Scottish headquartered engineering group RSE (Ross-shire Engineering) today completed the acquisition of Basingstoke-based W.E.S., specialists in the design and manufacture of chemical dosing solutions for the UK water industry.
The deal will see RSE take up a majority equity share in the business – which is a market leader in the South – whilst retaining the key skills of the W.E.S. management team. The deal – which is the latest in a series of planned acquisitions – represents another move south of the border for Muir of Ord-headquartered RSE, having picked up engineering group ACIEM in March.
The move will further enhance RSE’s presence in the South, consolidating the engineering group’s position as one of the country’s leading specialist water treatment and clean energy solutions provider.
Speaking about the acquisition, RSE Managing Director, Allan Dallas, commented:
We are delighted to welcome W.E.S. into the RSE group of businesses. We have enjoyed some success in the past year exporting our award-winning water treatment systems into the English market, with demand growing faster than we first expected. Our interest in acquiring W.E.S. was to extend the reach of our existing chemical dosing offering, and we are pleased to have a highly capable engineering team now based in the South. W.E.S. have been very innovative in developing products over the past years, and we believe these will complement our own products.
All of W.E.S’ 50 staff are based in Basingstoke, Hampshire.
W.E.S. Managing Director Kevin Wheeler welcomed the partnership as a timely support to W.E.S. growth ambitions:
Since forming W.E.S. 25 years ago, we have achieved sustained year on year growth. We are planning to continue this journey with greater capacity and technical support from our new colleagues at RSE. As our customers seek out cost effective and carbon-reducing solutions to their projects, we feel confident the products and innovations developed by RSE will only strengthen our offering to the market.
