AT first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking Ellis Patents is a local firm for local people.

It is tucked away in the picturesque village of Rillington and 75 per cent of the company’s 50-strong workforce lives in Rillington and its outlying villages. It also employs nine local residents to carry out piece-work in their own homes.

But Ellis Patents is a truly global business, which has enjoyed year-on-year growth for 18 out of the last 20 years and in the last year alone has appointed a specialist distributor in Brazil, secured a sole-supplier contract with the world’s leading cable manufacturer, United Arab Emirates-based Ducab, and secured orders for its cable cleats to be installed in Kazakhstan, Equatorial Guinea and the oil fields off Brazil.

Ellis Patents manufactures electrical cable and pipe fixing products for a variety of different market sectors including power generation, oil and gas and construction.

Its pipe fixing products, which include nail clips, pipe collars and pipe clamps, are sold solely in the UK, its British manufacturing and flexibility helping it gain significant market share.

The business leads the way in electrical cable fixing products, innovating to support large cables in different conditions and rigorously testing its products to set new standards of safety.

About 85 per cent of the business’ £4.6million turnover last year came from this side of the business, with £2 million generated by export sales.

Richard Shaw, managing director, said: “We are a proud company with a long history and the chance for a very bright future.

“We believe strongly in our products and that our technically driven approach to selling them will continue to deliver the kind of success we have enjoyed in recent years.

“Add to that our commitment to developing new solutions, identifying and moving into new markets and backing this up with the necessary investment and it’s fair to say that we are confident that we can fulfil our potential.”