Baton Rouge-based Oxford Alloys is opening a new warehouse in the United Kingdom, its second international location, and launching a new brand of products to compete with other welding suppliers internationally.
Oxford Alloys, founded in 1970 by Owen Ashworth, provides corrosive resistant welding consumables used primarily in the oil and gas industry. Along with its headquarters off South Choctaw Drive, the company has offices in Houston, Chicago, Baton Rouge, Singapore and now Cheshire, England.
“Our core products are used in the oil and gas industry, which is well represented in the U.K., therefore we have some major end users, such as Cameron OneSubsea, which we can better serve by having local inventory which is readily available,” says Mark Ashworth, the founder’s son and current company president and CEO. “Many of our customers who have operations in the U.S.A. also have operations in Asia, which we serve from Singapore, as well as production facilities in the U.K.”
The company went international in 2012 when it opened a location in Singapore to serve customers in southeast Asia. The previous year, Ashworth—who took over operations in the early 2000s—was named Young Business Person of The Year by Business Report.
The newest warehouse is located in Cheshire, England, and it measures 10,417 square feet.
Along with the new warehouse, Ashworth says, the introduction of three new supplies lines under the Sheffield Welding brand will help Oxford Alloys better serve its international customers through its own network of supply locations.
Ashworth named the new brand line Sheffield after the street he lived on in the Old Goodwood neighborhood of Baton Rouge. Sheffield Welding was designed as a more economical line of products to be sold in Asia, he says.
Ashworth says Oxford Alloys also is looking to gain a firmer hold on the market for welding consumables in the U.K., which he believes can be done best by opening a location in England. He compares it to two drugs stores opening across from one another.
“The welding consumables market in the U.K. is mature with established suppliers, therefore we cannot maximize our sales in the U.K. from the outside,” Ashworth says. “We must open up shop across the street from our competitors and then offer more value and execute more effectively to garner market share.”
Ashworth attributes the company’s growth internationally to the work efforts from its team of employees and service providers in Baton Rouge who maintained the IT infrastructure the company needs to supply its expanding customer base.
“Also, our growth has been funded organically, meaning we have not used any equity funding from third parties. We work with a local south Louisiana bank as our financial partner for both our domestic and complect international monetary and capital structure,” he says.
—Deanna Narveson
