Manchester-based engineering company, Haden Freeman, has signed a cooperation deal with Dutch firm Tebodin B.V. as it expands further into the multibillion-pound pharmaceutical market.
The deal will mean that Haden Freeman and Tebodin B.V. (which is part of Bilfinger, an engineering and services company) will carry on operating under their own names but will now join forces on big pharmaceutical projects.
It is anticipated that the partnership will create hundreds of new jobs around the UK.
Haden Freeman Managing Director, Wayne Baxter, commented that the company has provided the industry with a series of primary engineering solutions for a variety of uses from HAZOP studies to plant expansions.
However, he admitted that areas such as the provision of clean room environments, HVAC and pharmaceutical architecture were not areas they specialised in.
Baxter believes that the new cooperation agreement will change this as the long standing experience of Tebodin in the pharmaceutical industry will mean that they can now offer a broader scope of services to their pharmaceutical clients.
Meanwhile, Tebodin Director, Ron Blokzijil, who is responsible for the companyâs North West Europe operations, believes that both companies are found in a similar engineering space and have both technical and cultural synergy.
When quizzed on the possible effects Brexit will have on the partnership, the directors of the firms said that despite the ongoing political and economic uncertainty in the UK, they are not expecting this to have any impact on their operations in either the mid or long term or on either of the businesses individually.
Baxter also commented that although the partnership will focus primarily on the pharmaceutical market, it will also be looking into entering the chemicals and fine chemicals markets.
Haden Freeman says that this move into the chemical sector could prove lucrative to the North East in particular due to its close proximity to the processing industry on Teesside.
