News: Cooper & Turner acquire Rotherham premises

Sheffield manufacturing firm, Cooper & Turner has acquired the freehold of a former vehicle motor auctions site in Rotherham for £1.8m.

Units 1 and 2 at Canklow Meadows Industrial Estate, previously the base of Manheim Motor Auctions which closed last year, have been sold by the National Industrial and Logistics Team at the Leeds office of property consultants, Jones Lang LaSalle and the Leeds office of property consultants GVA.

Cooper & Turner is one of Europe's leading manufacturers of bolts, nuts and washers used in the energy, rail, construction and other engineering sectors.

They began life in the 1800's when Joseph and James Turner founded a gun barrel business in Birmingham. Having expanded the business into other areas, including rivet production, the company was amalgamated with Henry Cooper & Co in 1912.

Production was moved to Sheffield and the company continued to be successful, supplying products for a wide range of applications including battleships and the Model 'T' Ford cars.

They currently have a Templeborough base which is just on the Sheffield side of the border with Rotherham.

The new 4.6 acre site comprises two industrial or warehouse units totaling 62,913 sq ft. It will be home to around 50 staff.

Jones Lang LaSalle and GVA acted for Cluttons Investment Management, London, representing Harmsworth Pooled Pension Fund.

Richard Harris, director and head of the Jones Lang LaSalle National Industrial and Logistics Team, who brokered the deal, said: "In spite of uncertain economic times and a shortage of funding in the property market, this is a manufacturing business which is trading successfully as it was able to fulfil the freehold acquisition out of its own funds.

"Manufacturing businesses, and particularly those which export, clearly need to be supported as part of moves to re-balance the UK economy and we are pleased to have helped this business to expand in the current tough economic climate which shows that there is an appetite for well-located, good-quality existing property with plenty of land. Several parties were bidding for this site and we had to go to two closing dates."

Cooper & Turner website

Images: Cooper & Turner / GVA