Engineering firm shows post-Brexit confidence
AN industrial unit in Worcestershire has been sold to a German-owned precision engineering company.
The unit, at 1 Buntsford Park Road in Bromsgrove, was acquired for £495,000 by manufacturing company 2KM (UK) which has rented the 8,832 sq ft industrial building for the past five years.
2KM (UK), whose main head office is in Marienheide near Cologne, has been operating in Bromsgrove since 1998.
Its move to 1 Buntsford Park Road five years ago marked a phase of new investment and expansion for the company.
Now employing 18 people in Bromsgrove and 70 people at its German HQ, with sales offices in China and North America, it supplies specialist machinery and dispensing systems to the automotive, aerospace, medical and offshore industries worldwide.
The company said its decision to purchase the freehold of the unit underscored its confidence in the post-Brexit UK industrial economy.
Rob McLaren, managing director of 2KM (UK), said: “2KM has been operating in the UK since 1986 through distributors and then formed the UK side of the business in 1998.
“Two years ago, the company started to manufacture machines in the UK and thought it an ideal time to put down a permanent base in the Midlands. The Germany company has now sold 45 per cent of the company to the UK owners and this investment has enabled the purchase of the property.”
Worcestershire commercial property consultancy GJS Dillon sold the freehold on behalf of a private investor Edmund Gray, former managing director of GS Print.
Managing director John Dillon said: “This is not only a confidence boost for the Bromsgrove, Worcestershire and UK economy in the post-Brexit era, but also a sound financial decision due to the current and increasing shortage of industrial premises in Worcestershire available for purchase, which continues to push up freehold values.”
Funding for the purchase was provided by NatWest.