ENGINEERING
Positive – BC & T Consultants’ general manager Joe Melville says the acquisition of P & I Design is great news for both businesses, for their customers and for Teesside. PICTURE: STUART BOULTON
TWO’ S COMPANY
Ambitious Tees engineering and design firms BC & T Consultants and P & I Design now together under the Limestone umbrella.
WORDS: PHILIP TALLENTIRE
Two highly respected and hugely successful Teesside companies have finally joined forces. Limestone Holdings, the owner of BC & T Consultants, has completed the acquisition of P & I Design on Teesside. When consolidated, the two companies will have a base of more than 40 engineers and technical staff.
Add in the north-west operation of JM Dixon and the group numbers grow to more than 50 people. The three companies complement each other with industryspecific skills, hence the logic of the deal to complete a tri-party group and provide a greater market presence.
BC & T Consultants provides process, mechanical, civil, structural, electrical, control and instrumentation engineering services to process and petrochemical industries across the UK and beyond.
P & I Design is a specialist process and instrumentation company with a greater process, control system and functional safety capability than BC & T, while also carrying site support services in the
Expertise – after consolidation the two companies will have a base of more than 40 engineers and technical staff.
petrochemical sector.
In a nutshell, it’ s great news for both businesses, for their customers and for Teesside.
Both companies are based in Thornaby, and the plan is for P & I Design to move into BC & T Consultants’ current headquarters at Ash House to encourage collaborative working practices between them. The teams will soon be together under one roof, working side-by-side.
The landmark acquisition has been more than two years in the making, revealed BC & T Consultants’ general manager Joe Melville.
“ There’ s been a lot of work that’ s gone on in the background to get the acquisition through,” he explained.
“ A lot of hard work has gone into the acquisition to get us to this point, so to finally get the acquisition over the line is a major success and it allows us to grow and flourish as a company and as a group.“ The companies that make up the Limestone Holdings Group can all grow together and I’ m confident the acquisition will be welcomed by our clients, given that the service level offering is increased across both companies.”
Like BC & T Consultants, P & I Design has a well-deserved reputation for excellence. Founded in 1978, its multidisciplinary teams provide support to clients from project conception through to detailed design, commissioning and operational support.
“ They specialise in process and instrument design,” said Joe.“ They work in a similar sector to us, petrochemical downstream fuel storage, and we’ ve worked quite closely with P & I Design for the last 20 years.
“ We’ ve delivered on a number of projects across the UK, so there was an existing synergy between the companies. The acquisition aligns with the strategic plans we have for the group.
“ One of the things we want to maintain in developing the Limestone Holdings Group is the quality and level of service we offer. We will be maintaining those standards.”
As both companies have been extremely successful at what they do, there’ ll be no radical structural changes now that the acquisition is complete.
“ We have two companies that have been successful over the last 30 to 40 years,” says Joe.“ They are a top-quality company with a great reputation, locally and nationally.
“ We’ re bringing additional knowledge and additional services into the Limestone Holdings Group. We have a proven formula in both businesses and we are being very conscientious not to jeopardise that through the acquisition.”
BC & T Consultants, which was established in 1986, has grown organically and consistently developed as a business – and there are long-term plans to continue expanding.
Over the past few years there have certainly been significant milestones and achievements.
For example, two years ago the ambitious company moved from Kirkleatham Business Park to bespoke offices at Ash House.
And BC & T Consultants’ apprenticeship programme was set up to support future long-term growth for the business, with every apprentice having the opportunity to become integral to the overall operation.
For more information, visit bct-consultants. co. uk
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