Hadley Group plans to buy academy
Smethwick-based Hadley Group, the UK's largest cold roll formed sections manufacturer, has confirmed that it is the preferred bidder for the purchase of a former fire training centre.
The old West Midlands Fire Service Training Academy on Dartmouth Road is sited next to Hadley's steel fabrications factory in Gaitskell Way.
Group chairman Stewart Towe said: "This acquisition, will in due course, provide the opportunity for us to create a 12-acre flagship manufacturing site at Dartmouth Road, thereby yielding significant manufacturing output gains while greatly increasing our size and flexibility to the market."
West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority decided to close its training academy in Smethwick in 2013.
The 53,259 sq ft complex on a 4.2-acre site was put on the market through Harris Lamb Property Consultancy.
The closure was part of a review of buildings owned by the fire service which switched firefighters' training to fire stations and in the community.
The academy was once regarded as a national centre of excellence and trained officers from forces across the country.
The fire service originally bought the building in 1992 but it became too expensive to continue to maintain and it eventually closed in the summer of 2014 with all the staff that were based there relocated.
Deputy managing director of Hadley Group Ben Towe said that it was expected that the negotiations over the acquisition of the site would be concluded by mid March.
"We are not revealing any of the financial details or the detailed plans for the site at this stage.
"What we are trying to do is create more local jobs. It is a win for UK manufacturing and will support our rapid growth."
Hadley Group, which has its headquarters located in Downing Street, Smethwick, was founded in 1964 and operates from five UK sites as well as overseas facilities including in Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand.
It now employs more than 500 people worldwide and has grown to have an annual turnover across the group of over £100 million.
Last year the Black Country-based group opened its ninth worldwide manufacturing centre at Gebze, near Istanbul, Turkey.
It followed the acquisition earlier in 2016 of Dutch cold roll former Overeem and formed part of Hadley Group's growth plans within its 2020 vision of further increasing worldwide production capacity and of diversification into new markets for cold roll forming.
The Gaitskell Way factory is a purpose-built, high volume manufacturing centre where the Sections and Profiles, Steel Fencing Division and UltraSTEEL products administrative centres are based. High volumes of UltraSTEEL products are manufactured there as well as prototype testing of new products before volume manufacture.
Gaitskell Way is also home to the Hadley Group information technology department, learning centre and George Green Transport.
