Sunday 2nd December 2012

Case study: SIA Flexitanks

Donegal may not be the most obvious gateway to the Asia Pacific region, but SIA Flexitanks has made it a successful one in a short period of time. The Inishowen-based company, which manufactures, sells and operates flexitanks (a specialised equipment for the transportation of bulk liquids), was founded in June last year and has aggressively grown since then.

"In that time, we've managed to get three offices up and running, one in Donegal, one in Houston, Texas, in the US and one in Malaysia," said Donegal native Damien McClean, founder of SIA Flexitanks. "We've 23 people employed and the best thing is that we're doing everything out of Donegal. It's the global headquarters."

The company also has agencies in more than 30 countries and last month it won Emerging Exporter of the Year at the Irish Exporters' Association awards.

"We plan at least to double in size in 2013," McClean said. "We had an option of having our headquarters in Malaysia or the US or Ireland, but the tax incentives and the incentives to progress R&D and the help that you get from Enterprise Ireland made us decide this was the place to set up."

The timezone was also preferable.

"We can deal with Asia all morning and then we can deal with our US operation in the afternoon, and all day we can deal with our European customers," McClean said. "As you sit having your breakfast in the morning, you could be moving wine in Australia or latex in Belgium or olive oil in Turkey. It's such a global business we're in."

McClean designed and developed the multi-layered flexitank, which fits into existing tank containers, to reduce costs and be more versatile than those on offer from competitors.

"We save companies a lot of money because, if you ship a tank container to China, you've got to bring it back," he said. "By using our product, it's just a one way cost because the shipping liner will take the container we've converted into a bulk liquid carrying vessel, and use it to move TVs or washing machines or whatever on the way back."

He said SIA had gained a lot of clients from companies seeking to reduce their carbon footprint.

"If you bottle wine in Australia, for example, you get only 9,000 litres in a container, but if you bottle it in Europe and pick it up by flexitank you can get 24,000 litres in there," he said. "A lot of the major supermarkets are using it as a way of reducing their carbon footprint and this is one way they can do it very quickly."

SIA Flexitanks is exporting to about 30 countries, but McClean said it would like to increase that number - as well as its employees numbers - next year.

"We'd like to open an office in Rotterdam next year," he said. "It's a real target market for us as it can also facilitate our growth in France and Germany. We're also planning to open a warehouse and office in Pasir Gudang in Malaysia. Volume-wise, Asia is our biggest market."

By early 2014, McClean said he planned to have between 35 and 40 employees.

"There's no limit to our expansion," he said. "Any country that has a port, we can supply."