Motherwell Bridge, the Lanarkshire-based engineering contractor controlled by an Islamic bank, yesterday said it had strengthened its management team with a number of senior appointments in direct response to the orders and enquiries received by the company's storage-tank division.

The group, which was bought out last year by Kuwait Finance House (Bahrain), said it had recruited Simon Eastwood from Petrology/Subsea 7, where he had worked as operations manager, and Christian Mulrooney, who joins from engineering firm BIS O'Hare, where he spent three years as a project manager.

Motherwell Bridge's storage-tank division operates across a number of sectors, including the oil and gas, petrochemical, power and food sectors.

The group also said Frank Ross, formerly managing director of MB Inspection, had returned to Motherwell Bridge as general manager of the storage tanks division.

MB Inspection was part of the group until 2007, when it was sold to Dutch-based inspection firm RTD.

Motherwell Bridge said that over the course of the past 12 months, the storage-tank division had secured a range of contract extensions from BP, Esso and Ineos, and that the new members of the management team would be responsible for liaising directly with these clients.

Managing director Russell Ward said: "Despite challenging trading conditions, we have continued to perform well and have secured major contracts, including a contract from Shell to overhaul a 72m diameter storage tank at its Stanlow oil refinery in Cheshire.

"This is typical of the types of contracts we are involved in. As demand for our services has increased, it became clear that we needed to reinforce the quality of our staff and add experienced personnel."