THE Royal Navy fleet will be
gleaming thanks to the expertise
of a family-owned North-East
engineering firm.
Ruck Engineering, based at the
Yarm Road Industrial Estate in
Darlington, has won the contract
to supply the British Naval Fleet,
including the auxiliary vessels,
with engine-driven cold pressure
washers.
The company was invited to
bid for the tender after providing
hot pressure washers for the
British Army, through an MoD
contract, for the past three years.
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To win the new tender, the
company had to design the new
machines.
Managing director Simon
Ruck, whose father Jim started
the company in 1978, said he was
"over the moon" with the deal.
The first 20 cleaning machines
will be delivered to the fleet soon,
with a total of 150 expected to be
ordered this year.
Mr Ruck said: "We have sold
hundreds of the hot pressure
washers, that go around the
world, and on the back of that we
were asked to tender for the engine
driven cold pressure washers
for the Navy.
"We developed a machine and
won that contract, so they will be
going on all our ships. It could be
a battleship or an aircraft carrier.
On each ship we expect there
to be three or four machines and
on an aircraft carrier there could
be one per deck.
"They are used for internal
pipe cleaning and deck washing.
What the navy has been doing is
getting contractors in to clean
the ship when they got to a foreign
port, so this will preclude
that requirement.
Mr Ruck praised his staff, some
of whom have been working for
the company for 30 years since
his father's day.
He said: "Any tender is hard
work and we have to put a team
of people together to work on it,
we have some great staff."
Mr Ruck said that what he and
his 15-strong Darlington team
had learnt from designing the
machines would also benefit
their regular customers.
He said: "The demanding specification
for all of the equipment
has been particularly useful, as
we have been able to pass this
knowledge onto our local customer
base, who have benefited
from these experiences."
The company, which started
life as Jim Ruck Limited, when
the company's main activity was
contract cleaning for industry
and local authorities, has gone
from strength to strength in recent
years.
It relocated to its present
premises in Kellaw Road from
Cockerton in March 2006.
The company's relocation and
expansion was aided by grant assistance
of £9,000 from Darlington
Borough Council, and the
new premises were opened by
Darlington MP Alan Milburn.
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