ChargePoint targets £10m turnover after supplier swoop

MANUFACTURER ChargePoint Technology is targeting £10m turnover after making a strategic acquisition.

The £6m Liverpool company which precision containment valves to some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and chemicals businesses, has bought of its suppliers,  Forac, for an undisclosed sum.

Forac, whose customers include Honeywell, Bosch and GEA Group, will move its plant and stock from a base in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex to ChargePoint’s headquarters in Speke. Its founder and managing director Adam Bunyard has joined ChargePoint as part of the deal.

The acquisition gives ChargePoint access to a market leading component – a compact but powerful pneumatic actuator. It is used to open and close the isolation valves that feature in production processes used by the pharma, food and fuel industries.

Chris Eccles, managing director at ChargePoint Technology, said: “The Forac deal is strategically important for our business and will keep us on track for our ambitious growth targets in global markets. Forac’s actuators are a key component in our containment valves and we know well the quality of the product. It’s only a small component – in terms of what we produce – but it’s best-in-class.”

ChargePoint’s containment valves enable the safe and sterile handling of any powders used in the manufacturing process – for example when making drugs in tablet form.

Originally developed in 1996 in conjunction with GlaxoSmithKline, ChargePoint valves are now used by almost every major pharmaceutical manufacturer globally and increasingly in other industries such as chemical, bio-pharmaceutical, food manufacture and consumer goods. Customers include GSK, Pfizer, Henkel, DuPont, INEOS, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Sanofi Aventis.

ChargePoint, which exports its products internationally, generated 90% of sales from overseas. In October 2013 it the business, which has 55 staff, received a £1.6m investment from Enterprise Ventures to support its continued growth.

Mr Eccles added: “We are on course to push our turnover beyond the £10m mark and to have a corresponding increase in the size of our team.  It’s not going to happen overnight but the Forac deal and other plans we have in progress are steps along the road.”

North West advisers to the deal were:  Sean Fitzgerald corporate partner at law firm Ward Hadaway and Michele Haddican from accountancy firm Grant Thornton for ChargePoint, while DWF’s Nicola Frost provided legal advice to Forac.