In Cowes, STRUCTeam are composites engineers and consultants. The company has been based here since 2011, run by Managing Director Julien Sellier. They currently employ eight engineers and are looking to expand the department. STRUCTeam also have a base in Poland, working on software design, run by their other Managing Director, Radek Michalik.
“We have specialist composites engineering expertise,” explains Chris Monk, Engineering Manager. “We’re independent and we cover the entire composite project lifecycle from start to finish. We like to come into a project at the early stages and help with the planning, technical feasibility assessment and overall business case development. We want to give our clients the best chance at achieving a technically efficient and commercially viable end-product. Our core expertise is in the structural design of high-performance composites but we can also advise on the material supply chain, qualifying what kind of composite material should be used.”
Chris’s colleagues are based all over the world. As well as their Polish branch, STRUCTeam has staff members in France and China. “We use Skype a lot and we do interact,” explains Chris. “We’re talking to each other every day so we don’t feel like we’re thousands of miles away.”
STRUCTeam work across across a wide range of industries, including marine engineering, automotives and renewables. “We do a lot of work in tidal energy. I worked at Vestas for 8 years and I’m now managing the whole design process of blade development for two very big clients,” explains Chris. “We’ve done quite a lot of work with wind turbine companies too. We’ve got a big background in marine, high-performance yachts and a lot of the guys in the team have worked on America’s Cup projects before. We work in motorsport, industrial applications and also architecture too.”
The team are currently working on a feasibility study for an architectural project with a client in the US. Closer to home, they’re also in conversation about working with a couple of Island businesses.
“Cowes is a very nice place to live and work,” says Chris. “The Isle Of Wight is a fantastic place for engineering with a lot of expertise here. I’d like to think that the Island has a reputation as one of the UK’s engineering hotspots. In terms of winning or losing business, we do that based on our credentials and I don’t think being on the Isle of Wight actually has any impact on that. We’re doing well, we’re here to stay and we’re keen to expand our network on the Island. It’s been a very successful last year, in terms of projects and profits it’s all been very positive and that’s allowed us to grow. We’re looking to take on five new engineers and we’re moving in to bigger offices. This is all about the next step for the business, building on what we have created.”
First published in the August 2014 issue of Island Business magazine.
