Bridge maker ships £8.5m order
WFEL, the Stockport-based defence engineering group, has completed an £8.5m contract for the Turkish military.
The order, which was originally secured in the summer of 2008, is for a tranche of its portable bridging system, the Dry Support Bridge (DSB).
Under the agreement, WFEL also procured the OshKosh vehicles on which Turkey will transport and launch its DSBs. WFEL employees will also deliver training on location in Turkey.
The DSB is part of WFEL’s portfolio of tactical bridging assets which are used by armed forces in conflict zones and civilian disaster emergency relief operations.
The business, which is backed by private equity firm Dunedin, has been designing and manufacturing tactical military bridges at its Stockport headquarters since the 1970s. In 2010, parent firm WFEL Holdings declared a pre-tax loss of £837,00 on sales of £34.8m.
There are currently more than 600 WFEL bridges in use by almost 40 different armed forces worldwide.
Ian Wilson, chief executive of WFEL, said: “This agreement typifies the end-to-end service offering we have developed, from manufacturing the bridges to procuring the launch vehicles and then delivering training to new users on the ground.
“We have now opened the door to what we hope will be the first of many orders from Turkey as we continue to roll out our export strategy based on establishing WFEL products in new territories.”
