1.1 We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors; this policy sets out how we will treat your personal information.
1.2 By using our website and agreeing to this policy, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy.
Collecting personal information
2.1 We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal information:
(a) information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website (including your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths);
(b) information that you provide to us when registering with our website (including your email address)
(c) information that you provide when completing your profile on our website (including your name, user name, country/region, employment details, password);
(d) information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications and/or newsletters (including your name and email address);
(e) information that you provide to us when using the services on our website, or that is generated in the course of the use of those services (including the timing, frequency and pattern of service use;
(f) information relating to any purchases you make of our goods / services / goods and/or services or any other transactions that you enter into through our website (including your name, address, telephone number, email address and card details;
(g) information that you post to our website for publication on the internet (including your user name, your profile pictures and the content of your posts);
(h) information contained in or relating to any communications that you send to us or send through our website (including the communication content and meta data associated with the communication);
(i) any other personal information that you choose to send to us; and
2.2 Before you disclose to us the personal information of another person, you must obtain that person's consent to both the disclosure and the processing of that personal information in accordance with the terms of this policy.
Using your personal information
3.1 Personal information submitted to us through our website will be used for the purposes specified in this policy or on the relevant pages of the website.
3.2 We may use your personal information to:
(a) administer our website and business;
(b) personalise our website for you;
(c) enable your use of the services available on our website;
(d) send you goods purchased through our website;
(e) supply to you services purchased through our website;
(f) send statements, invoices and payment reminders to you, and collect payments from you;
(g) send you non-marketing commercial communications;
(h) send you email notifications that you have specifically requested;
(i) send you our email newsletter, if you have requested it (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require the newsletter);
(j) send you marketing communications relating to our business or the businesses of carefully-selected third parties which we think may be of interest to you, by post or, where you have specifically agreed to this, by email or similar technology (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require marketing communications);
(k) provide third parties with statistical information about our users (but those third parties will not be able to identify any individual user from that information);
(l) deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to our website;
(m) keep our website secure and prevent fraud;
(n) verify compliance with the terms and conditions governing the use of our website (including monitoring private messages sent through our website private messaging service);
3.3 If you submit personal information for publication on our website, we will publish and otherwise use that information in accordance with the licence you grant to us.
3.4 Your privacy settings can be used to limit the publication of your information on our website, and can be adjusted using privacy controls on the website.
3.5 We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party's direct marketing.
3.6 All our website financial transactions are handled through our payment services provider, Paypal. You can review the provider's privacy policy at https://www.paypal.com/gr/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full. We will share information with our payment services provider only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments you make via our website, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds.
Disclosing personal information
4.1 We may disclose your personal information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
4.2 We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries) insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
4.3 We may disclose your personal information:
(a) to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
(b) in connection with any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings;
(c) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk);
(d) to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset that we are (or are contemplating) selling; and
(e) to any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that personal information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that personal information.
4.4 Except as provided in this policy, we will not provide your personal information to third parties.
International data transfers
5.1 Information that we collect may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this policy.
5.2 Information that we collect may be transferred to the following countries which do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in force in the European Economic Area: the United States of America, Russia, Japan, China and India.
5.3 Personal information that you publish on our website or submit for publication on our website may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use or misuse of such information by others.
5.4 You expressly agree to the transfers of personal information described in this Section 5.
Retaining personal information
6.1 This Section 6 sets out our data retention policies and procedure, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal information.
6.2 Personal information that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
6.3 Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section 6, we will retain documents (including electronic documents) containing personal data:
(a) to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
(b) if we believe that the documents may be relevant to any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings; and
(c) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk).
Security of your personal information
7.1 We will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.
7.2 We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure (password- and firewall-protected) servers.
7.3 All electronic financial transactions entered into through our website will be protected by encryption technology.
7.4 You acknowledge that the transmission of information over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.
7.5 You are responsible for keeping the password you use for accessing our website confidential; we will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to our website).
Amendments
8.1 We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.
8.2 You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.
8.3 We may notify you of changes to this policy [by email or through the private messaging system on our website.
Your rights
9.1 You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you; provision of such information will be subject to:
(a) the payment of a fee (currently fixed at GBP 10); and
(b) the supply of appropriate evidence of your identity (for this purpose, we will usually accept a photocopy of your passport certified by a solicitor or bank plus an original copy of a utility bill showing your current address).
9.2 We may withhold personal information that you request to the extent permitted by law.
9.3 You may instruct us at any time not to process your personal information for marketing purposes.
9.4 In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes.
Third party websites
10.1 Our website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites.
10.2 We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties.
Updating information
11.1 Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.
Part 2: Cookies
About cookies
1.1 A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
1.2 Cookies may be either "persistent" cookies or "session" cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
1.3 Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
1.4 Cookies can be used by web servers to identity and track users as they navigate different pages on a website and identify users returning to a website.
Our cookies
2.1 We use only both session and persistent cookies on our website.
2.2 The names of the cookies that we use on our website, and the purposes for which they are used, are set out below:
(a) we use session cookie on our website to recognise a computer when a user visits the website and track users as they navigate the website;
(b) we use secure cookie on our website to prevent fraud and improve the security of the website;
(c) Persistent cookies will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date;
Analytics cookies
3.1 We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website.
3.2 Our analytics service provider generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies.
3.3 The analytics cookies used by our website have the following names: _utma, _utmt, _utmb, _utmc, _utmv and _utmz
3.4 The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website.
3.5 Our analytics service provider's privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.
Third party cookies
4.1 Our website also uses third party cookies.
Blocking cookies
5.1 Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies; for example:
(a) in Internet Explorer (version 10) you can block cookies using the cookie handling override settings available by clicking "Tools", "Internet Options", "Privacy" and then "Advanced";
(b) in Firefox (version 24) you can block all cookies by clicking "Tools", "Options", "Privacy", selecting "Use custom settings for history" from the drop-down menu, and unticking "Accept cookies from sites"; and
(c) in Chrome (version 29), you can block all cookies by accessing the "Customise and control" menu, and clicking "Settings", "Show advanced settings" and "Content settings", and then selecting "Block sites from setting any data" under the "Cookies" heading.
5.2 Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.
5.3 If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.
Deleting cookies
6.1 You can delete cookies already stored on your computer; for example:
(a) in Internet Explorer (version 10), you must manually delete cookie files (you can find instructions for doing so at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278835);
(b) in Firefox (version 24), you can delete cookies by clicking "Tools", "Options" and "Privacy", then selecting "Use custom settings for history", clicking "Show Cookies", and then clicking "Remove All Cookies"; and
(c) in Chrome (version 29), you can delete all cookies by accessing the "Customise and control" menu, and clicking "Settings", "Show advanced settings" and "Clear browsing data", and then selecting "Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data" before clicking "Clear browsing data".
6.2 Deleting cookies will have a negative impact on the usability of many websites.
Cookie preferences
7.1 You can manage your preferences relating to the use of cookies on our website by visiting: controls below
Part 3: Our details
Data protection registration
1.1 We are registered as a data controller with the UK Information Commissioner's Office.
Our details
2.1 This website is owned and operated by Focus Reports Ltd.
2.2 We are registered in England and Wales under registration number 7676770, and our registered office is at Lynton House, 7-12 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9LT, United Kingdom.
2.3 You can contact us by writing to the business address given above, by using our website contact form or by telephone on +441707828754.
Garry Farquhar, Director/Dogsbody at Vector Supplies, describes the company’s basic procurement principles, the impact of increased investment on the UKCS for business, and how the company copes with the human resource challenge the market currently faces.
Five years ago, Vector Supplies’ 10-year goal was to develop closer relationships with its major clients, and provide an even better and more comprehensive range of services. Where does the company currently stand in this 10-year plan?
With some of the major clients we now have special agreements in place on certain aspects, such as the price and range of products that we supply. This eliminates the clients needing to go out and get multiple quotations. We inform them of the prices for the next year and that makes their procurement systems much easier to operate. Nowadays, many clients just send us their orders without asking about the prices. From this point of view, the relationships are indeed closer.
The same clients that we’ve dealt with for the past 25 years tend to come back to us even if the specific personnel we used to work with have moved on. When personnel do move on, it’s often to competitor companies or different geographical locations that we also supply so the relationship is restored.
2013 marked record high capital investments of 13.5 billion USD on the UKCS. Has this increase in economic activity translated into more business for Vector Supplies?
The new levels of investment are bound to translate into new opportunities. Nevertheless, much of the expenditure is actually being targeted towards hardware for the field after the exploration work has been completed. Unfortunately, we’re more focused on the exploration end of the business, with the testing of oil and gas wells in places such the Clair Ridge.
The rentals part of the business has experienced a big upturn because of the high levels of demand. That is probably as a direct result of the increase in investment. Our rentals business is, of course, local; whereas our other work tends to be much more global. Rentals have to be local. It makes no sense to ship a small test unit all the way to South Africa when the same units can be acquired in regional markets.
Do you see more revenue coming from your distributorships, supply contracts or rentals division?
Our revenue is still based on our basic procurement principles. We are an integral part of the supply chain of our major clients and this is why they have been with us for so long. There’s no reason for that to change. We are always ready to adapt to suit the needs of our clients if they have specific requirements. We will also always do our best to hold more stock, and bridge the gap between long deliveries. This can only be achieved by talking with the clients and finding out what their requirements will be for the next year. In the end, a balance must be struck between being able to respond quickly to a client’s needs and having excess stock taking up space. What sets Vector Supplies apart from other companies is the foresight to predict what people are going to need and when they are going to need it and then making sure that we have the right levels of stock at the right time.
Over the last few years, the biggest demand has been for newly built equipment. Some of the bigger companies have come back into the well testing market and they didn’t have the necessary equipment because they sold it years ago when they exited the market. One or two of these big companies are building new equipment and that’s created a big increase in business. The equipment may be being built out in the Middle East or the Far East, but that doesn’t matter because it requires the same sort of instrumentation: ball valves and control valves. What we do is supply all these bolt on pieces. So we’ve certainly seen a significant increase in that side of the market. In 2008 you said that Vector doesn’t have to be based from Aberdeen, and could operate from anywhere with good transportation and logistics infrastructure. Is the same true today?
Actually, we don’t have the same input into the logistics of orders that we used to have. The reason for this is that most major companies have entered into global agreements with a third party, such as DHL Global, which now looks after their logistics.
In the early days, we were responsible for supply and would cover the cost of the transportation before invoicing the client. Now, we just notify the client that the equipment is ready and they will collect the order via a third party. In that sense we have lost control over the shipping and have little to do with how the equipment reaches its final destination.
One unfortunate by-product of this arrangement is that we can end up with orders sitting in our warehouse a full two to three weeks after we have notified a client that their order is ready for collection. This is something that we have no control over and can represent a significant problem.
In general, Aberdeen remains a good place to be, but the reality is that if we were in Dubai we would be able to do exactly the same thing from over there.
How is Vector dealing with skill shortages in the market? What is your strategy to attract the best talent?
One of our biggest challenges has been finding the right people. A strategy that we have tended to use and has been relatively successful has been to build the company from within. We have promoted personnel who have been here for the past six to seven years and given them their own client accounts to manage.
The demand for skilled workers is so intense that you will find people who will change jobs for an additional couple of thousand pounds. The big players always have the ability to pay a little bit more than the rest and can attract talent away from smaller companies. Turnover in personnel at certain levels is definitely high. When we are recruiting, the last thing we want to see on a prospective candidate’s CV is that he/she has held six jobs in the past couple of years.
We are operating in a niche and our workers are focused on certain types of equipment so it takes time for them to learn. We do provide a certain amount of in-house training. Our staff can of course learn about the equipment from people like me because some of us used to operate that same equipment.
In 2017 Vector Supplies will be celebrating its 30-year anniversary. What would you like to have achieved by then, a buy-out perhaps?
One should always be open to options, but I’d like to think that in 2017 the company would still be Vector Supplies Ltd. By then, I would also hope to have improved facilities or even purpose-built facilities. Apart from the difficulties in recruiting skilled labour, we have found the lack of office space to be restrictive to expansion of our operations. The demand is certainly there for expansion, but we cannot take on further work without extra workers and increased office space. At the moment, our focus is on our long-term clients who have helped grow this business, providing them with the standards that they’ve become accustomed to.
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