IF THE rivers of the North-East were once the arteries carrying the lifeblood of the regional economy, then the shipyards were its beating heart.

Along with the collieries, the Tyne, Tees and Wear fairly teemed with activity as vessel after vessel was constructed and launched from the region.

It was an industry that spawned industries as the regional supply chain sprung up with scaffolders, engineers, welders, electricians and painters among hundreds of businesses with roots in the shipyards.

Barrier Group was one such firm, but it is not a business that dwells too long on the good old days often, rather it relentlessly chases down new business opportunities across the globe, diversifying quickly and efficiently as market requirements continue to evolve.

“It’s a global market and we go where the work is,” said Robert Bowles, Chairman of Barrier Group. “We work with Shell, Marathon, BP, Chevron, basically all of the major oil companies in countries all over the world.”

Starting out as a family firm of painters on the North Bank of the Tyne in 1975, Barrier now boasts clients from Angola to Canada, the Middle East to Russia – still working primarily in paint, but also scaffolding, fire protection and subsea insulation.

Mr Bowles said: “We used to do all the painting work at Swan Hunter. In fact, it’s fair to say that it kept us going in those days and the closure impacted on us massively and we were down to the bare bones, but we fought back and when the old Amec yard opened up that saw us through.

“We’ve come a long way since then and we’re now working with NOF Energy to lobby for more work for the region, we are working in Equatorial Guinea and when we secure this work we always try and use North East firms to supply and ship products.”

Barrier Group was created by husband and wife team John and Pearl Bowles, son Robert and business partner Ted Nightingale, to carry out contracts painting structures to be used in the bourgeoning offshore industry, since then the company has completed over 200 major contracts, totalling millions of square metres of surface protection.

The company’s services now include specialist coatings extensively used in tanks, vessels, offshore structures, marine holds, bridges and such like. Barrier also supplies deck screeds, laying more than 100,000sq m during the construction of Sizewell B nuclear power station and more than 1m sq m on offshore platforms in its history.

There is scaffolding and specialist access equipment, containment for ships and tanks, subsea insulation and all manner of specialist linings. There is Barrier Fire Protection for clients including petrochemical and industrial sites, and now Barrier Architectural offering architectural, engineering design services, project management and trades resource recruitment.

Mr Bowles, who has 30 years’ experience operating in overseas markets, said the company has increasingly sought out overseas contracts due to a dearth of domestic work being awarded to UK companies.

“It’s becoming more important because the core business is oil and gas new build and most of that work is going overseas so we are following the work. We simply have to be overseas or we would not survive.”

The business was founded in 1975 to serve Amec, and it was through this relationship that bidding for work in foreign markets began.

“Amec went to South Africa, and Barrier followed, and South Africa remains my personal favourite overseas place to do business,” says Mr Bowles.

Contracts blasting and painting platforms in the 1980s and 90s in South Africa led to similar work in Norway. Later, as the business expanded into specialist fire protection, much more work overseas resulted, taking Barrier into Canada, Norway, Spain, and Angola, scene of violence against overseas workers at a gas plant where Barrier personnel completed a job in the early 2000s.

“Our people there were protected by the Foreign Legion. The thing when you’re sending guys abroad is to be sure, and if I wouldn’t go there, I wouldn’t expect our people to go there,” says Mr Bowles, who is currently investigating opportunities in Iraq.

“The lads are so used to being overseas, it’s second nature to them, though I wonder if we might have some not wishing to go to Iraq, and that would be fine by me.

"We are very much a family business. We give a lot of long-service awards. No-one would be forced to go somewhere they aren’t comfortable.”

"Understanding the local culture is the key to settling in overseas," says Mr Bowles, and Barrier has learned to be au fait with the local culture before it goes anywhere.
“It can be a nightmare trying to work in some parts of Africa where corruption is rife and companies are expected to bribe their way through the local officials - it is something we avoid at all costs.

“We always do our homework and try to learn from other businesses who have worked in these particular countries, and to use local knowledge wherever we can.”

The company is five years into a seven-year job in southern Ireland maintaining £100m-worth of pipework belonging to Shell on the Corrib gas project.

The challenges of working overseas are obvious, particularly when you work in some of the world’s more unstable places. “It took us six months just to get our equipment into Algeria,” says Mr Bowles. “There are trade barriers wherever you go.”

It’s taken some six months also to get the team into Papua New Guinea, factoring in tax, visas and medicals, qualifying to work there.

“We also have to keep moving because there is always a finite time until someone else in a country sets up doing what you do. That is, unless you set up a business overseas, and that brings its own challenges.”

It’s a tension others will recognise – work with a partner business overseas, as Barrier frequently does, and they will eventually learn to do what you do, so you are no longer needed because they will market local expertise.

Barrier is currently servicing 200 painting jobs and 70 fire-proofing jobs. Some 30 per cent of them are overseas, but Mr Bowles expects that figure to increase in the near future to some 50 per cent.

There is a good deal of assistance to be had from the North East Chamber of Commerce, UKTI and Passport to Export, NOF Energy, local consuls, and local brains.

Barrier Group - which is made up of Barrier Ltd, Barrier Fire Protection and Barrier Architectural Services – continues to go from strength to strength and with every new overseas market comes a wealth of new knowledge that the company uses on the next contract.

The latest turnover figure for Barrier was £20m in painting and £5m in the younger and rapidly growing fire protection division – which more than justifies the company’s diversification.

“Like I said, we’re a family firm and that means we can make business decisions quickly and with little fuss,” added Mr Bowles. “I think this more than anything else has helped us weather the tough times and also helped equip us to move quickly when opportunity presents itself.”

NECC International Trade Manager, Brian Dakers, whose team supports Barrier with all of its overseas documentation, says: “Barrier is a company that has grown from the region’s proud heritage in the maritime industry to earn a worldwide reputation for excellence and delivery.

“It is great to see an SME not only exploring foreign markets, but excelling in them and demonstrating that the North East offshore industry remains vibrant, innovative and capable of getting the job done, wherever in the world that may be.”