UK engineering company sets up first British instrument manufacturing arm in Saudi Arabia

Centre for flow and temperature instrumentation will be joint venture with GulfTek Arabia

McMenon, which has an existing site in Cumbria, will base the new facility in Damman (pictured) in Saudi Arabia. Alamy Stock Photo

UK’s McMenon Engineering Services unveiled the first British manufacturing centre for flow and temperature instrumentation in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, as the company looks to tap growth opportunities in the country and wider region.

The engineering company, which has an existing site in Cumbria, UK, employing 70 people, will base the new facility in Damman in the east of the country as part of a joint venture with GulfTek Arabia.

Anand Puthran, chief executive of McMenon, said the Saudi centre is “a game-changing development”.

“Our facilities will support each other as we seek to achieve further growth in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East,” said Mr Puthran.

The Department of Trade, a British government organisation that promotes trade across the world, helped facilitate the venture. The new centre meets the criteria for Saudi Aramco’s IKTVA (In Kingdom Total Value Add) programme, which encourages localised supply chain efficiency in the kingdom.

“Saudi Arabia holds many opportunities for UK business, and I am delighted that McMenon, in a local joint venture partnership with GulfTek Arabia, has become the first British manufacturer of flow and temperature instrumentation in the country,” said Simon Penney, Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

McMenon, which specialises in the design and manufacture of differential pressure flow meters such as orifice plates, averaging pitot tubes, wedge meters and temperature monitoring equipment, has been operating for 70 years.

The company, which also has a contract manufacturing division, sees its products used in the energy, petrochemicals, power, water, pharmaceuticals and nuclear markets in more than 50 countries.