Shawbrook Bank provide QML Holdings with a £6.2m funding line to finance two key acquisitions
Shawbrook Bank has provided fast-growing engineering group QML Holdings with a £6.2m funding line to finance two key acquisitions.
The loan allowed Warwick-based QML Holdings to purchase Hockley Pattern & Tool and QFS Technologies, two high-precision engineering firms headquartered in the Midlands, thereby broadening its range of services.
It means the newly enlarged group is now able to offer a combination of prototyping and tool-making facilities to a number of sectors including aerospace, automotive and rail.
QML Holdings, which employs 120 people, helps blue chip manufacturing firms such as Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls-Royce, GKN and McLaren take their products from drawing board through to production.
The funding line will also give QML Holdings additional working capital so it can continue its expansion.
Carl Roberts, director at QML Holdings, said:
“We could see that many of our clients were looking for a single supplier that could provide prototyping, the tooling required for production and the jigs and assemblies to service them. Initially, we were in dialogue with the owners of QFS but when the additional opportunity arose to acquire Hockley we were able to act very quickly as it was a perfect fit with our strategy. The response from Shawbrook was exceptionally fast and simply wouldn’t have happened without the team’s understanding of our business or the industry.”
Mark Parsons, senior relationship director at Shawbrook Bank, said:
“I’ve worked with original equipment manufacturers for many years and could immediately appreciate what Carl and the other directors wanted to achieve. QFS and Hockley Pattern are both excellent businesses in their own right, with highly skilled and experienced people behind them. So I have no doubt that the enlarged group under QML Holdings will now be able to offer a very compelling proposition to their clients, many of which are leading UK manufacturers.”
