Seawork offers silver lining for wipers manufacturer

Noel Gould, MD of the Gloucestershire-based firm, says the UK’s decision to leave was unfathomable. Durowipers was making significant inroads into the European Union when Brexit, to a large extent, slammed the door on that area of expansion.

“I couldn’t fathom at the time why we, as a nation would wish to upset and close ourselves off from our biggest market,” says Gould. “I couldn’t make sense of it then, and my thoughts remain the same now. Then we had the incompetent Boris government, Covid and the Liz Truss budget catastrophe, all in a few short years – it seemed that events were very much not on the side of small manufacturers.”

Durowipers is a specialist manufacturer of patented dual pantograph marine windscreen wipers that have a growing following among demanding blue-chip users from the RNLI to the Royal Navy.

In some ways, Durowipers’ unique technology protects this company from these kinds of potential shocks, and while Gould is cautious about putting a number on the Durowipers business lost to Brexit, it’s clear that it was significant. The company also lost two successive years of exhibiting at Seawork soon after.

“Our technology is patented, and we believe superior to other marine wiper systems, plus we build them to last and we offer a range of industry-leading warranties for commercial customers and lifetime for the RNLI and our Royal Navy,” he says. “We will never be the cheapest option, but boatbuilders who wish to offer their customers the best and exacting users such as militaries will specify Durowipers even when fluctuations in international trading arrangements may make them more expensive.

“In 2020 the world was in lockdown and the show didn’t happen, and in 2021 the entire Durowipers stand staff tested positive with Covid in the lead-up to the show so we missed that one too.”

Benefits of Seawork

Seawork has proved particularly beneficial to Durowipers over the years.

“It’s our key event in terms of marketing each year,” says Gould. “Other shows are bigger and might feel busier at the time, but one year we exhibited at a large commercial marine event in Germany to give it a try. We were inundated by enquiries at the stand – we recorded more than 50 enquiries, but not one of those 50 was converted into a sale.

“It works the other way round at Seawork. Maybe only a dozen enquiries, but most or all of them convert to sales. It’s pure trade to trade at Seawork. Real vessels are being contracted or built and they all need equipment. Many of them will need wipers. Some of them will need exceptionally good wipers.”

The event also provided a great counter surge to Durowipers’ Brexit blues with new contracts in other parts of the world taking up the slack.

“We also benefited from business-to-business sales at Seawork. As we all know, companies often tour the stands at industry events to sell to the exhibitors, but this is not always merely an irritation.

“We were approached at Seawork by a specialist in securing ATEX approval for electrical components for use on oil rigs. We eventually went ahead with them to get some of our products ATEX certified. Now there are Durowipers on oil rigs and we’ve been busy this year supplying more of them, so it’s been a successful income stream for us, thanks in no small part to Seawork.”

Durowipers is one of Seawork’s stalwarts, one of the legion of happy exhibitors that usually book their stand at the event the year before.

“We’ve got a great stand position that we want to keep. We’re right there in the first few exhibitors that get seen when customers come through the main doors. It’s a position we took up when the show first moved into its current location at Mayflower Park. Of course, securing the pitch 12 months ahead of the show means we get a bit of a discount too!”