Rotork is a market-leading global provider of mission-critical flow control and instrumentation solutions for Oil & Gas, Water and Wastewater, Power, Chemical process and Industrial applications. Its shares have a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: ROR), have a market cap of c£3bn and are a constituent of the FTSE 250 index.
We were delighted to welcome Group Finance Director Jonathan Davis and Andrew Carter, Director of Investor Relations, to our first webinar of 2022 to give an introduction to the company and talk about performance in 2021 and the prospects going forward. A recording of the webinar is available here.
The presentation began with a short history of Rotork which began trading in 1957 in Bath. They moved to their current site, also in Bath, in 1961 and over the next 30 years the company grew both in the UK and internationally, into a number of markets. From the outset there was a focus on R&D and the company own their intellectual property. The model has always been one of assembly rather than manufacture which means a capital light business model. From 1990 the company grew quite aggressively through acquisitions, completing over 40 deals in the period. From 2020 the current structure of the company was established around a customer focussed model.
At its heart, Rotork is a specialised advanced engineering company which makes products critical to the operation of its customers facilities. This is generally in harsh environments (think the Saudi Peninsula and Artic) and so the products need to be able to withstand extreme temperatures (-61 to +61), wet surroundings and sometimes a corrosive environment. The products play a key role as there is a high cost of failure in environments where they are used and they can often be found in safety critical applications – like turning off values to prevent leaks or spills. The products are generally highly specialist and Rotork often has the leading market position in the areas where it operates. On top of this Rotork wraps a first-class customer service offering around the products to ensure they operate smoothly throughout their lifetime.
The Actuator, the product that Rotork is best know for, sits on top of a valve and operates that value. A lot of their actuators are sold to valve makers and they are value agnostic (they don’t make their own values). The products are…
