4 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Venture Taranaki: Vortex International T T Hugh de Lacy FromNew Plymouth to the world While much of Vortex International’s machinery has ended up on oil rigs, more and more is being used by the rapidly expanding global windfarm industry. “The windfarm market is growing round the world, and our tools are specifically designed for preparing the seabed for windfarm foundations.” • CNC MILLING • CNC TURNING • CAD DRAWING • PROGRAMMING • MANUFACTURING COMPONENTS ONE OFF • PROTOTYPE | MASS PRODUCTION 11 Mustang Drive, Bell Block, New Plymouth superiormachining.co.nz 027 270 00115 | 06 755 0005 We are proud to support Joe (Vortex International) with his innovative ideas. It is rewarding to see Vortex’s specialized tools successfully making the international stage. SPECIALISED IN QUALITY PRECISION ENGINEERING SERVICES IF YOU HAVE A PROJECT CHALLENGE, PLEASE TALK TO US, WE CAN PROBLEM SOLVE, DESIGN, DRAW AND MACHINE ANY TYPE OF COMPONENTRY Mob 0274 827916 50 McAlpine Rd, RD 12 Hawera 4672 ATTHEWS NGINEERING ME Phone John on 06 278 7170 Hydraulics, Towing Eye Replacements, Certified Welding & lt400 Repairs, Deck Manufacturing & Repairs, All General Engineering Services From oil rigs to windfarms, Joe Goodin’s one-man operation Vortex International is manufacturing in New Zealand - and renting or selling worldwide - critical underwater machinery such as camera winches, dredges and gas sampling tools for off-shore energy companies. From the background of a Taranaki dairy farm, where home-skilled engineering was part of the job, Joe completed an apprenticeship as an automotive machinist in New Plymouth before hiving off around the world to work on oil rigs. From the North Sea to the Middle East, Joe plied his trade in the oil industry, but was all the while hunting for a niche market into which he could sell specialist machinery of his own design. While working off-shore on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) in 2000, he started making prototypes of machinery to meet the challenges of working under the sea. Joe identified a need for implements that could be attached to and work remotely on ROVs in the likes of site establishment for under-sea foundations, and even for clearing old World War II mines and torpedos from the sea-bed. This became the market niche Joe targeted. The business structure he came up with allowed him to operate as a one-man-band, designing machinery, having the components manufactured by various companies around New Zealand, assembling the machines in New Plymouth, then mostly hiring the finished products out, ultimately to companies servicing drilling rigs and, later, windfarms. In 2009 Joe formed Vortex International in partnership with his then wife, Jane Hickey. Today Vortex International has a particularly close relationship with the world’s largest off-shore tooling rental company Ashtead Technology, which is based in Aberdeen, Scotland, with branches in Houston, Texas, and Singapore, and carries a vast inventory of plant that it rents out globally. Ashtead buys and rents out Vortex machinery along with its other products, and splits the rent with Joe 60/40, with Joe getting the larger portion. “We invoice Ashtead in US and Singapore dollars, and in British pounds, and we’re the only company in the world making camera winches of any kind. “I’m the sole operator and director and have no overheads because I contract out all the work – and that’s a beautiful thing,” Joe says. The winches carry sonars, cameras and 3D scanning equipment, and Vortex also produces tools for environmental protection around decommissioning sites, and for testing gas leaks from oil wells, and even measuring underwater volcanic output. Joe sells as well as rents out his machinery - $3 million in sales to Brazil and China last year – with these making up around 40% of his company’s income. While much of Vortex International’s machinery has ended up on oil rigs, more and more is being used by the rapidly expanding global windfarm industry. Typical of the work Vortex is picking up in that field is the Neart na Gaoithe windfarm being built 15.5km off the Fife coast in Scotland, and which will eventually power 375,000 Scottish homes while offsetting 400,000t of carbon dioxide emissions a year. “The windfarm market is growing round the world, and our tools are specifically designed for preparing the seabed for windfarm foundations. In the not-too-distant future we’ll see windfarms sprouting up in the Taranaki Basin, ultimately replacing all those oil rigs out there,” Joe says.
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