One of Profile 22's largest commercial fabricators, KEB Fabrications Ltd has announced the retirement of Tony Berwick; Tony had been the company's MD for 10 years and owner for five of them.
Lawrence Breakspear, who takes over as Managing Director, has purchased the Birmingham-based company with Garry Lacey, the company's Financial Director. The multi-million pound transaction has been financed by the HSBC and the directors themselves. The buyout was finalised on February 1st.

'We are very pleased with the outcome of this sale. It was very smooth and as the company's current bankers, HSBC provided part of the money, it demonstrated to us their faith in the company and ourselves,' commented Lawrence.

With a turnover approaching £10 million, it has been decided to consolidate over the next financial year and concentrate on greater efficiencies and logistical improvements.

The buyout coincides with having just signed a £10 million long-term supply agreement with Profile 22, KEB's systems company for the last 15 years. Lawrence predicts a bright and confident future for the company under its new management.

The KEB team has concentrated, over the last couple of years, in securing long-term partnering deals with a number of housing associations and local authorities, which have created a near £20 million pound futures order book that spans the next nine years.

'Partnering is definitely the way forward and beneficial to any company. We will be securing more partnering deals in the future and will set up a dedicated resource for newbuild windows,' Lawrence adds.

With the support of the Profile 22 team, KEB will be well placed to service the increasing demands of the commercial window replacement sector. 'However, it would be wrong to assume that KEB is purely a Commercial window company,' continues Lawrence.

'It has to be acknowledged that over £1.5 million of our turnover is in fact trade supply-only work and this may be another area for expansion. Potential new traders that wish to buy into KEB's superb quality products are continually approaching us, having heard of our reputation for speedy and timely delivery of quality frames,' comments Financial Director Garry Lacey.

They both feel happy for the moment though, with 1,250 windows and 2,800 sealed units produced weekly and will concentrate their efforts in uplifting the service to their client base and to the end user.

Source

Glass Age