IMES GROUP, a specialist engineering group based in Scotland, has bought Davy Weighing Systems (DWS) from Kvaerner Group and Buchan Inspection Services (BIS).
The deals take IMES’ turnover close to £8m ($12m) and the number of employees to more than 110, doubling the staff in the last three years. Both DWS and BIS will remain as separate operating divisions within the group.
DWS was formed 40 years ago and was one of the first companies to offer large capacity strain gauge load cells for industrial applications. Today it designs, supplies and services process weighing and control systems and force measurement systems and equipment.
BIS specialises in crane inspection and was founded by Graham Douglas in 1985, who will continue to run the business.
Explaining why he sold out to IMES, Douglas said: “We will be able to develop our business independently… not only by gaining a stronger foothold in the southern North Sea through IMES’ presence in Great Yarmouth, but also into the increasingly diverse and global markets which IMES has already broken into such as defence.” IMES Group, also founded in 1985, describes itself as a broad-based health and safety engineering company. It claims to be a market leader in load, strain and stress monitoring, measurement and data gathering. Companies in the group include Water Weights, which uses water-filled bags for load testing.
