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ICR continues its ambitious international growth strategy

ICR continues its ambitious international growth strategy

 

ICR Integrity Ltd (ICR) is a leading provider of integrated maintenance, repair and production solutions for industrial related services to the offshore oil and gas, power, chemical, nuclear and defence industries worldwide. ICR is headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland, and has regional hubs in England, Norway, USA and the UAE with a JV relationship in Australia. The business has grown organically overseas from these bases, however, to enable further expansion the business has developed a network of partners and agents around the world – a model that will continue to be of great importance to ICR’s internationalisation plans.

With Willie Rennie back in at the helm as CEO, having owned and managed the business since 2008 and been a board member throughout, the business planned a renewed focus on increasing its international presence and has invested in a dedicated business development team to lead this charge, focusing on new territories and growth. This team has been empowered and encouraged to explore potential new markets and forge new partnerships in order to deliver the ambitions growth strategy.

ICR’s market-leading Quickflange™ and Technowrap™ products allows customers to maintain and repair equipment and assets rather than fully replace them, which has been crucial over the last 5 months. ICR’s cost-efficient solutions can provide savings to operators and NOCs, whilst also reducing down-time and production shutdown. These engineered repairs offer not only cost and operating efficiencies, but also help prolong the life of assets and equipment. Amongst ICR’s diverse offering, these core service lines have proven easier to export internationally, as demand has remained relatively steady.

COVID-19 has been difficult for businesses and individuals alike. For businesses like ICR operating on an international scale, it has restricted the movement of people to carry out project work and technical sales visits. As a result, the business has had to find different ways to carry out work and continue to support international clients and partners from afar, whilst also developing new relationship and partners to continue the continued growth plans. ICR has been able to train local in-country personnel to use their solutions, responding quicker to client needs and mitigate any issues faced with travel restrictions – in turn, allowing clients to continue working as planned and without delay.

As a business, ICR pivoted quickly learning to work as a strong team regardless of distance - with regular virtual meetings and little or no commuting for individuals has freed up time to collaborate online. This has strengthened communication within the global business and allowed ideas to flow more freely. There is a need to be more innovative in approaches to growing the business and find ways to upskill international partners and clients by remote training and shared online marketing campaigns. It has also allowed for more time to research new potential growth areas which will hopefully develop into new business.

Disruption to travel has not been the only major change for the business; restrictions on the movement of people has been a catalyst for the flow of ideas and creative alternatives and has allowed the business more time to look at and review its ongoing marketing strategy. With major exhibitions such as ONS and ADIPEC moving online, ICR has had to adapt - joining the world of webinars and podcasts. The move to a more digital focus for networking and events has provided an exciting opportunity for collaboration and a refresh of existing material. A renewed focus on digital material will benefit the ICR sales team and arm global partners with improved messaging about the business and technologies on offer and enable them to be ‘the voice of ICR’ from afar, taking ICR’s solutions into new and previously untapped markets.

At the end of 2019, ICR applied for the International Scale Up programme through Scottish Development International (SDI) and was successfully awarded a place which includes funding and support for international growth strategy and business development activities. The support will allow ICR to expand its services faster in new regions and take advantage of access to relevant strategy workshops and meetings, high-quality market research reports, research of customers and competitors in target markets, due diligence checks on potential partners, and media monitoring on companies and markets.

There is renewed confidence for the remainder of the year boosted by the earlier successes of 2020; with a growing and strong pipeline across all services lines and the introduction of new developments including Omni Integrity - a subsidiary company of the ICR Group. Through Sky-Futures, acquired in 2019, ICR has also continued expansion into other industries, including winning a large telecoms Framework Agreement.

There is no denying that 2020 has been a difficult year so far for most, but ICR has reacted positively and adapted existing plans to suit the changing global situation with great success.

Where many may look back at 2020 as a year of great difficulty, ICR has pivoted the business into a stronger, more modern position, able to not only survive the ongoing challenges, but realign and grow from a position of strength.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.

Published: 14-09-2020

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