RON GODFREY talks to the founders of a Kirkbymoorside company recognised by the Queen as leagues ahead when it comes to undersea technology...

TWO men whose Kirkbymoorside firm is devoted to the smooth running of oil installations in the sea's unfathomable depths have suddenly soared to stratospheric heights with yesterday's announcement that they have won a Queen's Award for Enterprise.

Tim Overfield was today at a reception in London's Queen Elizabeth 11 Conference Centre in Westminster, hosted by the Duke of York, to toast the success of Zetechtics.

He and his fellow director, Mike Cumming, earned the award for "continuous innovation" with their product, Jupiter, which is the offshore oil industry's leading sub-sea computer control system.

Both men met at Slingsby Engineering, Kirkbymoorside, where Tim ran the electronics design department, perfecting submersibles and Mike was a senior engineer.

"We had ideas of our own which we wanted to pursue and so in 1992 we started Zetechtics in a bedroom of my home in Kirkbymoorside," says Tim, who is now Zetechtics' business director.

Later those ideas took off to the extent that they moved into their dedicated building in The Old School in Tinley Garth, with a separate test facility on the nearby Kirkby Mill industrial estate

Then their experience in industrial electronics, their years involved in perfecting remotely-operated vehicles plus tooling, design and manufacture really began to tell.

Big names in the industry such as ABB, Sinsub, Coflexip Stena Offshore, Perry Tritech, Rockwater and Kvaerner Oilfield Products were attracted by their underwater control systems, which can operate efficiently even 3,000 metres under water.

Tim explains: "Our computer control systems are used for intervention tasks.

"Imagine the safety issues involved in sending divers down to a well-head on the bed of the North Sea, to turn valves etc, quite apart from the narrow window of opportunity for good diving weather.

"So nowadays, especially as modern oil fields are often too deep for divers, they use robots to carry out specific tasks, tools hung underneath submersibles remotely operated above water via a long umbilical cable.

"We don't manufacture the tool itself, but we do put together the computer systems and controlling hydraulic valves. Connect hydraulic pressure to motors and we have control over the process to the tiniest degree."

It was clearly a niche market. Some big engineering companies do manufacture specialised undersea tools with their own control systems, but Jupiter ensures that the work can be adapted to specific conditions.

Exactly such bespoke controls have just been shipped out to Norwegian oil company Kongsberg, enabling it to link flexible pipes to a well-head.

Zetechtics now employs five people plus specialised electronics contractors where needed. Last year its turnover was £500,000 but predictions for the immediate future are hard to make.

The affect of the Gulf war on oil prices and the offshore oil industry has yet to unfold. Tim says: "It looks like the first half of this year will be quieter than average and the second half will be busier than average, which would suggest that if we maintain turnover for the full year we shall be happy men."

Yes, he agrees, there is an irony about basing the company inland on the southern edge of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, given that its market is based mainly in areas like Aberdeen, Stavanger and Houston, Texas.

"We could move to Aberdeen, but we don't want to. It may mean that we have to travel further to see clients and that manufacturing costs might be less, but we like Kirkbymoorside.

"We also make everything ourselves and make a point of subcontracting machine components to local Yorkshire companies as often as possible."

The award will be a huge boost to their business. "It's a recognition that over the past five years we have continually innovated and grown. "It shows that we are not just a flash in the pan, but the fruits of continuous hard work."

Is the company now closer to "going public"? Tim laughs. The very nature of his operation hardly lends itself to flotation!

"More likely we will be bought up by a larger organisation.

"That is a good exit strategy for all small businesses, although no one is waving chequebooks under our noses just at the moment.

"Before that happens there are still new markets to explore, new customers to attract."

Updated: 09:22 Tuesday, April 22, 2003