Dairy kit specialist Fullwood sold to Dutch company

Dairy equipment manufacturer Fullwood has been bought by Dutch company the Verder Group.

Verder is a family-owned manufacturer and distributor of industrial products and has bought the whole of the 230-year-old UK-based Fullwood Packo Group.

Best known in agriculture for its dairy equipment, Fullwood also makes specialist products for the food and pharmaceutical industries.

See also: Best of British – Fullwood

The company was founded in 1785 and has always been a privately run business, most recently with Richard Lancaster as group chairman and Peter Lancaster as chairman of Fullwood Limited.

Both were now over retirement age and had given 50 years or longer of service to the company, with no younger generation family members in the business, said marketing manager Suzy O’Shea.

“It was always going to be the case that this [a sale] was going to be a route to go down. There was a need to provide a safe and secure home for the business. The process to find a good buyer began over a year ago.”

The Verder Group was founded by André Verder in 1959 and has offices in 24 countries. It has two divisions: Verder Liquids, which makes industrial pumps, and Verder Scientific, specialising in laboratory equipment.

The change of ownership took effect on 4 August.