to double its turnover in oil and gas-related contracts, the company estimates, just three months into its new financial year.

ARBROATH-based engineer John M Henderson (JMH) is on target to double its turnover in oil and gas-related contracts, the company estimates, just three months into its new financial year.

JMH, which is best known for its work providing coke ovens and handling equipment for the international steel industry, effectively established its oil and gas business as a separate division two years ago to give more focus to its offering to a sector for which it has been catering for some years.

Operations director Ian Newell, whose background is in the oil and gas sector, said: "Last year our turnover in this field was £2.3m, and in the first quarter of this year we have already won business to a value of just under £3m."

Last year oil and gas work accounted for around a third of turnover. Current contracts include work with Subsea 7, SMD, Divex and Brandt, providing items such as pipe handling equipment and launch and recovery systems for mini submarines, and could see this figure balloon.

As a result the company, which in its 142-year history constructed the first aerial cableway in the UK back in 1870s and worked on the construction of the Forth Road Bridge some 80 years later, has hired nine extra employees, taking its workforce to just shy of 100.

Newell said: "We are continuing to recruit across the range of manufacturing disciplines."

He attributed the company's performance in part to the strong oil price, but also to its ability to provide so-called "turnkey packages" so that customers can start using equipment immediately.

"We can take a detailed drawing from the customer right through to completion, including function testing, so that the customer receives equipment ready to install and operate."

Newell added that JMH is developing its offering to include provision of detail eddrawings from clients' conceptual drawings and specification.