GFG’s French deal secures Fort wheels plant expertise
STEEL tycoon Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance has succeeded in its bid to acquire French alloy wheels business AR Industries, in a deal that secures the technical expertise needed to support GFG’s plans for its 425-job alloy wheels plant at Fort William.
Announcing the successful acquisition this week, the company said it was a key part of the British-owned group’s expansion into France, which also includes its acquisition of the Rio Tinto smelter at Dunkirk.
Tuesday’s ruling by the court of administration in Orleans, in the French region of Centre-Val de Loire, means that Liberty – part of the GFG Alliance – can now put in place a comprehensive three-year recovery plan for the ARI site at Châteauroux, including investments in advanced manufacturing equipment, improvements in safety and quality standards and growing its customer base.
The acquisition of ARI, which produces wheels for Renault/ Nissan and PSA, would both mirror and work in parallel with Liberty’s planned wheels factory next to its aluminium smelter in Fort William.
Liberty aims to supply UK vehicle makers with up to 25 per cent of total domestic demand from the Lochaber plant.
The latest French acquisition marks a further expansion of GFG’s presence in the global automotive sector and is the latest step in the group’s strategy to establish a major industrial presence in France.
It follows the recent announcement that the UK group is also buying Aluminium Dunkerque, Europe’s largest aluminium smelter, from Rio Tinto.
Speaking to the Lochaber Times yesterday (Wednesday), Eoghan Mortell, a spokesman for Liberty, said the ARI deal will almost certainly see French personnel making regular visits to Lochaber.
‘Their specialist expertise will be invaluable in helping the Lochaber alloy wheels plant get off to a flying start and I’d think it highly likely staff from the French alloy wheels plant will make regular visits to Fort William as our plant there progresses,’ he said.
‘The Lochaber plant has planning permission and what we are doing now is working through the various conditions attached to that.
‘The French experts coming in will then help us get the plant off the ground.’
The plan for the ARI plant, which has capacity to make two million alloy wheels a year, will save around 350 jobs and hundreds more in the supply chain and regional economy, and has been made possible by commitments, secured by GFG, from major French car manufacturers.
Speaking about the court ruling, GFG executive chairman Mr Gupta said it was a very positive result, not just for the business but first and foremost for the workforce at ARI.
‘We’ve been very clear that France is one of the world’s great industrial economies and a key market for us. ARI is a perfect fit for our business and our investment strategy for France.
‘We want to create the kind of sustainable, vertically-integrated structure in France that we’ve successfully established in other markets – a structure based on adding value and safeguarding skilled jobs.’
Chief executive of Liberty Industries Group Douglas Dawson added: ‘This is a great outcome and a very important acquisition for Liberty. It represents a key step in our growing and continuing plans to be a vertically-integrated global, relevant and strategic tier one supplier to the engineering and auto sectors.’