Company

Beginning with Maria and Antony Hurst, EASL was incorporated into a private limited company in June 1988, allowing managing director Antony Hurst to provide structural analysis consultancy to clients in the Civil Nuclear, Power Generation, Defence, aerospace, gas, oil and petrochemical industries.

This began working with British Nuclear Fuels Limited in Warrington, helping the design and analysis of pressure vessels at the Sellafield THORP reprocessing plant. The next year, EASL’s long association with the UK civil nuclear power generation industry began, assisting the Central Electricity Generating Board at the Wythenshawe laboratories.

Working collaboratively with Stress Engineering, EASL embarked on a series of projects including the Eurofighter jet and nuclear fuel manufacture at BNFL Springfield.

Between 1992 and 1998 EASL worked with Rolls Royce and Associates to support the design and manufacture of steam raising plants for the UK nuclear submarine fleet. These first steps would establish the company’s expertise in the nuclear and power generation industries.

From 1998 EASL grew in size, providing a team of three specialist engineers and scientists as part of a ring-fenced team of ten, based in the north west of England working remotely from the client. This team would augment the Structural Analysis Group at Nuclear Electric in Barnwood, Gloucestershire supporting the operation of the UK fleet of nuclear power stations.

This group, managed initially by BAeSEMA and then Mott MacDonald, was intended to replace a number of on-site contractors, beginning EASL’s wealth of experience with both off-site and on-site support to nuclear power generation.

EASL won a tender with British Energy (now EDF) in 2001 to work in partnership with the company to provide support for the UK fleet of nuclear power stations.

Doubling in size, EASL’s six engineers moved into the first company offices in Altrincham in 2001, and due to this growth the company was restructured with senior members of staff becoming shareholders. This long term investment from staff would further establish and develop EASL’s expertise and ethos.

EASL’s client base further grew, working with J Murphy & Sons, BG Advantica and BG Transco on the UK national gas transmission system and working with NNC, AMEC and the Naval Base Design Authority independently reviewing safety submissions for submarine shiplift facilities in Faslane. Collaborating with the SIA Limited, EASL provided support to the design, analysis and assessment of pipework systems for the Astute class submarines.

With such a range of growing clients, EASL successfully secured a role as a Tier 2 supplier to the British Energy Technical Support Alliance, one of 15 organisations selected from over 300 suppliers.

Rapid expansion followed, and soon EASL outgrew their original premises, moving in January 2007 to larger offices. The growing team led to EASL playing a key role in the boiler recovery project for four advanced gas-cooled reactors, thereby establishing its place as a trusted expert within the structural integrity community.

This led to further growth, and the company purchasing its own current offices at Edward Court within the Altrincham Business Park. The company structure and excellent staff retention record led to EASL recruiting and training engineering and science graduates, producing an in-house staff development scheme, further ensuring that EASL’s high quality, specialist services are constantly being improved.

With a team of around 30, ranging from entry level engineers to PhD qualified directors, finance and administrative staff, EASL is proud to be independently owned by working members, offering long serving staff the opportunity to acquire shares in the company.

Managing Director Antony Hurst was approached by Manchester Metropolitan University to represent EASL on their Industrial Advisory Panel, where EASL continues to work with the institution to develop and inform based on years of professional experience.

Providing engineering consultancy to a wide range of clients, EASL continue to provide support to the UK civil nuclear fleet of reactors with EDF alongside other projects and clients.