Humber Manufacturer Acquires New Warehouse
Humber-based manufacturer has acquired a new 42,000 sq ft warehouse in Scunthorpe. For this acquisition Birkdale Manufacturing Group received a £400,000 Growing the Humber Business Investment Grant from North Lincolnshire Council to ensure the expansion could go ahead. The company manufactures garage doors, roller shutters, composite doors, awnings, pergolas and window blinds. “In the last few years Birkdale has invested heavily on new machinery, which allowed us to increase our capacity to cope with extra demand. This created workspace issues so to cope with growth, further investment and larger floor space was required,” said Birkdale owner Simon Sturman. “With the help of North Lincolnshire Council’s business development team, we’ve been able to find premises and secure grant money, which added to our own £1.4 million of investment allowing us to bring forward our expansion plans.” Having worked in partnership with the council to secure funding from the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership, Birkdale has now entered into a lease-purchase agreement to move sites on the Queensway Industrial Estate. Marketed by PPH Commercial for £1.25m, the detached premise has a purpose-built warehouse and distribution facility along with internal office and staff facilities. “Some local authorities can borrow money for as little as 1 per cent, so it makes sense to invest this in commercial property which can offer an annual yield of anything from three to as much as 7 per cent. In my opinion, North Lincolnshire Council should be praised for adopting this brave and innovative approach to their investment strategy. Not only does it offer good returns, but it also brings added security to the local economy,” added Duncan Willey, the divisional director who completed the sale for PPH Commercial. Manufacturing & Engineering Magazine | The Home of Manufacturing Industry News
BAE Systems Completes Acquisition of the Riptide Business
BAE Systems, Inc. has announced the purchase of the key assets of Riptide Autonomous Solutions, a Plymouth, Massachusetts-based provider of innovative, affordable unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) technology and solutions. Specializing in small UUVs, Riptide’s platforms are sophisticated yet simple, efficient, and highly flexible, offering performance discriminators within this domain that include greater depth, range, endurance, and speed. “Adding Riptide’s technological capabilities will position us to provide customers unmatched flexibility by offering a family of UUVs and integrated payload solutions capable of supporting a variety of critical missions,” said Terry Crimmins, president of BAE Systems Electronic Systems. “Coupling our extensive expertise in sonar, signal processing, sensor fusion, undersea communications, electronic warfare, and autonomous systems with Riptide’s unique UUV platforms will enable us to affordably address rapidly expanding maritime mission requirements in the global defense, commercial, and research markets.” Jeff Smith, Riptide’s founder and president, said that, “Everyone at Riptide is excited to be joining BAE Systems, given our shared focus and strategic vision for the undersea market.” Riptide employees will join the BAE Systems Electronic Systems sector, many as part of the FAST Labs™ organization, where our scientists and engineers innovate capabilities to address some of the toughest challenges in the defense, aerospace, and security domains. The FAST Labs team looks forward to maturing Riptide’s platform technology, demonstrating new solutions, and scaling manufacturing production. This is consistent with our strategy to acquire and incubate small business innovations that can yield disruptive technology breakthroughs for BAE Systems programs of record. We expect to maintain the Riptide facilities in Plymouth, Mass., further expanding our footprint in the New England area. Headquartered in Nashua, NH, BAE Systems Electronic Systems is a premier provider of commercial and defense electronics for flight and engine control, electronic warfare, surveillance, communications, geospatial intelligence, and power and energy management. Manufacturing & Engineering Magazine | The Home of Manufacturing Industry News
