Rotherham companies among country's fast-growing exporters

THREE booming Rotherham companies have shown they are bucking the trend of economic gloom after being listed among the 200 private firms with the fastest-growing international sales.

The Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 table ranks Britain’s best performing international businesses based on average growth over two years, and Rotherham’s CF Booth, Kiveton Park Steel and MTL Group are all in the 2012 list.

Scrap metal dealer and recycler CF Booth is the borough’s leading-placed firm, coming in 83rd thanks to a 46 per cent increase in international sales to £145 million in 2010/11, with overseas trade accounting for the majority of its £236 million overall takings.

Kiveton Park Steel is 124th, with sales up 33 per cent to £21 million overseas (£32 million overall), while MTL—said to be the first UK company approved to make armour steel for the German army—bagged 150th spot after takings rose by £3.9 million (29 per cent) to £50.3 million.

Dr Henry Shirman, managing director of MTL Group, which also makes steel and aluminium parts for offshore wind farms and construction equipment, this week hailed the company’s inclusion as a “massive achievement.”

He added: “MTL Group has continued to grow during these challenging times through careful investment in our people and in the latest state-of-the-art equipment.

“This has allowed us to continue to develop overseas markets.

“To be included in the Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 list is a massive achievement and a real testament to the hard work and effort by everyone involved with the company.”

Mick Jones, sales director for Kiveton Park Steel, said that the company’s links with the autmotive industry and the long-standing reputation of Sheffield Steel were standing it in good stead.

“We’ve had a difficult time sitting quietly in trade association meetings when others have been talking about the glass being half-empty when ours is still half-full,” he said.

“It is quieter than in past years but we’ve just completed another year in which our turnover will have increased so it’s not all bad news.”

The north-east region’s top performing company in the table was Newcastle-based Pearson Engineering, which saw sales soaring by 96 per cent.

No-one from CF Booth was available for comment