Buyout saves staff from axe
A TOTAL of 20 jobs have been saved after a Teesside engineering company acquired a struggling steel fabrications firm.
Stockton-based Cordell Group bought Mainstream Engineering for an undisclosed sum after Mainstream plunged into administration last week.
Cordell, which now employs 550 workers on Teesside, has recently increased its annual turnover to a company record of £29m.
It anticipates the acquisition of Mainstream, a pipework and mechanical fabrication and installation company based on Snowdon Road in Middlesbrough, will add a further £1.5m to this figure, further strengthening its position as a significant North-east engineering contractor.
Former Mainstream managing director, Graham Duffield, will also transfer his employment to Cordell, along with all 20 Mainstream employees.
Mr Duffield will be employed as a manager within Cordell’s growing Construction Division.
Cordell managing director, Dave Rush, said: “Graham and his team will be a valuable addition to the range of services provided by Cordell group and will help us to enhance and maintain our high profile in the market place.”
Cordell believes operations at Mainstream’s Snowdon Road site will complement its pipeshop on Sotherby Road in Middlesbrough and fabrication workshops at Middlesbrough, Thornaby and Sunderland.
Cordell also owns a marine fabrication workshop and slipway, a machine shop, a research engineering facility and two panel manufacturing workshops, and has a head office in Stockton.
Mainstream Engineering, was previously known to Cordell as they shared many of the same clients, making Mainstream a good strategic fit for the firm.
The Cordell Group is enjoying a successful and profitable year, with strategic acquisitions playing a part in its ongoing growth and development.
In July, the company, which specialises in project management, engineering design, fabrication and site construction, further expanded its engineering capabilities with the acquisition of a well established, Kent-based, panel-building and site installation company, Cranford Controls Systems.
The acquisition added £1.6m to the group’s turnover, and Cordell now employs 23 at the Kent site.
The acquisition of Cranford Controls Systems allowed Cordell to develop its business into the new market sectors of building management systems and data centres as well as reaching new clients in London and the South of England.
In March, Cordell Pipeshop relocated from Teesside Industrial Estate to its 45,000sq ft site on Sotherby Road following a period of expansion and growth.
