The demand for new and advanced environmental technology has never been greater, especially in the pump hire sector. With little room for market growth, competition is won either by reducing hire rates to maintain utilisation in ageing and non-emission compliant hire fleets or innovating brand-new equipment and environmental solutions.
DXB Pump & Power entered this established market in 2017, with the opening of a small manufacturing facility in Ipswich and today has expanded into a 12,000 sq ft facility capable of building up to forty pumpsets a month officially opened by Lord Deben, Chairman of the Climate Change Committee. This business expansion has been supported by New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, through the Growing Business Fund.
Originally founded in a 2,000 sq ft shed on an old egg farm, DXB was set up by owners Simon Ruffles and Matt Flack with savings pulled together to get started. Ruffles designed and sold the pumpsets while Flack managed the supply chain and built the pumpsets in the shed. After four fruitless months of looking for a new place to rent, the owners decided to purchase a new factory with 12,000 sq ft of production and office space that would enable them to design and install a factory capable of building up to forty pumpsets a month in the future. The company produced the first batch of Stage V pumpsets in the old factory whilst upgrading the new facility including new factory floors, insulating the entire building to reduce emissions and noise, new electrics including LED lighting to reduce emissions further and equipment for testing electric sets, whilst installing two new five tonne cranes and a new sound attenuated test bay capable of testing pumpsets inside all year round. Managing Director, Simon Ruffles commented ‘”This would not have been possible without the support of the Local Enterprise Agency who have guided and supported us over the past few years”.
Continuous product development to reduce emissions and costs of pumping remain at the heart of what DXB Pump does. But its focus expands well beyond that. DXB has built a 10-person training room and now offer courses in using pumps efficiently and environmentally whilst servicing them to the highest standards. These are offered to customers in both the private and public organisations that have used older pumps and require training to optimise the use of modern pumpsets.
