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German tank maker Krauss-Maffei Wegmann buys WFEL
The largest tank maker in Germany has struck a deal to buy a Stockport-based engineering group that specialises in developing military bridges.
By Graham Ruddick, Property and industry correspondent
6:00AM BST 23 May 2012
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann is set to announce today that is has bought Williams Fairey Engineering (WFEL), which was founded in 1915 and has grown into a world leader in the manufacturing of mobile bridges for military forces. The deal is the latest example of British engineering expertise being snapped up by foreign wealth. WFEL has been owned by private equity group Dunedin since 2006 and the deal with KMW, which helped to make Tiger tanks for German forces during the Second World War, is thought to be worth around £60m.
WFEL was founded as Fairey Aviation Company and initially built the DH9 and DH10 long-range bombers.
The company, which employs 250 engineers at its base in the north-west, is still located in the same factory but diversified into bridge-making in the 1970s.
WFEL's bridges are used to help forces or emergency services cross areas where bridges have been destroyed, or areas that are impassable because of natural disasters.
It has produced the Dry Support Bridge (DSB) for use by US forces in Iraq and has developed a lightweight ski-jump runway designed to support the launch of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The bridges are used by more than 40 armed forces around the world, including in the UK. KMW, which was advised by Steen Associates, employs 3,500 workers worldwide.
LINK
The largest tank maker in Germany has struck a deal to buy a Stockport-based engineering group that specialises in developing military bridges.
By Graham Ruddick, Property and industry correspondent
6:00AM BST 23 May 2012
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann is set to announce today that is has bought Williams Fairey Engineering (WFEL), which was founded in 1915 and has grown into a world leader in the manufacturing of mobile bridges for military forces. The deal is the latest example of British engineering expertise being snapped up by foreign wealth. WFEL has been owned by private equity group Dunedin since 2006 and the deal with KMW, which helped to make Tiger tanks for German forces during the Second World War, is thought to be worth around £60m.
WFEL was founded as Fairey Aviation Company and initially built the DH9 and DH10 long-range bombers.
The company, which employs 250 engineers at its base in the north-west, is still located in the same factory but diversified into bridge-making in the 1970s.
WFEL's bridges are used to help forces or emergency services cross areas where bridges have been destroyed, or areas that are impassable because of natural disasters.
It has produced the Dry Support Bridge (DSB) for use by US forces in Iraq and has developed a lightweight ski-jump runway designed to support the launch of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The bridges are used by more than 40 armed forces around the world, including in the UK. KMW, which was advised by Steen Associates, employs 3,500 workers worldwide.
LINK
