Around the world with the low-profile pioneers

Western Daily Press - “Business Week” - 6.11.2002

John Fox-Clinch reports

Chances are you’ve never heard of W & J Tod - but you’ve seen the firm’s work. As well as making the capsule for the first round-the-globe balloon, it has a hand in submarines, rollercoasters and buffet cars.

While Richard Branson was failing to be the first to fly around the world in a balloon, W & J Tod was succeeding with the Breitling 3 Orbiter.

The Orbiter took 19 days to achieve the feat in 2000 - and protecting record-breaking aeronauts Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard was the insulated, lightweight pressurised capsule built by Tods.

The structure was able to withstand minus 50 degrees Centigrade at very high altitude and was capable of dropping into the sea and floating upright.

W & J Tod is based at Crewkerne in Somerset, employs around 200 people and has a turnover of £15-£20 million a year.

But it doesn’t stop at aviation. It also builds the bodies of some of the latest lightweight rollercoasters in Europe, Japan and the US. On tight corners they pull 3G and are designed to work 18 hours a day, 365 days a year for 10 years.

The company’s underlying success is founded, however, on its development of top secret acoustic materials for the Royal Navy.

This began in the 1950s soon after the company, then a boatbuilder based on the coast, became the first in the UK to use fibreglass.

W & J Tod had great success in the powerboat races of the time. gaining a worldwide reputation for robust craft.

With the Underwater Weapons Establishment nearby at Portland, Tods also started to get involved in a lot of Admiralty work, particularly anti-submarine warfare.

The Royal Navy wanted to place sensors on ships behind closures that were transparent to electronics - and Tods fibreglass was formulated with specific resin that gave it acoustic transparency.

“To some extent we then became an adjunct of the Underwater Weapons Establishment in terms of producing solutions for them,” said managing director Simon Finch.

At the height of the Cold War in the 1960s Tods was contracted to research solutions to meet the threat of Soviet submarines in the North Atlantic.

Over the years, development of the electronics industry meant that every Royal Navy ship and submarine was fitted with Tods acoustic sonar technology.

“We have a very high secrecy classification and that means we have remained a preferred naval supplier for those kind of solutions,” said Mr Finch. “As the technology has become available for export, we have also sold it abroad. We are doing business in Australia, Spain, Norway, Japan, India, Germany and the UK - in fact, with 27 navies.

“This business is the backbone of the firm. We have been exposed to so many different kinds of materials in this field that most other things we do are well within our range.”

For example, Tods has branched out into aerospace, working with Westland and BAE Systems to make fibreglass structures for military aircraft. It also makes interiors for commercial aircraft, working with companies like Britax.

The company is doing similar things for the railway industry - it recently landed a £1.9 million order to design and build a series of buffet modules for 23 Midlands trains.

Another major area of activity is the design, delivery and installation of sophisticated radomes, specially prepared not to interfere with signals while protecting sensitive electronic equipment from the weather.

These can be found at airports all over the world from Heathrow to Charles de Gaulle and from Moscow to Pusan in South Korea. Military equivalents are sited as far south as the Falklands and as far north as Norway where they are designed to withstand winds of up to 200mph.

With such a wide range of leading-edge technology on offer, the company’s customer list spans the world, from Universal Studios to the Australian Submarine Corporation.

Mr Finch attributes a major part of this success to the stability of his team. He said: “We have immense experience. People do not leave us because the work is so interesting.

“For example, we have a marine engineering tradesman in his mid-fifties who has just completed NVQ Level Three because the work gives you that kind of motivation.”

Tods exports up to half of turnover, much of it repeat business “because we do not lose customers.”

And because the clients are so far flung, it means that in any one year, the company can have people working in Norway, Japan and Spain, as well as all over the UK.

“Guys on the shop floor also work four weeks at a time in Adelaide,” said Mr Finch.

“Of course, the work is technically demanding but that adds to the interest.”