Mastclimber and hoist rental specialist Brogan Group has acquired UK based aluminium common hoist tower manufacturer Construction Access Systems - CAS - in an all-share purchase deal.
Based in St Neots, Cambridgeshire CAS was established in 2010, by Dunstana Davies, David Ellis, Tony Faulkner and Paul Perry as a designer and manufacturer of common towers in which several hoists are arranged around the tower. The concept reduces the unclad area during construction and provides a central point for all vertical access to the building and can also include an integrated staircase.
The company’s towers have been used on a number of major projects including One Park Drive Tower in Canary Wharf, London, the One Za’abeel Tower project in Dubai and the One Sydney Harbour Towers in Australia. Brogan first used the common tower in 2018 with one of its Stros 4050 Colossus Hoists on the 53 floor Madison Amory Tower project in Canary Wharf. It has since gone on to use them on numerous projects including the Battersea Power Station, Canada Water’s The Founding, Greenwich Peninsula and multiple towers at Canary Wharf, in conjunction with Alimak Mammoth hoists and Maber MBC50 goods hoists.
A CAS common tower - the orange tower - on the construction of the Karla tower in Gothenburg, Sweden
CAS managing director Tony Faulkner, one of the two younger founders, will stay on board and join Brogan in a worldwide sales and promotional role to expand the group’s international sales efforts and promote the use of common tower systems.
Based in the UK, Brogan group as a whole had revenues for the calendar year 2022 of £43.2 million, with a pre-tax profit of £5.7 million. and works regularly on projects in Ireland, Dubai and Saudi Arabia and is currently expanding into new markets in continental Europe and the USA. The CAS transaction was completed on May 24th.
Three of the CAS owners and founders (L-R) Paul Perry, David Ellis and Tony Faulkner
Faulkner said: “When we decided to sell CAS we received a great deal of interest from the market including from hoist manufacturers and specialist access providers. Brogan emerged early on as a ‘best fit’ to promote our common tower to a wider market in the UK and worldwide”.
Brogan director Wayne Smith added: “I see demand for the common tower increasing worldwide and by adding a manufacturing capability, we will greatly increase our appeal to new users and for new applications. We believe the CAS system is the best in the world. Being alloy it is lightweight and easy to pre-fabricate floors at ground level before lifting into position, whilst its inherent load bearing capacity has the potential to service in excess of 500 metre building heights’."
Seeking more acquisitions
A statement from Brogan added: “The Common Tower system designed by CAS, aligns with and augments the group’s current range of access solutions, which together with hoists includes scaffolding, mastclimbers, crane decks and cradles. Brogan is actively seeking further acquisitions and international partners in specialist high rise access including the manufacturing of construction hoists and other related industries such as wind power and access platforms.”
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