‘Win-win situation’ as Smithers Group buys former NMR laboratory

The firm sold the 14,693 sq ft laboratory and office building, on Skipton Road in Harrogate, for £1.5m to global environmental science and technology company Smithers Group.

The laboratory, which employed 35 staff, closed down last September after more than 30 years and all testing work was moved to NMR’s Wolverhampton site. Forty office staff have relocated to Pannal Business Park in Harrogate.

It is understood that the decision was made to move the laboratory to Wolverhampton after a new site was built.

Gent Visick brokered the deal on behalf of NMR. The Smithers Group were represented by Midas Corporate Consulting.

Rupert Visick, from Gent Visick, who advised on the sale, said “We are thrilled to have been involved in one of the most significant transactions in Harrogate this year. This deal represents a genuine win-win situation, providing both buyer and seller with the ideal outcome.”

Andy Warne, managing director of the NMR Group said, “We were delighted with the sale of Skipton Road, we always knew it would be a challenging prospect.

“Retaining a presence within Harrogate was important to us and Gent Visick achieved a great result.”

NMR provides management information on an individual cow’s performance in terms of milk quality, yield and fertility. It also provides dairy software and supplies aggregate data to over 35 dairy industry bodies including milk buyers, DairyCo and breed societies as well as forming the basis for food providence schemes for retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spen- cer.

National Milk Laboratories (NML) provides payment and quality testing for all major milk buyers in the UK including Dairy Crest, Arla, Wiseman, First Milk and Milk Link.

It receives bulk milk samples from 98 per cent of UK dairy farms for every collection of milk made by the milk buyer.

NML also runs national statutory testing programmes on behalf of DEFRA and the Food Standards Agency.