Patrick Joy is the founder and executive chairman of Suretank, which designs and manufactures cargo carrying units (CCUs) and tanks for the offshore oil industry.
The company manufacturers offshore transport tanks for chemicals, helifuel and acids and has a 62 per cent global market share.
The business was founded in Dundalk in 1995 supplying these products to the North Sea. Revenue in year one was €1 million with 14 employees. Today, Suretank employs more than 600 people and the revenue is €68 million.
Suretank manufactures in seven countries (Ireland, the UK, Poland, Thailand, China, Brazil and the US), and has sales offices in Dunleer, Aberdeen, Bergen, Bangkok, Zhongshan, Perth, Rio de Janeiro and Houston. In 2010, Suretank set up a separate R&D group in Dunleer where prototypes are designed and tested.
Earlier this month, Hitecvision agreed to buy a two-thirds stake in Suretank. Mr Joy said the Norwegian company's offer for its stake values the overall business at €52 million, implying a purchase price of almost €35 million.
How did you secure your first investment?
I ran a business expansion scheme, which is a tax-relief incentive scheme that provides tax relief for investment in certain corporate trades.
Through that I raised IR£90,000 to which I added my own savings of £60,000. I borrowed £150,000 from AIB and that was the capital for the start-up of the business.
What was your "back-to-the-wall" moment and how did you overcome it?
I had up and downs, one of which was a four-month period from November 2008 when no new orders were received (the price of oil had collapsed) but I just kept going, knocking on doors and eventually the tide turned and the orders started to come in.
We had a 40 per cent fall in revenue that year but we battened down the hatches, managed our costs and still turned a profit.
What moment or deal would you identify as the "game changer" for the company?
The move into manufacturing CCUs in Poland in 1999 was a game changer. It increased our product range and made us more attractive to our customers but because we did it on a sub-contract basis, it put no strain on our cashflow. In fact, in a short while the profits generated allowed us to expand our tank business, move out of rented premises in Dundalk, and build our own factory in Dunleer with minimum borrowings.
Do you plan to extend your services to a new customer demographic or penetrate a new sector in the next 12 months?
We are looking at a possible acquisition of a much smaller engineering company which is manufacturing products that are very complementary to ours and, if successful, would provide us with a new customer demographic and a new product to sell to some existing customers.
What are the biggest challenges you face now?
One of the biggest challenges I now face is to be able to step back and trust my management team and CEO to move onwards and upwards with the business that I started. The business itself is facing competitive challenges from China and, to stay ahead of that, we must innovate, improve existing product offerings, develop new products, stay close to our customers and be best in our class in quality, design and delivery.
