Shark Group Export Success

At a time when many UK manufacturing companies are offshoring their production, Shark Group is swimming against the tide by exporting its products to China - the company has won a contract to provide its Civil Aviation Authority approved Nomex Gore-tex survival suits, which are used by helicopter passengers travelling to and from offshore installations in the global offshore oil and gas market.

Chief Executive Jane Nolan MBE believes "The success in selling products to China comes as a result of many years of innovation, experience, product development and quality manufacture - we will be celebrating 40 years in business in 2005, and we have achieved that by being agile and constantly striving to be best in class".

Shark Group was set up in 1965 to manufacture marine leisure products such as wetsuits. However, in the mid- 1980s, in response to globalization, it began developing more specialist products, using innovation to carve itself a specialist niche in the survival products market. From 1987 Shell Expro and Esso sponsored Shark in a development project aimed at increasing the survivability of helicopter passengers in case of ditching in the sea. The project resulted in a number of new and innovative products which were brought into service in the mid 1990s, including survival suits and the award winning Air Pocket HelicopterUnderwater Breathing System, a patented re-breather which gives passengers vital seconds to escape from a ditched helicopter by recycling their own exhaled air.

Shark Group went on to develop a second generation re-breather, Air Pocket Plus, which provides the additional benefit of an extra breath of air on immersion. Air Pocket Plus has become an industry standard product in both the North Sea and other parts of the world.

Training in the use of Air Pocket is part of the standard OPITO offshore survival courses and Shark has developed training versions of its products for use by training establishments worldwide. Two further generations of the re-breather have been developed and brought into service, the LAP jacket, which has been designed to integrate various pieces of safety equipment, combining a lifejacket and an Air Pocket rebreather, plus an optional strobe and Personal Locator Beacon. And in 2003, Shark developed the Shark Military Re-breather for the UK MoD. Alongside the rebreathers, Shark Group manufactures its Nomex Goretex survival suits and thermal linings, and a wide range of products for niche markets, including specialist corporate wear.

Shark Group has won numerous awards for design and innovation, training and overall excellence, recognizing the achievements of the company and its multiskilled workforce - Shark staff work flexibly across a wide range of skilled disciplines and training and development is ongoing - the company is recognized as an Investor in People and works to ISO9001:2000.

<back to news menu