Building momentum through new acquisitions, AIS is scaling its global presence further with an Australian Stock Exchange listing
2025 was a hugely successful year for award-winning company AIS, most notably for its listing on the Australian Stock Exchange in October, which CEO Andrew Bennion describes as a huge milestone in the company history. The global supplier of insulation, fire protection, buoyancy, and cable protection systems has also made notable acquisitions, including an electric battery testing business in Wales and a marine business in Norway.
“We bought a Norwegian business called Ovun, a marine business that operates in various marine sectors and in navigation aids, working across aquaculture, defense, and some buoyancy and floats, and the Australian IPO listing came about because we wanted to raise money to progress with some further acquisitions,” explains Andrew.
“We looked at various markets, and the Australian Stock Exchange is a primary market, plus one of the deepest small cap exchanges in the world, so it really suited us. It’s an area that we’re not very well established in and our strategic priority going forward is to develop businesses within that part of the world. Australia has a good understanding of the industry, and the investors understand energy businesses and natural resources. It also gives us better access to capital, so we can continue to grow and pursue our target acquisitions.”
In addition to Ovun, AIS purchased a sizeable battery testing facility in Aberdare, Wales, which made it the largest material development center and test site for lithium-ion batteries in Europe. “The battery test site is entirely separate,” continues Andrew. “We were already carrying out some testing work on a different site, so we’ve consolidated it all into one which increases our capability significantly.
“It’s in a really good location and we’ve got quite a lot of work, so we’re filling it out slowly, capacity wise. In terms of what it does for us, it allows us to test our own materials faster, as well as being independent and profitable in its own right. It’s an area that we’re growing, but it’s also a means for us to test our own materials.”
AIS has various other exciting plans on the horizon too. The company is actively developing products for fire protection in nuclear power stations and is looking to qualify these for the Hinkley Point nuclear power site in Somerset. Andrew believes this is a fantastic opportunity for growth across the globe: “We’ve got a record level of order backlog, so we’re in a fantastic position for 2026, for which we’re forecasting more growth, more acquisitions and hopefully some more product launches. We’re aiming to complete the development of the nuclear product over the next 12 months, and we expect around 14 percent of organic growth, with an active pipeline of acquisitions.”
When it comes to acquisitions, geography is one of the key parameters for AIS. “We’re looking for a business with a geographic concentration in an area where
we’re not as strong,” he elaborates. “They also need a product range that we can sell through the rest of the group and allow us to immerse our technology into that business, therefore increasing our sales. Essentially, we’re looking for a business that has a material science basis with a geographical focus in an area that’s expanding.”
AIS already has a presence in the Middle East, in which it has a large market share, but the company recently established an Abu Dhabi company and has a factory in the Jabal Ali freezone in Dubai. The company has also grown substantially in South America – particularly in Brazil.
“We have around 80 people there now,” Andrew adds. “We have a large product range in that part of the world and we’re looking to increase it even further. We also have quite a few projects earmarked for West Africa next year.”
The company has rapidly expanded, doubling its revenue from £68 million to £137 million and increasing its workforce from 373 to over 800 employees in just two years. Andrew highlights the importance of company initiatives, such as learning and development. “We provide a lot of training and many of our key positions are internal promotions over time. We sponsor MBAs and various master’s degrees, which allow people to move through the organization into higher roles.
“We also try to promote an active social life for most of the sites, such as the Think Safe initiative and company events. Recently, we ran a significant health and safety event off-site which focused on behavioral safety and included some excellent guest speakers.”
Regarding the use of AI, he continues: “A lot of what we do is highly engineered, so it requires people. While it’s early days for us, activities such as contract reviews can use AI to analyze standard terms and conditions and identify certain contract clauses that may need to be modified.”
Looking ahead, Andrew shares that AIS’ future is predominantly about growth. “There are some areas we don’t have much presence in, so we want to build out Australasia,” he concludes. “Ultimately though, our aim is to become an ASX 300 company in five years’ time, through acquisition and organic growth.”