Wyma Engineering Owners Seek Partner for Growth

Friday 4 August 2006

Wyma Engineering Owners Seek Partner for Growth

The owners of Christchurch-based design and manufacture firm Wyma Engineering have appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance as their lead adviser as they seek to identify a strategic partner and develop their expansion plans for the business.

Owner Andrew Barclay said Wyma Engineering had experienced strong growth over recent years and the time was right to assess their future plans. “This is now a business close to $20m in revenue and we’re of the view that our growth in the next phase is going to be best achieved – and accelerated – by having a strategic partner on board.”

Offers will be sought by PricewaterhouseCoopers through until 23 August, with a view to completing the process toward the end of October.

Wyma Engineering, with 90 staff, is primarily an export-focused business. More than 85% of its turnover is driven by a presence in 23 offshore markets including the UK, Europe, Australia and the Americas. Since the Barclay family took over the business in 2001, Wyma Engineering has grown nearly tenfold, and has been a finalist for several awards, including the 2005 NZTE Exporter of the Year and the 2005 American Chamber of Commerce Exporter Awards.

The company’s products include machinery for receiving, washing, grading and packing vegetables, as well as general materials handling equipment such as conveying and receival systems. Its flagship product, The Wyma Vege Polisher, invented in Christchurch in the 1990s, is now the number one system of its type in the world.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance partner Craig Armitage said he expected considerable interest in the company from within New Zealand and further afield.

“Wyma is recognised around the world as an industry leader that supplies high quality, innovative products,” he said. “It has a proven track record, and under the Barclays’ ownership it has had significant growth on the back of a very successful export programme.”

ENDS

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