Brandt a 'superb fit' with Tilbury Douglas

by Graham Ridout

One week after Amey announced that it was buying Comax to strengthen its support services activities, Tilbury Douglas has done likewise by making an agreed bid of £75 million for Brandt - the scaffold and industrial services company.

Tilbury Douglas' chairman, Mike Bottjer described the £75 million turnover Brandt as being a "superb fit" with the £640m turnover group.

Last year Brandt made a pre-tax profit of £7.7m with the lion's share coming from FK Multiservices which specialises in providing access, industrial cleaning, painting, thermal insulation and cladding. At present 36 per cent of Tilbury Douglas turnover and 60 per cent of its operating profits, come from its equipment, engineering and facilities service.

Bottjer said the operating profits from these activities would rise to around 75 per cent if the Brandt deal goes through. Bottjer said that the rationale for the bid was that it would "give us a clear foothold in access, cleaning and painting in the industrial sector, particularly with the pharmaceutical and petro-chemical companies."

Last year, Tilbury paid £47 million for the How Group - the engineering services and FM company. The other side of Brandt's operation is the Kwikform scaffolding, formwork and falsework business. Tilbury also owns formwork and falsework equipment manufacturer RMD. Bottjer said that there would be some form of rationalisation when Kwikform and RMD are integrated. "Kwikform is a good brand name and we will continue to use it. In many ways, the two businesses are complimentary as a lot of RMD sales are overseas."

The deal is due to be discussed at an extraordinary general meeting on 4 August, but already acceptances have been received from 56 per cent of Brandt's shareholders.