Billionaire Scottish entrepreneur Jim McColl has stepped down as chairman of Parsons Peebles as the historic Fife engineering firm gets ready to hit the acquisition trail.
The move comes 13 months after the businessman’s industrial investment vehicle Clyde Blowers Capital (CBC) bought the Rosyth based specialist electric motor and generator firm in an eight-figure deal.
At the time of the purchase last year, Mr McColl spoke of his delight at acquiring a firm he had tracked for several years and promised significant investment and said he expected the 40-strong workforce to double under CBC’s ownership.
He has been replaced as chairman of the company by chartered accountant and CBC managing partner Keith Gibson, who will oversee the next stage of the firm’s aggressive expansion strategy.
Parsons said Mr Gibson – who joined CBC in 2007 after advising the firm on the £45 million acquisition of Weir Pumps Limited, a business that was later sold as Clyde Union Pumps in a £750m deal – had come on board as it looked to expand its operations.
A key facet of its ongoing strategy will be the pursuit of complementary businesses which can be bolted on to the Parsons Peebles portfolio and add value.
“I am looking forward to working closely with the Parsons Peebles team as we drive the growth of our electrical machines business,” Mr Gibson said yesterday.
“I believe that by acquiring high quality businesses that offer complementary products and services, we can continue to develop the value proposition that we can deliver to our customers.”
Under Mr McColl’s stewardship, the company established new office accommodation at its Fife base, significantly strengthened its executive management and sales teams and recruited additional skilled service technicians in a bid to garner new orders from the offshore and onshore oil and gas industries, the power production sector and other ancillary markets.
Parsons – which made a pre-tax profit of £1.16m in 2012, the most current figure available – was established in Edinburgh in 1898 to make rotating electrical machines and employed thousands of workers at its height.
In 1989 it was subsumed into Rolls-Royce and in 2000 the firm’s factory and offices were relocated from East Pilton to the dockyard at Rosyth.
The company’s fortunes waned and it was placed into receivership in 2005 before being saved by Paterson’s Quarries. The business eventually returned to profitability and was acquired by CBC last January.