BAE Systems buys Brimar assets
ADMINISTRATORS have sold part of the Greater Manchester-based defence electronics firm Brimar to BAE Systems.
Dermot Power and Tony Nygate of accountancy firm BDO were appointed in November and have since been trying to find a buyer for the Middleton business which had 89 staff.
Brimar makes thermal imaging systems and electronic displays for tanks, aircraft and helicopters, such as the Apache.
The business also services the film and TV business, a division which harks back to its origins making valves for radios and cathode ray tubes for televisions.
BAE’s Display Technologies arm has bought the cathode ray tube and long range thermal imaging business, protecting 56 of the jobs. Last month Middlesex-based Image Precision took on 13 staff when it bought the vision system display business. The value of the deals was not disclosed.
BAE was a major customer and the firm’s biggest creditor. It loaned Brimar £1.8m in April 2012 to help it repay a £2m Bank of Scotland debt. Further advances of £900,000 against orders left it with a liability of £2.7m.
In the 10 months to the end of October Brimar posted a £1m loss on sales of £8.8m, down from £12m in the year to December 2011. In its last full accounts it said margins had been squeezed by a shortfall in defence orders from the US.
The administrators said losses increased due to pension costs, raw material prices, and redundancy costs. The losses created cashflow problems and made it harder for the firm to service its bank debt. It failed owing unsecured creditors £12m.
Over the years Brimar has been part of many companies including Edison Swan Electric, Mazda, Baird Television, Ferranti, EMI, Thorn, Marconi and The Rank Organisation. Latterly it was owned by Cheshire-based Peter Giles through Giles Briggs Holdings.
