Growth in pipeline as Pegler builds on stability

The business, which has manufacturing sites in Leeds and Doncaster, says it is continuing to invest heavily in the region to create a base for future growth.

According to accounts filed with Companies House, Pegler Yorkshire saw turnover increase from £153.6m in 2010 to £154.1m in 2011, while pre-tax profits went from £10.7m to £6.5m.

It is part of a group which recorded an overall turnover of £158m, up from £156m the year previously, and includes operations in China and Hungary. The group employs around 1,300 people, including about 750 in Yorkshire.

Financial director of Pegler Yorkshire, Ian Howarth, said: “You can see in the numbers in the UK turnover’s stable, we’ve gone from £153.6m to £154.1m, and that mirrors the whole consolidated group as well.

“That is against a UK backdrop which is ever more challenging.”

The overall profit of the group was “down slightly”, he said, adding: “The Chinese activities and Hungarian activities have had an increase in the last couple of years.”

Doncaster-headquartered Pegler Yorkshire, which manufactures fittings, taps and valves for customers in the UK and abroad, supplies to builders’ merchants including clients such as Travis Perkins and Wolseley.

Phill Jackson, marketing director, said: “In 2011, the construction industry was incredibly flat and particular areas that we trade in as well were quite depressed so the social housing market fell by I think about eight per cent, the Building Schools for the Future programme was abolished, there was a massive cut in health expenditure... so against that sort of backdrop we feel we held up fairly well and we believe in the sectors we are involved in we actually took share out of a number of those sectors.”

Labour’s £55bn Building Schools for the Future project, an investment programme in school buildings, was axed in summer 2010 by Education Secretary Michael Gove, who said it was wasteful and inefficient.

However, Mr Jackson said that through the growth of new products and exports Pegler Yorkshire has been able to maintain its turnover year-on-year.

The business exports to more than 100 countries, with key growth markets including the Middle East and Europe.

Pegler Yorkshire’s exports accounted for £46m of sales in 2011, compared to £43m-£44m the previous year.

Mr Jackson said: “We’ve had a historical strength in the Middle East for a number of years. We took the decision to create a sales office out in the Middle East and we’ve now got five people based there.

“It’s given us better knowledge about the local market and it’s helped us to begin to develop a real specification base for our products out there for the future.”

Pegler Yorkshire is now looking at expanding into new markets in the Middle East and Africa.

Meanwhile, in the UK the business is investing in its facilities in both Doncaster and Leeds, said Mr Jackson.

Pegler Yorkshire unveiled a new £5.5m rod extrusion plant at its Doncaster factory in 2010. Mr Jackson explained: “In Doncaster we’ve had an investment of about £6m into our bar production facilities and that is continuing now with the production of new furnaces and a new stamping area, so we’ve a further £2.1m investment going in there.

“In Leeds, we are looking at a new manufacturing facility for our push fittings (which are for joining pipes together) which again is an investment value of about £3m.”

Stock exchange-listed Aalberts Industries NV, the Dutch engineering giant, owns Pegler Yorkshire.

Aalberts Industries acquired Yorkshire Fittings and then Pegler, later merging the two long established Yorkshire businesses to create Pegler Yorkshire.

“With support from Aalberts we are continuing to invest going forward to develop this business.

“We won’t be investing in labour intensive processes, we will be investing in capital intensive processes, so we can continue to keep jobs in this country and we won’t export the jobs to overseas”, said Mr Howarth.

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