Engineering firm buys rival business for £10m
Agriculture and engineering firm Carr’s has bought a rival business in a deal worth just under £10m.
The firm, which has its headquarters in Carlisle, has bought NW Total Engineered Solutions for £9.6m.
The service and manufacturing company specialises in nuclear defence, nuclear decommissioning, nuclear power generation and other highly regulated markets.
The company is based in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria and was founded in 1994.
The business designs and manufactures bespoke process equipment packages and provides on-site technical support, installation and condition monitoring services, across the nuclear defence, nuclear power generation and decommissioning, utilities, pharmaceuticals, and energy sectors.
In recent years the business has grown significantly under the leadership of its management team, who acquired NW Total through a management buyout in 2010.
NW Total supplies some of the world’s largest companies in the nuclear sector.
It has developed long-term partnerships over 25 years with both end customers and key tier 1 operators.
The acquisition will add a specialist engineering solutions provider to the group’s engineering division.
NW Total will also benefit from being part of a larger group with access to increased manufacturing capacity alongside greater financial and technical resources.
Carr’s wider engineering division serves a global customer base from its facilities across the UK, Germany and the USA.
The services and capabilities of NW Total will sit alongside Carr’s existing offering of specialist technologies, products and services such as the design and manufacture of bespoke equipment, the supply of remote handling equipment, patented nuclear technologies, radiation protection, dynamic natural convection and decontamination.
The former owners of NW Total will remain with the business post acquisition to drive future growth.
The acquisition of NW Total comes at a time of significant opportunity in nuclear defence.
Opportunities are expected to continue into the longer term through projects such as the £31bn UK Dreadnought submarine programme.
The current and planned decommissioning of the UK’s nuclear power capabilities continues to provide opportunities for specialist providers.
NW Total has been acquired for an initial cash consideration of £6m, with further contingent cash consideration of up to a maximum of £3.6 million payable over the next three years, based on the achievement of agreed financial targets.
The group will use an additional term loan facility of £6m to fund the initial consideration, with the contingent consideration being self-financed.
For the year ended 31 March 2019, NW Total recorded turnover of £9.1m, EBITDA of £1.6m and profit before tax of £1.5m.
The gross assets of NW Total as at 31 March 2019 totalled £6.6 m.
Graham Hartley, managing director of Carr’s engineering division, said: “NW Total is a business we’ve admired for a long time given its reputation for providing industry leading engineering services to key tier 1 operators within the nuclear sector and adjacent markets.
“NW Total’s capabilities across a number of complex industries will be a great addition as our Engineering division seeks to capitalise on the burgeoning opportunities in the nuclear sector.
“We envisage multiple synergies with several of our other Engineering businesses with whom we can align on larger projects using the Group’s broad capabilities. Ian and Mark are first-class operators who we have no doubt will fit seamlessly into the rest of the Carr’s Engineering division.”
Ian Brown, managing director of NW Total, commented: “We are delighted to have become part of Carr’s Group.
“Carr’s has been very successful operating in similar markets to ours and the opportunity to cross sell and to work off a bigger platform could not be more compelling. This is a great opportunity for us to take the business to the next level and, with Carr’s history of investing behind their acquisitions, we believe the future is very exciting.”
