Aircraft carrier deal won by Ormandy
Bradford based Ormandy Group has won the contract to provide the water treatment, boosting and hot water equipment for the two largest warships ever built in the UK.
The 65,000 tonne aircraft carriers are being procured by the Ministry of Defence at a total cost of £3.9 billion.
The water treatment plant on board the carriers – to be named HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince Of Wales – will produce more than 500 tonnes of fresh water daily.
The ships, which can each carry 40 aircraft, will be delivered by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance – a grouping comprising industry suppliers and the Ministry of Defence, which acts as both client and participant.
For the manufacturing phase, the industrial participants include BVT Surface Fleet, Thales UK, Babcock and BAE Systems.
Ormandy has been working closely with Thales UK, the specialist electronics and systems group covering the defence, aerospace and security markets, for over two years.
Ormandy managing director Paul Cooper: “This is a highly prestigious and exciting contract,
The whole group is buzzing with excitement about this and everyone is highly motivated to put all of this performance critical equipment together.
“It is a great confidence boost for us and to the rest of the industry to be able to secure such valuable work at a time of considerable economic uncertainty.”
Among the units Ormandy is supplying are two ship-sets each comprising three hydrophore units and water treatment plant, duty/standby pumps operating at 12 litres/sec @ 8 Bar G with three 500-litre accumulators built to PD 5500 cat III and Lloyd's Register's Rules and Regulations.
Also included in the contract are three calorifier packages for each ship with two 1,400-litre stainless steel vessels, 240kW immersion heaters and two 500-litre expansion vessels, all meeting the PD5500 cat III specification and Lloyds’ rules.
Ormandy buys Aquatherm Sales
The Bradford-based Ormandy Group has bought Aquatherm Sales UK - the exclusive supplier of Aquatherm plastic piping systems.
Formed in 2001, Aquatherm offers CAD prefabricated system design and off-site fabrication facilities from its Sussex headquarters.
With the addition of 20 workers from Aquatherm, Ormandy, which specialises in off site fabrication and water heating, now employs 200 people.
The Ormandy Group's managing director Paul Cooper said: "We share a philosophy about how building services packages should be put together."
He added: "We have also worked together on a series of major off-site fabrication systems and this is becoming an ever more significant part of our businesses. Aquatherm pipework has been a key component of many of our most successful plant room and distribution packages."
Paul Cooper said merging the companies would help them both to develop by bringing their design and product development teams closer together. He said Aquatherm's existing technical sales team will remain in place.
The Aquatherm staff join a group comprising-
- the Ormandy packaged solutions, water heating and offsite fabrication businesses;
- the Rycroft range of industrial and commercial water heaters;
- Hartley & Sugden boilers;
- industrial stainless steel product manufacturer Newade;
- copper and marine high duty fittings specialist Dreh.
Ormandy also includes what was formerly the Heatrae Industrial business, which was renamed Ormandy Electric Heaters.
Among the products manufactured by Aquatherm GmbH in Germany and supplied by Aquatherm UK are the Fusiotherm and Climatherm pipe systems.
Ormandy acquires Rycroft
Off site fabrication and water heating specialist Ormandy has bought commercial water heating manufacturer Rycroft from the Baxi Heating group for an undisclosed sum.
Since its formation six years ago, Ormandy has grown quickly to become a leading supplier of prefabricated packaged plant rooms and also offers a wide range of water heating solutions including calorifiers and plate heat exchangers.
It passed the £5 million turnover barrier last year and recently acquired the steam and hot water boiler manufacturer Hartley & Sugden as well as Newade Stainless, which produces high quality stainless steel products for the pharmaceutical, process and food industries.
The Dreh and Heatrae Industrial businesses will also join the Ormandy portfolio as part of the acquisition, which further extends the Halifax-based group’s offsite construction business and broadens its range of commercial water heating products.
Rycroft will continue to operate from its headquarters in Bradford and under its own name. Ormandy also intends to retain all of the 89 people currently employed by Rycroft.
"This is a very positive move for everyone associated with the two companies," said Managing Director Paul Cooper, who founded Ormandy in 2001 after standing down as MD of Rycroft. "The two companies have strong links and many of our people used to be employed by Rycroft. We have an in-depth understanding of the Rycroft product offering and intend to focus on its strengths. We have very clear ideas of where we can now take the extended Ormandy group."
"The commercial water heating market has become increasingly competitive," said a Baxi Heating UK spokesperson. "This caused us to review our product offering and cost base. In order to focus on our core commercial activities, we have decided to sell our Rycroft, Dreh and Heatrae Industrial businesses."
Hartley & Sugden snapped up by Ormandy
Just five years after it was founded, heating and hot water equipment manufacturer Ormandy has acquired the 130-year-old boiler maker Hartley & Sugden.
Ormandy also announced that its core business had reached its first turnover target of £5m over one year ahead of schedule with the help of rising demand for its pre-fabricated plantrooms and stand alone hot water process equipment.
Hartley & Sugden is one of the industrial/commercial heating industry’s best known names and once employed over 400 people. Ironically, Ormandy moved into one of its former factories in Halifax when managing director Paul Cooper set up the business in 2001.
"For a company as young as ours to acquire such a legendary industry name is quite an achievement and has given everyone at Ormandy a huge lift," said Mr Cooper.
"Hartley & Sugden may not command the once dominant position it held in the market, but its reputation and products will enhance our offering and expand our client base. It is our intention to expand the product range to meet the requirements of Part L, and thereby return the company to growth. "
Ormandy has also acquired the stainless steel pressure vessel and process equipment manufacturer Newade Stainless Products Limited.
"We were delighted to complete the acquisition of Newade," said Mr Cooper. "The timing was fortuitous as we heard the company was available just at the time we had decided to extend the stainless steel element of our product line. This will streamline our production and dramatically reduce our stainless steel production costs.It will also extend our reach into the pharmaceutical, process and food industries."
"Together with Brade Engineering, the specialist manufacturer of packaged heat exchangers and steam heating products which we purchased in 2004, we now have the product range and expertise to offer an exciting range of heat exchange solutions across our key markets in both the building services and process industries."