A COLNE Valley engineering firm is celebrating its 35th anniversary in upbeat mood.
Slaithwaite-based Hystat Systems Ltd, one of the countrys leading specialists in the design, manufacture and repair of heavy duty hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders, has underlined its confidence in the future by taking on new apprentices each year.
Latest trainees Samuel Crow, Jamie Lock and Luke O'Brien are now being trained in all aspects of manufacturing and design while completing courses at Kirklees College and Huddersfield University.
And they have a shining example to follow in colleague Jonathan Lee, 23, who joined the company as a 17-year-old straight from school and went on to graduate from the university.
Hystat was formed in February, 1976, and began by operating from shared premises in Kings Mill Lane before moving to a modern unit at Spa Fields Industrial Estate, Slaithwaite, in July, 1982.
The award-winning company expanded with the acquisition of the intellectual property of Spenborough Engineering in June, 1986, and achieved £1m turnover for the first time in February, 1988.
Hystat built a new extension in 1990 with funding from Capital for Companies, British Coal Enterprise and the Rural Development Commission.
It acquired the intellectual property of Cattermole Hydraulics from the receiver in June, 1992, before taking over Bank Bottom Engineering Services in administration in April, 2004 a move which added considerable machining capability to the company as well as a new product in sub-contract machining.
In 2005, Hystat opened a repair department and built an additional bay on the factory for heavy machinery.
Hystat now employs 102 people with about 80 at Slaithwaite and the remainder at Honley, where Bank Bottom Engineering was based.
The company has manufactured and fitted hydraulic systems for items such as canal bridges, swing bridges, submersibles and aircraft carrier platforms while its lifting equipment is used as far afield as Russia, China, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil and Iceland.
Managing director Ray Wadsworth who began the business working on a drawing board in his back bedroom said the company was confronted by difficult economic conditions,.
But he added: "We are making good in-roads into the oil and gas business.
"We see them as good markets to be involved in over the longer term."
