A Dundee precision engineering group is to pursue ambitious plans to more than double in size in four years after securing major new investment.
West Pitkerro Industrial Estate-based GA Engineering confirmed it had received a “significant” cash injection from Simmons Private Equity (SPE), a fund ultimately managed by specialist energy industry investment bank Simmons & Company International Ltd.
The value of the deal has not been disclosed.
However, The Courier understands that it runs into seven-figures and gives GA the financial scope to pursue an aggressive growth strategy to build the business to a £30 million turnover concern in the next four years.
Company founder Gordon Deuchars yesterday stressed that it was “business as usual” for the firm and the 160 workers it employs across its three principal heavy industrial, sliding head and north-west divisions.
He said the cash injection, the first time the company has taken private equity investment since it began operating in 1992, was designed to take it to the “next level”, with the focus firmly on growth in the medium-term.
Mr Deuchars said he had retained a significant shareholding in the business and would continue in his managing director role going forward alongside new chief executive officer Gavin Aitken, an oil and gas industry veteran who has relocated to Scotland for his new role.
“Gavin is coming in from Simmons’ point of view, and when I met him four months ago we got on very, very well,” said Mr Deuchars yesterday.
“He is a GlobalScot who has been based in Singapore for many years, and he comes here with a huge volume of knowledge.
“We have also got a new FD (financial director) coming in that will give us a really strong team to take the company forward.”
Mr Deuchars said the investment from SPE came at a timely point in the firm’s evolution.
“I have probably taken it as far as I could, and to go to the next level we needed that investment,” Mr Deuchars continued.
“We have very ambitious plans to grow GA from possibly a £13m business to a £30m business over the next three to four years.
“That will involve a big increase in employment for the area. We are committed to the apprenticeship scheme we have 28 currently serving their time and we are committed to taking on another 48 over the next years and I am sure there will be further growth and investment in plant, machinery and buildings in due course to achieve the projected growth.
“For me, though, it is businesses as usual and I will still be at the helm driving the company forward.
“Dundee is still our platform for growing this company, and the message I want to get across to staff and customers is that we have no plans to move or change that.”
Award-winning GA has built a strong reputation for its precision engineering services, and it supplies complex components to a significant number of clients within the oil, gas and aerospace sectors.
Last year the firm opened an in-house training academy, and its efforts to bring through new apprentices were hailed by Finance Secretary John Swinney.
The firm, a main shirt sponsor for Dundee United, has also recently invested £750,000 in reconfiguring and fitting out the former McTavish Ramsay factory site at West Pitkerro for its sliding head operation.