Site Ops snapped up by Winterhill Largo

YORKSHIRE environmental and decommissioning consultancy Site Ops, which works with administrators when they are selling property assets of distressed businesses, has been acquired by growing asset valuation and recovery group Winterhill Largo.

Wakefield-based Site Ops is a specialist consulting and contracting team providing independent services at high hazard sites. The firm manages risks associated with the closure of manufacturing plants and industrial facilities that utilise chemicals.

Site Ops founder and chief executive, Des Kelly, will remain with the business, which aims to expand and grow its team of engineers and consultants as part of the wider Blackburn-based Winterhill Largo group.

Winterhill Largo chief executive, Neil Duckworth, said: “Site Ops is a highly respected specialist in the safe decommissioning of industrial plants. The company’s services are often required when administrators are selling property assets of distressed businesses, and so the acquisition makes perfect sense as an extension of our portfolio of asset services.

“We are now able to offer a comprehensive service to our insolvency clients that takes sites from initial closure to fully documented decommissioning and environmental approvals.  This is crucial to maximising the value of property assets, and will add another dimension to the service we can deliver to clients and property firms.”

The deal, part of Winterhill Largo’s ongoing strategy to become the UK’s leading services supplier to the insolvency and turnaround sector, will see Site Ops rebrand as Winterhill Site Ops from September.

The addition of the Winterhill Site Ops business follows the expansion of the group this year, with the acquisition of debt management specialist Sovereign and field services provider Chase Solutions, as well as the launch of a new risk management division.

In May, Winterhill Largo launched a risk management business in Wakefield.

Winterhill Largo now operates from 12 offices in the UK and overseas and employs 95 staff. Further acquisitions are planned in 2013 and beyond.

Neil Duckworth said: “We are gaining critical mass all the time but always in complementary businesses. Crucially with this deal we have been able to again pick up one of the industry’s leading players in a niche market.”