Atlas wins over £3.6 million of export orders in last 12 months
Atlas has capped an exciting period of international growth over the last 12 months, winning over £3.6million of new e-learning contracts, focussed on safety, skills and competency training in the oil and gas sector, with a resultant 80% increase in new jobs within the UK.
The oil and gas learning and skills specialist had already seen exports account for over 40% of the company’s sales, driven by the increasing demand for technology led safety and competency training from the oil and gas industry, especially in the wake of the Deep Water Horizon incident. The continuing investment in R&D learning technology at their Aberdeen headquarters has also assisted in boosting its record export led sales growth.
The recent wins include a multi-million pound deal which will see it deliver training courses to ConocoPhillips Australian LNG business unit. The contract includes the development of an e-learning process operations programme for personnel across the region, in particular ConocoPhillips offshore operations in the Bayu-Undan field and at the onshore Darwin LNG plant.
Atlas has also won a significant share in a £6million ($10million USD) project to provide a major new global learning framework for energy major ExxonMobil in the USA to be deployed across their global workforce.
Atlas is the only partner outside of North America to be chosen to deliver courses in a framework supply agreement being led by the oil and gas operator’s Houston operation. The project, which is one of the biggest rollouts of e-learning in the oil and gas industry, will see more than 500 courses built and delivered to ExxonMobil’s workforce around the globe by the consortium which includes seven other North American companies.
Chief executive officer John Rowley said: “One of the biggest risks for organisations operating within safety-critical industries like oil and gas on a global basis is the competence of the people engaged in their projects. Having robust, quality training tailored to meet unique geographic needs is vital when ensuring safety requirements are met.
“These latest contract wins, in particular the ExxonMobil partnership where we are the only member of the global supply team from outside of North America to be chosen to partner in the initiative, demonstrates the strength of our rapidly expanding global reach and export capabilities, reaffirming our reputation as an innovative technology led learning provider.”
Atlas has transformed itself following private equity investment from HgCapital in 2007. Since then, the business has experienced significant growth and expansion across priority international regions and market sectors.
Despite the challenges of the global financial crisis that hit home in 2009, Atlas has continued to perform well on the international market. The company has invested heavily in its export led strategy and has established sales teams in Abu Dhabi and Malaysia and has adapted its award winning courses to over 20 different languages.
In the last two years, employee numbers have risen by 80%, recruiting globally from the sector. These latest contract wins add to Atlas’ success earlier this year when it secured a 10-year contract with oil and gas skills body OPITO to develop and deliver the online International Minimum Industry Safety Training (IMIST) to an estimated 1.5million people engaged in exploration and production activities around the globe.
IMIST has been successfully launched across the Middle East and Asia Pacific with the aim of rolling out across 30 countries worldwide over the next 18 months.
“Atlas’ point of difference is our continued investment in technology and new products which has helped to drive continued growth of the company across the international oil and gas and other safety critical industries. Our growth has been both rapid and sustained in line with our ambitions. These latest successes, combined with the IMIST contract, will help us to pursue an aggressive growth strategy in terms of penetration of the international markets with the aim of doubling our sales over the next three years,” added Mr Rowley.
ENDS (16.12.11)
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