Skan Group to consolidate Boughton & Oldbury at key locations
Skan Group Holdings, which acquired the former Reynolds Boughton businesses in May this year – and which also owns Oldbury UK, is to consolidate the engineering, assembly and production activities of the two companies at two key locations – Winkleigh in Devon and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands. The recently renamed Boughton Engineering company’s headquarters functions, sales, engineering, final assembly, service and parts operation, currently based at Barton-under-Needwood, are to be co-located within the Group’s large freehold site at Wolverhampton – which has both capacity and scope for future expansion.
Group Managing Director, Richard Skan says, “Since the acquisition of what is now known as Boughton Engineering, we have conducted an in-depth review of the business – against a backdrop of a rapidly returning order book. We have quickly recognised that the nucleus of the Boughton company’s manufacturing, fabrication and trailer production is at Winkleigh in Devon – where the capabilities and skills are fully mature and cover everything from basic componentry through to the complex systems and integration required for hook loaders, skip loaders, close coupled trailers and ejector trailers.
“Our Wolverhampton site already supports our established and complementary Oldbury specialist trailers, bespoke engineering and defence business. Consolidating the Group’s activities into its two logical centres of excellence therefore makes a compelling business case. Skan Group can be justly proud now to own two of the leading brands in the industry – both having enormous synergies with one another – and both with engineering pedigrees stretching back well over a hundred years. We are confident that bringing the companies closer together will yield significant benefits, both at the technical and commercial level – which in turn will deliver added value and better services for customers”, says Richard Skan.
Staff at all three locations have been fully informed about the plans – and all current employees at the Barton-under-Needwood site will have the option to transfer to the Wolverhampton operation. The leased Barton-under-Needwood site will close finally at the end of September and the co-located operations will be fully functional from 1st October 2011. The Group has put robust plans in place to ensure that the transition has no impact on customer deliveries, parts availability or service.
