Manufacturer buys £28m milking business

THE Verder Group has bought a £28m-turnover Shropshire milking business in a “multi-million Euro” deal.

230 year-old Fullwood Packo Group will become part of Verder, a Dutch business with its UK headquarters in Castleford.

Fullwood’s latest published accounts, for 2013, showed a pre-tax profit of £1.0m on annual revenues of £28.0m. The group specialises in milking machines, milk cooling and other products for the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Andries Verder, chief executive of Verder International, said: “We are very excited to be adding Fullwood Packo to the Verder group of companies. We feel we can support the Fullwood and Packo companies to grow and continue to succeed over the coming years.” 

Verder, which has annual UK sales of £12m and employs about 60 people here, believes the deal will strengthen the group’s position in the hygienic and food processing applications and industrial pump sectors. It will also allow its investment arm, Pindustry, to enter the milking systems business with Fullwood’s technological capabilities and strong position in the European market.

Weightmans in Leeds advised Verder Group and its team was led by Haroon Younis  and Michelle Mathers, with support from Ben Collins (corporate), Haydn Rogan (tax), Nick Newman and Mark Poulston (employment and pensions) and Nigel Price (real estate).

 

Michelle Mathers, corporate partner at Weightmans’ Leeds office, said: “This was a significant deal, involving companies in the UK, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Belgium, France and Ireland. Our cross-discipline team managed the process extremely effectively.”