Tag Archives: Deal

International deal paves the way for Goodfellow’s scientific industry expansion

One of the UK’s leading manufacturers of specialist metals and materials has signed a new commercial agreement with Advanced Energy Minerals (AEM) to support its growing order book in the academic and research sectors.

Goodfellow Ltd, which recently delivered materials to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough that shook the world, will work with the Canadian company to build high purity alumina powders into its growing range.

The transatlantic deal gives the Huntingdon-based firm exclusivity for sales denominations of up to 20kg per line, covering nine high purity alumina powders, 5 gamma powders and 4 alpha powders.

Mark Fenton, Goodfellow’s Chief Operating Officer, commented: “This agreement will provide access to new materials, whilst also strengthening our portfolio for 6000+ customers that are always interested in high-quality chemicals.

“The scientific sector is a core market for our business and there is plenty of potential there for us to grow if we can continue to offer the highest purity of materials.”

He continued: “We hit the headlines last month through our close partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on the Nuclear Fusion experiment, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

“Goodfellow has also supplied materials for the particle accelerators and detectors used by CERN, whilst our expertise has also been channelled into European Spallation Source (ESS) projects.”

Michael Adams, CEO of Advanced Energy Minerals, added his support: “We are delighted to extend our presence in the academic sector thanks to the agreement signed with our partner Goodfellow.

“The deal, which will extend our global reach with scientists, universities and research institutions, also meets AEM’s ambition to become the preferred producer of premium alumina and other aluminium derivatives for the scientific community.”

Goodfellow is a leading global supplier of metals, alloys, ceramics, glasses, polymers, compounds, composites and other materials to meet the research, development and specialist production requirements of science and industry.

Located on Ermine Business Park in Huntingdon, the company has an extensive range of 150,000 catalogue products in multiple forms available off the shelf, most subject to free delivery within 48 hours and with no minimum order quantities.

It also offers a comprehensive range of bespoke processing services, effectively operating as an extension of a customer’s production team to develop custom-fabricated components in any quantity required.

Mark concluded: “Our in-house team comprises fellow scientists and engineers with extensive knowledge of materials and processing. Through their technical expertise, and a supporting range of specification tools, we have built an unrivalled reputation for finding solutions to the most challenging of research problems.”

Taylors Solicitors advises as Keenans expands with deal for Letting Locations

A north west estate and letting agent has expanded with a swoop for a Preston-based business.

Keenans Group has acquired Letting Locations for an undisclosed sum.

Letting Locations, which trades as Guildhall Residential Lettings, operates from Blackpool Road in Ashton-on-Ribble and has 350 properties under management.

Its managing director Robert Shields is being retained by Keenans on a consultancy basis following the deal.

Keenans is an independent, family-owned group which until now has focused on Greater Manchester and East Lancashire, with 10 branches covering 115 postcodes. It deals with over 2,500 sales and 400 lettings per year and employs nearly 100 staff.

Matthew Catterall, a corporate partner at north west law firm Taylors Solicitors, advised Keenans on the acquisition. Andrew Tabernacle of Bishops Chartered Accountants in Blackburn and Blackpool provided accounting and tax advice.

Matthew said: “We are extremely pleased to have provided legal advice to Keenans and help ensure its successful acquisition of Letting Locations. This transaction will enable Keenans to continue its impressive growth and extend its reach into West Lancashire.”

Paul Keenan, managing director of Keenans, said: “We are delighted to have completed the acquisition of Letting Locations as part of our geographical expansion in the north west.

“The business is a great fit with our current branch network and it expands our lettings management portfolio.

“The staff have tremendous experience and are passionate about the lettings industry. Their commitment to excellence for landlords and tenants alike aligns perfectly with our ethos, and we extend a warm welcome to them as part of the group.”

He added: “The advice from Matthew and Andrew throughout the process has been invaluable, and we look forward to working with them on future acquisitions as we continue towards our growth target.”

Kofax Celebrates its Annual Partner Awards

Arondor, Palette and Xerox Recognized

London, UK – 11th May, 2022 Kofax®, – a leading supplier of intelligent automation software for digital workflow transformation, today announces its Partner of the Year Awards. Arondor, Palette and Xerox were recognized at Kofax’s annual partner event, held virtually.

The Kofax Global Partner Program includes more than 850 partners in over 90 countries who leverage Kofax’s software products to offer many value-added, industry-leading solutions and related services and support to address customer needs. The broad reach of the partner community extends and enhances Kofax’s market coverage and installed base of over 25,000 global customers.

“Kofax’s Partner Awards showcase our robust and thriving community of innovation and select partners that have risen to the top by pushing the automation envelope,” says Chris Strammiello, Senior Vice President of Channel Sales at Kofax. “We’re extremely proud to congratulate this year’s winners and finalists, and look forward to continuing to work with them to further strengthen our global partner program.”

Annual Partner Award Winners

  • Solution of the Year: The Solution of the Year award goes to Arondor, which drives digital transformation and innovation for customers leveraging the full power of the Kofax Intelligent Automation Platform. The other finalists in this category were Connect Solutions and ImageTech.
  • Deal of the Year: The Deal of the Year award winner is Palette Software, which closed the largest partner-led sale of Kofax software delivered in terms of the booking amount. Xerox was also a Deal of the Year finalist.
  • Partner of the Year: The Partner of the Year recipient is Xerox, which showed remarkable growth in 2021 – a truly impressive 30 percent year-over-year increase on top of a historical revenue stream that was already producing millions of bookings. VISEO was also a finalist in this category

The Robot Exchange secures £500k MEIF backing to drive robotic automation

The Robot Exchange has secured a significant £500k investment from leading private equity investment firm, Foresight Group, through the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (“MEIF”).

The Nottingham-based business supplies Robotic Process Automation (“RPA”) software and services to deliver efficiencies to businesses, helping them streamline and automate their processes via robotic infrastructure.

The funding will be used as growth capital, helping The Robot Exchange further innovate in the RPA sector – enabling greater investment in more technical solutions and increasing the volume of customers, markets and platforms that The Robot Exchange can serve.  The Company plans to create an additional five jobs in the near term.

The Robot Exchange focuses primarily on driving efficiencies in the UK enterprise market in a variety of market sectors such as financial services, the lettings industry and wealth management sector.

In light of the transaction, Andy Wallace, CEO of The Robot Exchange, comments: “We were looking for an investor that understood our need to continue to innovate while increasing our revenues. Our software as a service revenue structure around RPA is unusual, and I feel will be a key low-cost investment for many additional, and larger, clients across all vertical sectors.”

“Our Robotic Process Automation technology delivers rapid automation of manual and menial tasks, benefitting businesses and their customers, and we deliver a full return on investment for our clients within the first year, which is highly unusual for any tech project. The MEIF funding will no doubt help us expand this further as we grow our services and enhance our workforce.”

Ray Harris, Private Equity Director and Principal of MEIF at Foresight Group, added: “We’re very pleased to be backing The Robot Exchange as it continues to develop its software. A combination of a great product and management team within a sector that should see significant growth makes for a compelling investment proposition.”

Sajeeda Rose, Chief Executive at D2N2 LEP said: “I’m delighted to see the Midlands Engine Investment Fund supporting innovative and ambitious businesses within our region. With the increasing importance of automation, it’s great to see Robot Exchange getting the support it needs to grow and help drive our region’s economic growth. ”

The Robot Exchange appointed a deal team from Smith Cooper Corporate Finance, led by Dan Bowtell, to obtain growth funding and negotiate the transaction through to completion.

Dan Bowtell, Corporate Finance Partner at Smith Cooper, adds: “The funding attained from Foresight Group and MEIF will play a vital role in helping Andy and his team realise their growth ambitions, helping to digitise the way many businesses operate, boosting efficiency and streamlining operations.”

Legal advice was provided by Lipman Karas LLP.

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.