21.02.2008

Certex UK acquired

The three owner managers of Certex UK have agreed to sell the business to the Foranka division of Axel Johnson International, Foranka already owns Certex companies in Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia and Sweden.

The directors of Harworth, Nottinghamshire based Certex UK purchased the company from wire rope company Bridon International in 2005 in a Management Buy Out.

Forankra was founded by Sven-Olof and Agneta Berntsson in 1984 and is based in Vårgårda, western Sweden it was acquired by Axel Johnson in 2002. The company trades under the brand names Forankra, Certex and allsafe.

In 2006, Foranka’s sales totalled around £115/€150 million with 651 employees.
The Axel Johnson Group has sales in the region of €750/£560 million. Lifting represents around 21 percent of sales, while 77 percent of revenues come from Scandinavia. Telecoms are the group’s largest sector at over 40 percent of sales.

Certex UK plans to detail the rationale and impact that the sale will have on the UK operations at a press conference in early March.