Historic milking machinery firm goes Dutch

A 230-year-old milking machinery manufacturing firm in Cheshire has been acquired by a Dutch company in an undisclosed deal.

Family-owned Fullwood Packo Group, headquartered in Ellesmere, specialises in milking systems, stainless steel products and products for the food and pharmaceuticals industries. It has been bought by The Verder Group.

PwC’s North West finance leader Stuart Warriner and DLA Piper’s Jonathan Watkins and Elia Montorio advising Fullwood Packo Group on the deal.

The Verder Group was established in 1959. It has a presence in 24 countries and comprises two divisions; Verder Liquids and Verder Scientific.

The deal is expected to strengthen the Verder Group position in the hygiene and food processing sectors. The combined business will employ almost 1,500 staff.

Chief executive Andries Verder said: “We are very excited to be adding Fullwood Packo to the Verder group of companies. We feel we can support the Fullwood and Packo companies to grow and continue to succeed over the coming years.”