Silver service for Solpro
A SOUTH Yorkshire manufacturing firm which was badly affected by the summer floods has completed a £22.75m deal to allow it to expand production and worldwide sales.
Solpro Manufacturing, which is one of the world's largest manufacturers of silver brazing alloys, metal joining products and industrial silver alloys, has arranged the refinancing package with Bank of Scotland Corporate.
The company which was established in Sheffield in 1967, has turnover of more than £40m a year and has 150 employees and oeprations in the UK, Holland, France and Spain.
It specialises in buying in semi-finished silver alloy products and finishing them to customers' individual requirements.
Solpro was one of the many businesses in Sheffield that were affected by the June floods which caused extensive damage to its main 11-acre manufacturing site in the Don Valley, Sheffield.
At one point, the premises were lying under seven feet of water and the chairman Paul Tear, a former Master Cutler, along with other members of staff, had to be air-lifted from the roofs of buildings at midnight by helicopter.
The refinancing package from Bank of Scotland Corporate, which includes term loan, and invoice discounting facilities, will support Solpro in its efforts to expand its worldwide sales of industrial products, and brazing alloys, and to continue the investment in improving the group's production facilities.
The deal was arranged on behalf of Bank of Scotland Corporate by Adam Barraclough, director in the bank's South Yorkshire office in Sheffield. The bank's move into the South Yorkshire corporate market was recently rewarded with the 'Bank of the Year' title at the region's inaugural dealmaker awards.
Paul Tear, chairman and chief executive of Solpro, said: “Our group has found Bank of Scotland's enthusiastic and innovative support of our financial requirements to be most helpful, and many other UK banks would do well to try to emulate their encouraging attitude towards supporting manufacturing industry”.
Mr Barraclough director of commercial banking for Bank of Scotland in Sheffield said: “We are delighted to be able to support Solpro at a time when they needed bank assistance the most following the Sheffield flood.
“The opportunity to back an enterprising business with an experienced management team was too good to miss. The business has already demonstrated impressive growth and we're looking forward to working with the management team during the next phase of its development.”
