A similar move into the pure water sector has taken place in recent years with STRIX's development of specially designed appliances for this market currently making a big impression. "They are very much based on the kettle principle but also have an additional reservoir with a filter built in," explains Edwin. "This is a specially designed filter, which is made by ourselves that allows the water to filter into the kettle itself. It takes out all the heavy metals and chemicals but simultaneously it takes the exact same time to go through the filter as the kettle does to boil. Therefore the kettle boils, the hot water kills off all the bacteria and the steam passing through the filter purifies the filter as well."

This appliance's ability to purify water in this way represents a major plus for STRIX with a huge demand in both the developing and western worlds for clean water. "In general terms if you look at our markets the biggest growth potential per se comes from the Far East at this moment in time, China notably. This probably represents only around five per cent of our sales at this moment in time but the Chinese consumer market is growing at something like 30 per cent per annum. So it's going to be an enormous market for us particularly in the kettle sector. China is a big tea drinking country but also the pure water market is key there because generally the water quality in south-east Asia is poor, so you would not drink from the tap, you would have to boil it or buy bottled water."

Although completely different control systems are required for these newer areas of STRIX's business, Edwin feels the move into these sectors represent natural progressions for the company. "The kettle market is essentially the tea drinking market. The coffee making market is another beverage sector and of course pure water is used to make the beverages, so we're really diversifying into pure water in all its various uses," he comments.

With around 350 employees at the company's facility on the Isle of Man and a further 650 at its plant in Guangzhou, China, STRIX has a real global capability and the resources to offer its significant export base a quality service.

With the potential for growth in the Chinese market that Edwin mentions, STRIX is keen to take full advantage of all upcoming opportunities. As a result the business is now in the process of evaluating other locations in the country for an additional plant to be created in the near future.

"China is obviously a very large country, so if only for logistical reasons we will need factories in other parts of the country. We're currently based in southern China and we're looking more at north-east China for the next factory, near to Shanghai," he says.

New product development is a key driver for the STRIX organisation and innovation represents a watchword for the company. Subsequently the business has focused its Isle of Man location on R&D of products. Edwin emphasises the importance of this part of the process to STRIX: "Our aim is to not just innovate in our own products but also in our customers' products. The pure water appliances are an excellent example of where we conceive a product, take it to our customers and encourage them to manufacture that appliance with our control systems and filters within it."

When Edwin last spoke with Venture the company had already been the recipient of two Queen's Awards, both for Export in 1995 and 1998. In the four years since STRIX has added two more such awards to this list, serving as a major boost to the business and particularly its overseas operations. "We gained one Queen's Award for Innovation in 2000 and then another one for what is now called International Trade in 2002. These types of awards are probably more important from an overseas perspective than from a UK one because it's really outside accreditation of our status in the industry. It's looked upon by an overseas customer as something of a guarantee of STRIX's performance," Edwin concludes.