A Plymouth company set up by a husband and wife in 2003 is now growing so quickly it has just moved into its own £700,000 building and is creating jobs.
Valves Online is growing by 20% year-on-year, with turnover edging up to £2.75million, and is expanding so quickly it has splashed out on a new double-storey, 8,000sq ft building at Yelverton on the edge of Plymouth.
The move to its own purpose-built base means the firm has room to grow further, with plans to add to its team of nine as soon as possible.
“We’re going from strength to strength,” said Gary Hopkinson, who founded the business with wife Sharron after starting his career as a draughtsman and having worked in power plants in South Africa.
“We have turnover of £2.5million to £2.75million and that figure will get higher.
“We have nine staff at the moment but will definitely get bigger. We are already desperate for warehouse and sales staff.
“And as we grow we will want industry-specific employees, such as engineers, industry specialists.”
He said Valves Online was the UK’s first online retailer of valves for industry when he founded the company 16 years ago.
Today it imports, assembles and tests valves, and provides after sales support, for a vast range of industries such as food production, including dairies and breweries, chemical and marine.
It has customers across the UK, and abroad too, including major quantities going to France and Mexico, with 10 industry specific websites.
The company had been operating from three separate industrial units, with three separate landlords, which was not ideal, so employed Plymouth’s Design Development Ltd to come up with plans for a new HQ and Unitbuild to construct it.
The new building, on the Yelverton Business Park, is eco-friendly, with underfloor heating, and has a ground-floor sales office with room to expand into a first-floor space as headcount is increased.
The new build enables the company to hold more stock and enhance its assemblage and testing department.
Mr Hopkinson said there is an ongoing investment into equipment too, for example a £15,000 compressor has just been purchased.
Valves Online is also dealing in the most up-to-date smart valve technology, gear that not only opens and closes pipelines carrying liquids, but and modulate the temperature of what is being transported.
“In the next few months we will have more racking so we can hold more stock,” Mr Hopkinson said.
