Picture: ANH Refractories Europe managing director Peter Rooney. Picture Polaris. Merseyside PR firm Polaris Media has expanded its portfolio of foreign owned manufacturers by signing a new deal with its first US client $550m turnover ANH Refractories. The contract will see Polaris charged with ramping up the profile of ANH’s European and Middle East operation which is run from its manufacturing base on Wirral International Business Park. ANH Europe saw its turnover surge from £4m to £7m in 2011 and is keen to use the power of PR to drive sales in key markets. ANH Refractories Europe managing director Peter Rooney said: “The last 12 months have been hugely successful. We fully intend to build on that momentum and we see a targeted PR and marketing campaign as an effective dimension to our growth strategy. We have strong growth in the domestic and European markets which has been backed by major deals with oil and industrial firms in Saudi Arabia. Our core business has been in insulating and dense refractory products, where our tonnage of product distributed to the Middle East has doubled in the last year. The petrochemical sector is proving a major driver of growth for ANH. We are also focusing our attention on the new energy generation and incineration markets, as well as the higher-value copper and aluminium industrial metals market.” The contracts wins mark a strong start to the year for the Ellesmere Port based PR firm run by journalist brothers Ben and Sam Pinnington after the firm signed raft of new deals in January. Polaris Director Ben Pinnington said the firm is determined to grow through-out 2012 and is specifically targeting the manufacturing and engineering markets. “We are hugely excited to be working with ANH which is an outstanding business,” he said. “We passionately believe we can offer Peter and his team an in depth service of real experience and expertise as we already work with a broad collection of engineering businesses. We know the regional and trade media. And we know how to promote manufacturers to generate maximum coverage.” Co-director Sam Pinnington said Polaris extensive skill set is already helping ANH. “As well as the media campaign we are working with ANH on in-depth report writing, social media, newsletters and marketing,” he said. Polaris client base includes the UK’s ‘voice of business’ the CBI, engineering powerhouse Cammell Laird and international manufacturers Conductix Wampfler and Roxtec.]]>