Shepherd Offshore seals Watson Norie base deal

Nov 4 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

BIG spending Shepherd Offshore says it has sealed a deal to acquire the Newcastle base of failed electrical engineering company Watson Norie.

The week after revealing his company had acquired the Amec yard at Wallsend, managing director Bruce Shepherd said his company had had an offer accepted for the Wincomblee Road site occupied by Watson Norie for many years.

Shepherd Offshore has also recently acquired the former Osborne Garage in the heart of Jesmond with a view to developing it.

Watson Norie’s administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers said yesterday a deal for Shepherd to acquire the failed company’s premises had not been concluded, but Mr Shepherd said PwC’s appointed agents King Sturge had accepted his bid for the land.

He now intends using it to expand the existing Offshore Technology Park in Walker, where Shepherd Offshore’s main base is located, alongside such high profile oil and gas engineering companies as Wellstream and Duco.

The company’s existing ‘Offshore Supply Base’ in the technology park is a terminal and support base aimed at handling all types of cargo including offshore related materials.

Shepherd said: “We agreed with the receivers four weeks ago. The site is going to be an extension of the Offshore Technology Park. We hope to bring it back into action. We have bought everything on site.”

PwC is now winding up the Watson Norie operations in Newcastle and only five staff now remained on site. The firm called in Ian Green and Mark Loftus of PwC in September this year after struggling to pay its way, despite being a long established fixture of the North East business landscape, first started in 1920.

Watson Norie’s recent problems are said to stem from delays in payment by one of its principle customers for two major contracts worth a total of £9m.

A PwC spokeswoman said: “There has been interest in buying the lease for the site, but at this stage, nothing has been signed and we can’t make any further comment.”

Shepherd Offshore said last week it was buying Amec’s former home in the Hadrian Yard, and the nearby Neptune Shipyard, and these could be transformed into sites which produce wind turbines and other renewable energy machines.

Talks are believed to be under way between the company and several major players in the renewable energy sector about setting up in the North East.