Cookstown engineering firm chalks up Dutch success

Cookstown-based McQuaid Engineering has won its first business in the Netherlands with help from Invest NI’s ‘Going Dutch’ programme for smaller enterprises.

McQuaid Engineering, which employs 20 people in the design and manufacture of hydraulic booms and grapples for the materials handling industry, is supplying products to an engineering company at Coervorden, near Amsterdam, which specialises in waste processing.

The Cookstown Company was among a group of six from Tyrone to take part in the programme organised by Invest NI’s Western Local Office (WLO) in Omagh and assisted by the agency’s trade division in association with Northern Ireland Trade Consultants (NITC) in Amsterdam. NITC provides advice and practical support for Invest NI client companies in the Netherlands.

Paul McQuaid, Managing Director of McQuaid Engineering, a company he set up in 1994, describes ‘Going Dutch’ as an “excellent initiative” by Invest NI that helped in setting up a series of targeted contacts throughout the Netherlands.

Mr McQuaid commented: “As well as advice and good quality contacts, Going Dutch helped us to identify another and potentially very significant application for our primary product, hydraulic booms. Over the years we’ve focused on booms for rock crushing operations in quarrying and construction. One of the companies that we were introduced to by NITC has found that our equipment ideal for the recycling of construction waste.

“I am confident that further business will follow from this company and from negotiations currently underway with several other businesses in the region. I’ve been to Holland on a number of occasions recently for discussions with these companies. I’ve also set up a new dealership in the country. As far as I am concerned, ‘Going Dutch’ is one of the best Invest NI programmes."

Alan Hingston, Invest NI’s Trade Director, says: “The ‘Going Dutch’ initiative is an integral part of our Passport to Export programme that is designed to help smaller companies gain expertise in doing business outside Northern Ireland.”

McQuaid Engineering also sells its equipment through contacts that Mr McQuaid has in Scandinavia, Dubai, Spain, Russia and the US.

(SP)