Clyde’s fortunes boosted with £9.3m US contract win
MANUFACTURER Clyde Process Solutions (CPS) is celebrating the win of a £9.3m order from one of North America’s leading providers of food ingredients and sugar products.
The contract, which follows on from a previous £1.8m commission, is one of the highest order value contracts the Doncaster-based pneumatic conveying firm has secured recently and is the largest contract won through the collaborative efforts of subsidiaries MAC Equipment and Clyde Materials Handling (CMH).
It’s good news for the firm, which last month announced it was having to cut 25 jobs – a fifth of its workforce – to save costs.
CPS said that dips in the steel markets were to blame for a recent slowdown on orders.
It warned that the decision by two European steel plants to postpone orders for coal processing systems until 2010 could hit its order book by £5m.
The company said that MAC’s strong presence and reputation in the US matched with CMH’s low energy technology had proved a winning combination for securing the new contract.
The contract will see the firm provide equipment to transport sugar to numerous locations within the client’s production facility.
Alex Stewart, chief executive of CPS, said: “We are delighted to secure this substantial order with one of North America’s leading providers of food ingredients, which is a result of outstanding teamwork and commitment from many members of our global group.
“We are particularly pleased to see the synergies of MAC and CMH come together so prominently in our key customer markets.”
Mr Stewart added that the order would strengthen the group’s order book position as it entered its next financial year.
“Despite challenging trading conditions in recent months, we have continued to
focus on targeting and securing orders across all our key customer markets with
market-driven, customer focused strategies,” he said.
“I am delighted that this approach has yielded such a notable contract win.”
In January, CPS said it would not pay a final dividend and that post-tax profits would be in line with expectations despite a £2m hit to operating profits.
