Dudley jobs secured as takeover creates new £8m firm

All jobs at Alexander Comley are being retained following its takeover by Sheffield firm Evenort.

Evenort, with 44 staff, has turnover of £5m and says combined with Alexander Comley's turnover the expanded business will have revenues of around £8 million.

Based on the Pensnett Estate, Alexander Comley is almost 100 years old and manufactures large flanged products for customers in the power, oil & gas, defence and process plant industries.

Evenort , a precision engineering company, says the purchase "will better serve the existing customer base across the UK and internationally by allowing the newly formed group to offer a single source for all product".

Craig McKay, chief executive at Evenort, said: "Continuing the values on which Evenort is run, the opportunity to acquire such a historic name from the British steel industry is one we feel will be of benefit to both existing and future customers.

"Alexander Comley and Evenort will, over the coming months, form a group which will continue to evolve the “can do – will do” approach our customers have come to expect. Very exciting times lie ahead for us all.”

Evenort says Alexander Comley’s diversification into tubesheets for heat exchangers, filter plates for the filtration/separation industries with £500,000 investments in machinery provides a synergy for both companies that mean they are similar, yet different enough to complement one another.

Glen McKay, Evenort's managing director, added: “We maintain a long term vision and strive to meet all challenges with the courage and creativity needed to realise that vision.

Evenort's success in recent years saw Craig McKay installed as the 377th Master Cutler in Shefield in 2015, with the role of acting as ambassador representing the city’s wider technology and manufacturing interests. The Cutler Company was founded in 1624 under first Master Cutler Robert Sorby and, at 45, Mr McKay was one of the youngest to hold the post.