Muir of Ord-based company RSE (Scottish Ross-Shire Engineering) has strengthened its position in the specialist water treatment and clean energy market south of the border with its second major acquisition in England.
The firm announced it has secured majority ownership of Aciem, which has an annual turnover of £14 million and provides engineering services to UK water authorities from its facilities near Bath, in Leeds and Port Talbot in Wales.
RSE managing director Allan Dallas said: “We are delighted to welcome Aciem into the RSE group of businesses.
“We have enjoyed great success in the past year exporting our award-winning water treatment systems into the English market, with demand growing faster than we first expected.
“Our interest in acquiring Aciem is to bolster our management, our engineering resources and trade level skills in the regions that we are experiencing growth.”
Mr Dallas continued: “Aciem have a strong reputation for smart engineering solutions, and they have a track record with multiple water authorities across England.
“We hope this will augment the export of our products and provide a deeper solution to the customer in these new territories for us.
“We have found in Scotland that combining products, projects and maintenance can enhance the value of our offering to the customer.”
Forty of Aciem’s 60 staff are based in Leeds, close to the base of Saftronics, another recent RSE acquisition.
The company also announced the opening of a new 28,000sq ft manufacturing centre in Dewsbury last week.
RSE said the acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, will see it take up a majority equity share in the business while “retaining the key skills of the Aciem management team”.
Aciem managing director Martin Whitfield welcomed the deal as “timely support.”
He continued: “Since forming Aciem through an MBO in 2016, we have enjoyed considerable year-on-year growth.
“We are hoping to continue this journey with greater financial and technical support from our new colleagues at RSE.
“As our customers seek out cost-effective and carbon-reducing solutions to their projects, we feel confident the products and innovations developed by RSE will only strengthen our offering to the market.”
RSE is owned by Envoy and Partners, a 2019 spin-off from Inverness-based energy sector services company Global Energy Group (Geg).
Envoy chief executive Iain MacGregor, who is the son of Geg founder and chairman Roy MacGregor, said that Aciem was one of four acquisitions lined up for RSE in the coming year, which should take the company to over £100 million in revenue.
Envoy plans to build RSE as a specialist mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, controls and automation (Meica) contractor to the UK water sector with revenues exceeding £250m.
