Hill & Smith goes stateside for $42m acquisition

Hill & Smith has bought American safety products manufacturer Work Area Protection Corp (WAPCO) for $42m (£31m).

The Shirley-based group, which has major road infrastructure contracts, has added on the business which makes a wide range of road work zone safety products, from temporary variable message signs to cones.

WAPCO is based in Illinois and Texas and has annual revenues of around £35m.

Hill & Smith’s group chief executive Derek Muir said: “WAPCO offers a wide range of innovative solutions for the traffic safety and highway infrastructure markets, and its excellent reputation for high quality products and service delivery is well-deserved.

“The acquisition provides Hill & Smith with a strong platform to accelerate the expansion of both our existing US and international road businesses.”

Hill & Smith believes the combination of WAPCO’s business with its existing US and international roads businesses will increase the scale and range of road safety products supplied into key geographies where the infrastructure investment outlook is strong.

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