Midlands tube and piping manufacturer Tricorn Group has sold its Redman Fittings business to Derbyshire-based Radius Pipe Systems for an undisclosed sum to "allow it to concentrate on its core business."
The sale takes place after Tricorn reported earlier this year that reduced demand for its products in the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ would hit its first-half profits.
Radius, which has its headquarters in Alfreton, is a supplier of polyethylene pipes and fittings to the gas and utilities industry and is a long-term customer of Tricorn, one of the region's oldest engineering groups.
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Mike Welburn, chief executive of Tricorn which has bases in Kelvin Way, West Bromwich, and Malvern, said: “As the group’s principal activity is tube manipulation, the Redman business fell outside our area of strategic focus.
“The sale to one of Redman’s long- standing customers will allow the management team to concentrate fully on our core business.”
Tricorn supplies equipment to niche markets worldwide in the energy, transportation and aerospace sectors. It employs around 430 people at six separate sites in the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ, China and the USA.
The group said revenue from its former Whitley Products operation in North Carolina, which it acquired in March, together with modest but increasing revenues from its Chinese facility had more than offset softer markets for the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ businesses and, an anticipated lower revenue from the aerospace sector.
Earlier this year, Tricorn warned that costs of investment in new operations and a lessening demand for its products in the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ were likely to adversely affect first half profits. The group was established in the 1940s and eventually listed on the Alternative Investment Market in 2004.