Brammer moves on to Continent
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.BRAMMER, the UK's largest bearings and power transmission distributor, is paying pounds 7.3m to acquire the loss-making French market leader, Roulement Service, in its first move towards developing a pan-European distribution service, writes Terence Wilkinson.
Robert Ffoulkes-Jones, chief executive, said that Roulement Service supplied a nationwide network of 21 branches from a central store. Future expansion would be through new branches and no other acquisitions would be needed.
Roulement Service fell into losses of pounds 400,000 on sales of pounds 10m in the first half of this year after the French economy turned down.
Brammer is paying pounds 6.25m in cash initially, deferring a further pounds 1m, and is taking on pounds 5m in debt. Mr Ffoulkes-Jones said he did not expect Roulement to cover its financing costs this year but expected a contribution in 1993. Brammer shares fell by 4p to 237p.
Bearings suppliers are developing Europe-wide distribution policies and Brammer believes this presents opportunities for a limited number of pan-European distributors.
Brammer has up to 40 per cent of the UK bearings market, while Roulement Service has 10 per cent of the potentially larger French market, where manufacturing industry is stronger.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments