Nominee Q&A - NiTech

We caught up with Paul Hodges, chairman, NiTech Solutions. To find out more about NiTech you can visit their website here: https://www.nitechsolutions.co.uk/

Tell us a bit about your business? When and why was it established, what does it offer and to whom?

Since the company’s creation in 2004 as a spin-out from Heriot Watt University, NiTech has been pioneering the adoption of advanced manufacturing in the chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and drink (including CBD isolate), clean energy and biotech sectors. The company’s unique patented reactors and crystallizers replace traditional stirred tank reactors. Its continuous technology enables companies to overcome the many problems associated with batch production, which is still widely used in industry.

What is the ethos behind the company and has this changed or developed since you started?

We focus on creating competitive advantage for our clients by providing them with affordable crystallisation and reactor technology that operates safely at the scale they need. We can license the technology on either an exclusive or non-exclusive basis

What’s the business’s USP?

Our technology is safer, greener, faster and cheaper than traditional reactors and crystallizers. It technology reduces carbon emissions throughout the manufacturing process, so with the world’s leaders focused on climate change, the timing of our inclusion in the Go Further Investment Index is ideal as we look to scale-up rapidly.

Our proven technology provides clients with more than 70% reduction in plant footprint, 50% capital expenditure reduction, 30% operating cost reduction, and 10% reduction of waste They enjoy more consistent quality and a more controllable and repeatable process.

What is the most important thing to remember when applying for funding/investment?

Always have answers to these four key questions: Why does this investment make sense? What are you going to do with the money raised? How are you actually going to deliver the promise? When will it all happen?

Can you give us an example of an impactful collaboration your business has been involved in? Why has it been a success?

One of our early partnerships was with a leading UK specialty chemical company. It involved joint work on an Innovate UK-funded trial with CPI. We have since developed a number of other key partnerships with companies in Europe and the USA

Go Further celebrates organisations with the ‘foresight to inform and respond to the changing world around them’. How does your organisation fulfil this?

Our proven technology responds to the key challenges of our times – climate change and sustainability. We focus on creating competitive advantage for our clients by providing them with affordable crystallisation and mixing technology that operates safely at the scale they need.

We work with clients directly or through partners to improve their processes. We can tailor the crystallizers and reactors to meet their requirements for temperature, pressure, anti-corrosive properties and multi-feeding arrangements.

We focus on creating competitive advantage for our clients by providing them with affordable crystallisation and reactor technology that operates safely at the scale they need. We can license the technology on either an exclusive or non-exclusive basis

What has been your company’s greatest achievement?

As we emerge from our development and testing phase, NiTech is celebrating securing a major contract with a world-leading British manufacturer.

Our business is accelerating, and this contractually validates the importance of the technology and our approach.

What is your business’s short and long-term plans?

We are focused on three main Growth Pillars – specialty chemicals, green methane and reshoring of generic medicines. We have proven technology for all these key applications, and we are looking to scale-up rapidly to exploit the opportunity that we have developed.