Manchester Evening News - Harland Machine Systems

Salford-based Harland has acquired a majority stake in Cobalt IS Auto ID, a privately-owned Crewe business which turns over £2.5m.

Harland, which exports about 90 per cent of its products, saw sales grow by 30 per cent to £15m during 2010.

It designs, manufactures, installs and maintains machinery that applies labels to consumer products such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

Director David Latham said: “We are growing at quite a rate and have been looking for acquisitions that could help increase our turnover. We identified Cobalt as highly complementary to our own operations."

“While our machinery applies labels to products at very high speeds, Cobalt’s machinery immediately prints and applies a freight label to the packaging at the end of the production line.

“Currently Cobalt only really supplies the UK market, but we can take their product and make it global overnight by plugging them in to our network of agents and subsidiaries around the world.

“And we can give it access to cheaper components from our factory in Shanghai.” Cobalt designs and manufactures labelling and printing equipment, as well as developing the associated computer software.

Mr Latham said he anticipated there would be particularly strong demand for Cobalt’s products from blue-chip companies in emerging economies, and that the deal would create new jobs in Crewe.

Harland has 140 staff with customers including PZ Cussons, Shisedo and Henkel, and has a strong presence in markets including the US, western Europe and Asia. Harland was advised on the deal by a team from Kuits Solicitors, Manchester, led by senior associate Jan Winstanley.

For more information contact Jan Winstanley

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