Seacore - a success story from Gweek

Seacore was founded in 1976 by the Goodden brothers who were both Camborne School of Mines graduates. The Gooddens were joined by an Australian, Joseph Dunne, and John Gleadowe from Calamansac. The Company originally set out to be mineral exploration core drillers that would work at sea.

For the first four years the company undertook any work anywhere to keep alive and it just about kept afloat until in 1979 British Gas awarded Seacore a contract to do some specialist core drilling in the Irish Sea. The cores demonstrated that British Gas had problems with their foundations on a proposed offshore platform and Seacore ended up having to perform far more work than originally thought. The resulting cash flow was highly beneficial to the young company but the job also attracted attention and gave the Company a much higher profile. The reputation gained led Seacore into a contract with an offshore drill ship that eventually lasted 20 years and was the "Cash Cow" the Company needed for growth. The Company today is still an expert in offshore exploration drilling but has added other expertise, particularly in the drilling of large diameter holes in the seabed which routinely have diameters of over 4 metres and have been up to 7 metres diameter.

Large diameter drilling now accounts for 2/3rd the Company's business which totalled over £20 million in 2003.

What does Seacore do?

We are fundamentally drilling contractors who work at sea to do two things:

• Investigation of the seabed by core drilling.
• Construction of foundations for offshore structures by drilling large holes in the seabed.

We also do marine construction where knowledge of the sea bed is important:

• Pipelines
• Ship berthing facilities
• Navigation marks

Recently we have expanded significantly in the Marine Renewable Energy Industry building offshore wind farms and marine tidal energy turbines.

Our customers are various:

• Oil Companies
• Public Authorities
• Government Institutions
• Public Utilities
• Industrial
• Mining companies
• Light House Boards
• Harbour Authorities

In order to carry out our work we own various equipment:

• Drill rigs
• Jack-Up barges
• Vessels
• Specialist drilling and testing equipment

We design and build a lot of our own equipment at our Gweek workshops. Our Head Office is at Gweek and from there we co-ordinate operations around the world. We have another office in Warwick and a representative in Cape Town. New 6 acre premises in Falmouth are at the planning stage. There we will build a new office with several new workshops. The current facility at Gweek may become our manufacturing facility.

Seacore works in nearly all areas of the world with about half of its business in the UK. This year we will be carrying out scientific drilling for global warming studies at the North Pole, Lake Malawi and the Antarctic. We are considered the number one specialist in offshore core drilling and get selected for the more prestigious jobs.

Robert Goodden
Chairman, Seacore Limited 2

Extract from HVMCA newsletter No.29 Autumn 2004