SHANGHAI: Shandong Yongtai Chemical Group acquired the British manufacturer UYT for 30 million pounds ($46.698 million) here the other day, creating another milestone in Yongtai’s UK expansion.
Yongtai has had a strong UK presence since its acquisition of the British automotive supplier Covpress in July 2013. Yongtai has made UYT a subsidiary under Covpress, overseen by Covpress European CEO Kit Halliday.
Holliday said the UYT acquisition would give Yongtai good access to advanced robotics technology and software, which are important in the car manufacturing supply chain.
He said Covpress, which specializes in pressing material to be used in the car manufacturing process, has been working for 12 years with UYT, which uses robotics technology for welding of the different car parts.
“The acquisition by our parent company would also give Covpress access to UYT’s existing customers, like Hongda, and allow UYT access to our customers, like Jaguar Land Rover and General Motors” Holliday said.
Because welding technology is very advanced in the UK and UYT is a leader in this sector, UYT will be working with Yongtai on technology transfer so it can be deployed by Yongtai on a larger scale for the Chinese market.
Because the factories of Covpress and UYT are next to each other, another benefit of the acquisition is for them to share manufacturing spaces.
“Because Covpress has grown significantly from 350 workers in 2013 when Yongtai bought us to 700 workers now, our manufacturing space is not enough to accommodate the additional machineries, but UYT has spare space so we can use that for our manufacturing,” Holliday said.
The rapid expansion at Covpress caused the factory to rearrange the layout of its plant extensively and, in some instances, demolish some administrative spaces to make room for manufacturing, and it is now at full capacity.
“In addition, the acquisition is great news for the local economy and as someone working in Coventry’s manufacturing industry I feel very happy to see Yongtai’s contribution,” Holliday said.
Yongtai has said that it will retain the 400 workers at the UYT factory, and hire an additional 100 workers over the next two years. This will take Yongtai’s UK team to a total of 1,200.
Holliday said the deal is reached through considerable effort by his team, but with great support from Yongtai. He said Covpress is also now just beginning to create technology transfer with Yongtai, to help taking its pressing technology to be deployed on a larger scale in China.
Established in 1996 as a joint venture between Japanese and British manufacturers, UYT currently supplies mainly to Hongda. But Holliday said with investment from the Chinese company, UYT will expand and will have capacity to supply many more car companies in the UK.
He said although the UYT team was championing its niche sector technology prior to the acquisition, UYT’s team felt that its scope and market were too limited, so they welcomed the opportunity to work with Yongtai, so they may expand production and markets.
You Xiaoming, president of the Yongtai Group, said that the news shows Yongtai’s contribution to the UK’s car manufacturing business and the maintaining and creating of jobs in the local economy.
Its acquisition of Covpress was done in a 30 million pound deal, and since then a further 25 million has been invested in Covpress to expand the company.
