Heliex Power unveils growth plans

An East Kilbride-based business that captures the potential of waste heat and steam has outlined growth plans after nearly collapsing during Covid-19.

Heliex Power was rescued during the pandemic by the backing of Edinburgh-based venture capital firm Par Equity, which also installed a new chair, Richard Cooper, and chief executive, Gordon Burnley.

Since then, finances have improve, with revenues doubling last year to £1.5m and the team growing from 12 to 23.

Burnley told Insider that the plan is to double that again to approximately 48 staff, with apprentices and interns also being sought. He also said that the 2023 revenue figure is "a long way from where we want to be", with the current strategy targeting £6m in revenue.

A recent boost towards that came in the form of a £5m investment from Howden, which is aiming to realise that via an exit over the next two or three years.

"There's a lot of work to do between now and then, but it does mean we're not seeking any more investment at the moment," Burnley said, noting that Heliex should reach profitability during 2025.

The business was started 12 years ago, to fill a gap in the market to solve energy being lost to the atmosphere.

While Burnley has only been in charge for two of those years, he sees Heliex's longevity in the nascent sector as a crucial advantage over its competitors.

"Our journey has been one of ups and downs, we’ve made many mistakes but that now means we have a product that is almost standalone in the market - most turbines deal with superheated steam, whereas we deal with wet - or saturated - steam," he explained.

Heliex's initial, mark one product, has now been on the go since foundation, so part of Burnley's job is to understand what improvements can be made - and also what clients want.

One of the company's new developments is to design a machine that can work off-grid, helping out in with countries which struggle for stable electricity supply.

"From a global perspective, everyone wants to save money and meet carbon reduction targets, so we can help tick both boxes," said Burnley. "There's been high demand in Europe, simply because we pay a high price for gas and electricity, but we’re arguably less competitive in certain markets where energy is cheaper, from different sources."

As for sectors, the client base is wide - everything from manufacturing firms to food processing, petrochemicals and marine vessels. "When I came on board we changed sales strategy to be more about looking at clients with a large installed base at multiple sites," Burnley noted.

The pandemic woes were much the same as many companies went through, the capital expenditure ground to a halt, many clients stopped spending and new business dried up.

Par Equity's investment helped stabilise things, with a rebranding and retooling, before orders gradually came back. Partnerships have now been developed with distributors across the globe, including new sales in Poland, Turkey, Spain, Thailand and Malaysia.

Heliex's proprietary technology is unique in its ability to handle low-pressure and saturated steam, with a single unit able to reduce CO2 emissions by 100 tonnes per annum on average.

The product doesn't interrupt the existing processes, with a tie-in lying downstream from heat supply - "it’s essentially a pressure reduction valve" added Burnley.

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