News: Sale signals turnaround at Whiteley Read

A Rotherham-based engineering firm has been acquired two years after administrators were called in following a global downturn in the oil and gas market.

Stainless Metalcraft has completed the sale of Whiteley Read to Glacier Energy Services for an undisclosed fee.

Based at a custom built facility on the Gateway Industrial Estate at Parkgate, Whiteley Read has been associated with pressure vessels and the process industries since 1937. It manufactures vessels and columns in both ferrous and non ferrous materials up to 200 tonne in weight for many blue chip companies, such as BP, Centrica, Shell, Nexen & GDF.

Joanne Hammond and Gareth Rusling of Begbies Traynor were appointed as joint administrators of Whiteley Read Engineering Ltd in 2016. Stainless Metalcraft, which is also a specialist in the fabrication of pressure vessels, acquired the assets and said at the time that it will serve the market under the Whiteley Read name and use immediate contracts in place to fill the Rotherham factory.

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The Chatteris-based business forms part of Avingtrans PLC's Energy & Medical Division and said that the sale marks the successful completion of Metalcraft's two-year turnaround plan for the company, which has provided valuable additional manufacturing capacity for its parent company while also processing new business.

Aberdeen-based Glacier Energy Services delivers specialised services to the oil and gas, renewables, power generation and industrial sectors in the UK and internationally. It is expected to continue to operate in Rotherham as Glacier Whiteley Read.

Austen Adams, managing director of Avingtrans, said: "We're delighted to be able to hand the business on to new owners in Glacier who have a shared appreciation of the heritage, skills and potential that exists at Whiteley Read.

"When we acquired the assets back in 2016, we were keen to reinvigorate the brand while retaining skills and scarce, large-scale manufacturing facilities in the UK. From a standing start, the business is now turning over £2.5m per year and has worked on a number of flagship projects over the last two years, including a complete glycol regeneration plant for the Timimoun Field Development in Algeria and components for Storengy UK's Stublach Gas Storage Project Phase 2."

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Scott Martin, executive chairman at Glacier Energy Services, said: "Whiteley Read has an excellent reputation in the market and is strategically a good fit for Glacier sitting alongside our existing capability in the design and manufacture of heat exchangers. As a result, the combined business will be able to offer a wider range of products to clients in the international energy market under the Glacier Whiteley Read brand."

Glacier Energy Services website

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News: Assets of Rotherham engineering firm bought

The assets of a Rotherham-based engineering firm have been acquired from the administrators who were called in following a global downturn in the oil and gas market.

Based at a custom built facility on the Gateway Industrial Estate at Parkgate, Whiteley Read has been associated with pressure vessels and the process industries since 1937. It manufactures vessels and columns in both ferrous and non ferrous materials up to 200 tonne in weight for many blue chip companies, such as BP, Centrica, Shell, Nexen & GDF.

Joanne Hammond and Gareth Rusling of Begbies Traynor were appointed as joint administrators of Whiteley Read Engineering Ltd on October 7 2016.

Now, Stainless Metalcraft, which is also a specialist in the fabrication of pressure vessels, has acquired the assets and said it will serve the market under the Whiteley Read name and use immediate contracts in place to fill the Rotherham factory.

The Chatteris-based business forms part of Avingtrans PLC's Energy & Medical Division and manufactures pressure vessels, vacuum vessels and cryogenic vessels for safety critical applications across all sectors of industry including medical, research, big science, power generation, nuclear, oil & gas, petrochemical and water.

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Austen Adams, managing director of Avingtrans' energy and medical division, said: "While the oil and gas industry as a whole has been struggling in the wake of falling oil prices, Whiteley Read has an excellent reputation for the quality of its components and the business' experience and capabilities strongly complement our own.

"The assets bring much needed additional capacity to meet our future growth plans.

"We have immediate contracts in place to fill the factory with overspill from existing operations, and real potential to develop additional business in both current and new markets.

"We will continue serve the market under the Whiteley Read name and I'm excited by the prospect of working to drive the company into better times."

Whiteley Read Engineering Ltd was created in 2001 to acquire the business and assets through an MBO after the previous operations went into administrative receivership.

A statement from Begbies Traynor showed that the company traded successfully until 2013/14 when the downturn in the oil and gas market led to turnover reducing by 40%. Despite diversifying into other markets, the company posted losses in 13/14 and 14/15.

The business was discreetly marketed for sale but a deal was not concluded and a strategic review concluded that, without a significant cashflow injection, the business was no longer viable. 12 staff were made redundant in August this year.

With administrators brought in, Eddisons marketed the businesses assets as a going concern and a pre-pack deal was preferred but could not be concluded.

Whiteley Read continued to trade as an asset deal remained possible but a further 11 staff members have been made redundant since October. An auction was scheduled for later this month before Stainless Metalcraft acquired the assets.

Whiteley Read website
Stainless Metalcraft website

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News: Engineering firm in administration

Whiteley Read, a Rotherham-based engineering firm has called in the administrators following a global downturn in the oil and gas market.

Based at a custom built facility on the Gateway Industrial Estate at Parkgate, Whiteley Read has been associated with pressure vessels and the process industries since 1937. It manufactures vessels and columns in both ferrous and non ferrous materials up to 200 tonne in weight for many blue chip companies, such as BP, Centrica, Shell, Nexen & GDF.

Joanne Hammond and Gareth Rusling of Begbies Traynor were appointed as joint administrators of Whiteley Read Engineering Ltd on October 7 2016.

It is is expected that the administrators will market the business for sale.

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As recently as 2013, the company had a turnover of £5.9m, up from the £5.4m reported for 2012 with a profit before tax of £338,000. Abbreviated accounts were filed for 2014 and the previous accounting period was extended from October 2 2015 to March 31 2016.

In 2010, Whiteley Read Engineering provided bespoke pressure vessels, in a £3m deal, for the expansion of the Bouri gas and oil field, the biggest in the Mediterranean.

Last year, the Rotherham facility of Darron SBO closed as part of restructure plans set out by the Schoeller-Bleckmann Group. The firm was hit by "customer restraint in ordering which went hand in hand with persistent pressure on prices" in the oil and gas sector.

This year has seen Australian multinational company, Bradken, close its Rotherham site and selling off its loss making European business operations following a "challenging and demanding" period of trading caused by a downturn in commodity prices and a forced change in behaviour of mining companies.

Also this year, Esco Corporation, a US manufacturer in the mining, construction and industrial sectors, vacated the Rotherham premises it acquired in 2011.

Whiteley Read website

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News: Rotherham firms' pioneering trade links with Libya

South Yorkshire-based companies have secured £millions' worth of orders from the Libyan Government to help develop the major oil and gas fields in the newly-opened country, with Rotherham's Whiteley Read Engineering and law-firm, Nabarro already working there and DavyMarkham looking to secure Libyan orders in the near future.

Martin McKervey, construction and engineering partner at the Sheffield office of national law firm Nabarro, says that the Libyan Government recognises the skills that Yorkshire has and is awarding major contracts to local companies.

McKervey said: "Our region's engineering and manufacturing expertise is the basis of the Libyan trade boom that we are now seeing and that brings with it the international legal and financial expertise the region holds too.

"Rotherham-based Whiteley Read Engineering is providing bespoke Pressure Vessels, in a £3million deal for the expansion of the Bouri gas and oil field, the biggest in the Mediterranean.

"Libya is a special market. Following years in the political and economic wilderness and two decades of international sanctions, Libya is undergoing major economic reform with its oil revenue being used to address its considerable infrastructure needs. The substantial contracts Yorkshire companies are now winning are evidence that Libya is a major target market for this region."

Paul Shearstone MD at Whiteley Read says: "We are benefitting from the Libyan eagerness to trade with Western businesses. We are hoping that our current £3m contract for vessels, for the Bouri project is just the start of a number of deals coming out of Libya.

"Yorkshire's manufacturing and engineering companies offer the Libyans world class products with which to develop their infrastructure, so it should be no surprise we are leading the way into this new market."

Nabarro website
Whiteley Read website
Rotherham

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