£15m deal galvanizes manufacturer for future growth

HULL manufacturer Premier Galvanizing has been bought for £15.5m by international group Hill & Smith Holdings.

Premier was founded in Hull in 2000 and added a Midlands base in Corby two years later as it expanded its galvanizing services to steel fabricators. It has grown into a business that employs around 50 staff and last year turned over £8.3m, generating pre-tax profits of £2.3m.

It will become the sixth subsidiary in Hill & Smith’s galvanizing division, which already includes UK businesses in County Durham, Stoke and Halesowen, as well as companies based in France and USA.

Derek Muir, Hill & Smith’s group chief executive, said: “Premier has an excellent reputation for quality and service in its local areas and will now be able to enhance its service offering to galvanize longer structural products.”

The £15.5m purchase price will be paid in cash and funded from the group’s existing bank facilities.

Hill & Smith, headquartered in Solihull, supplies infrastructure products and galvanizing services to global markets and last year generated sales of more than £450m.