It has been a difficult few years for some of Darlington's oldest engineering companies, particularly Cleveland Bridge. But, under the ownership of one of Saudi Arabia's biggest companies, there is a future. Business Editor Julia Breen talks to Jon Dale, president of Cleveland Bridge and managing director of Whessoe Oil and Gas.

JON Dale has the task of saving half a millennium's-worth of engineering in Darlington. When he recalls that the names of Cleveland Bridge and Dorman Long are inscribed on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the weight of that responsibility becomes almost overwhelming.

The attention of the world was on the two companies last year when they raised the Wembley arch. Unfortunately, and in the same glare of publicity, Cleveland Bridge left the project following a dispute with Multiplex - a dispute that returns to court later this year.

About 300 redundancies followed. As the dismissed workers picketed Wembley, there were rumours the stadium was behind schedule.

The number of workers on the shopfloor at Cleveland is now at its lowest level in four decades.

Some feared that the company's involvement in what should have been its greatest triumph would lead to its downfall.

But Mr Dale has already turned Whessoe Oil and Gas around in the past four years, and Cleveland Bridge's majority shareholder, the Al Rushaid Group, is confident he can repeat the feat.

Al Rushaid, Saudi Arabia's ninth-largest company, has invested heavily in Darlington's engineering sector, buying Whessoe, Cleveland and Dorman Long Technologies (DLT).

It has invested millions in Cleveland Bridge. And while there are no plans to merge the companies, they complement each other well.

By appointing Mr Dale as president of Cleveland and DLT, the parent company has given him a huge vote of confidence.

He said: "Cleveland Bridge was brought to its knees by Multiplex in the Wembley dispute. Despite Multiplex's worst efforts, we are still here - we still haven't gone bust.

"We have gone through an extremely difficult patch, there is no denying that, but hopefully we will come out the other side."

Whessoe, which was established in Darlington in 1782, was going out of business when Mr Dale took over.

Following several acquisitions and changes of strategy, it was bought by the Al Rushaid Group.

"Whessoe was a massive company, with 30,000 people worldwide, and over the years, it fell on hard times," he says. "It was owned by several different companies. It was looking at a pretty desperate situation three years ago, when I took over as managing director. Then we started off with nothing again last year after then owners, Skanska, changed its strategy and sold us to Al Rushaid.

"But from nothing, we went to £200m of sales. Life is pretty good. We have opportunities all over the place and we are delivering good products.

"Al Rushaid has bought a vibrant engineering firm at Whessoe, and they knew that.

"They have given me the presidency of Cleveland Bridge to try and do what we have done with Whessoe, to drive Cleveland Bridge, through the excellence of its engineering, into a vibrant force."

With the financial backing of Al Rushaid, Cleveland Bridge hopes to fight - and win - its legal battle with Multiplex later this year.

"There is tremendous confidence in Cleveland Bridge," said Mr Dale.

"Al Rushaid really have backed us to the hilt.

"It's something that subcontractors try to avoid, getting into litigation with main contractors. It is basically this enormous corporation - Multiplex - against little Cleveland Bridge."

While the past year has been tough, with redundancies at the Yarm Road site, Mr Dale said he hoped it was through the worst.

"We have had to restructure quite dramatically. There have been redundancies, but I hope we are through that, and we are now out there actively looking for new work."

Cleveland's order book will run out in the summer. But, according to Mr Dale, Al Rushaid has invested so much money in the company that it is unlikely to let it fail.

"We have some good opportunities too," he said.

"If we pick up any slices of these large projects we are looking at, then Cleveland Bridge will be OK."

Although he is keen to play it down, worried that the project may not materialise, Mr Dale said that Cleveland Bridge has been approached by several consortia bidding for work on the world's largest suspension bridge.

The two-mile bridge is a pet project of Italian president Silvio Berlusconi, and would link Italy with Sicily.

Mr Dale said: "It is a huge, exciting project, but it is very early days - these bridges can take ten or 15 years to come off the drawing board.

"Cleveland Bridge has been approached for its specialist advice by all the consortia involved because no-one else has the experience.

"We alone have the engineering excellence to be able to work on that bridge.

"One person at Cleveland Bridge has been involved in building 22 suspension bridges around the world. That is the kind of world-class expertise we have in Darlington. That is why the Al Rushaid Group really values this organisation."

But Mr Dale is very aware that times have changed in engineering.

"It isn't about creating 6,000 jobs any more and taking on every part of a project," he said. "It is about bringing, say, 300 high-value, skilled jobs and making large, multi-million pound projects happen, by using your own particular expertise.

"More and more, we see companies moving the way of Cleveland Bridge and Whessoe and specialising in their own areas."

Mr Dale conceded that having the fortunes of three such businesses on his shoulders was "a heck of a responsibility".

"I am quite excited about it though. We have got the history, but most valuable, are the knowledge and experience of the people in the companies," he said.

"There is tremendous potential for Cleveland Bridge because it has a hell of a depth of talent."

The Wembley dispute

Cleveland Bridge is still in a legal battle with Australian company Multiplex after it left the £757m Wembley development.

The court case is due to be heard later this year at the Court of Technology and Construction, in London.

Cleveland has already been awarded about £5m from Multiplex by an independent adjudicator. Multiplex launched legal action against Cleveland last year, claiming that it had overpaid the company £14m for work at Wembley.

Cleveland Bridge counter-sued. The adjudications at the end of last year found that Multiplex owed money to Cleveland Bridge.

Cleveland, which had won a £60m contract to build Wembley's arch and roof, stopped work last August, after it had finished the arch, as the dispute intensified.

It is believed Multiplex failed to provide Cleveland Bridge with adequate engineering plans from other sub-contractors in time for it to do its work properly.

Jon Dale

* Involved in the construction industry for 30 years.

* Started career with Amec building Newcastle Metro

* Specialist in design and construction of railway infrastructure, working on Hong Kong, Singapore, and Copenhagen metros, the London Underground and British Rail projects.

* Director of special projects at Balfour Beatty and built Barking Reach Power Station, Heathrow Express and the Waterloo and Westminster stations on the Jubilee Line before moving to Copenhagen.

* Joined Kvaerner to run the design, then the international construction company. Involved in projects in India and the Middle East, among them the fit-out of the world's first seven-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab, in Dubai.

* Appointed managing di rector of Whessoe Oil and Gas where, over the past three years he and his team sold the business from the Skanska Group to the Al Rushaid Group.

* Appointed president of Cleveland Bridge and Dorman Long in March 2005.

* Married with three children, lives in Oxford and Darlington.