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  • 01/12/2015
  • Media Releases

Buyers of West Midlands steel tube business signal start of new era

The new owners of Caparo Tubular Solutions – now renamed Liberty Tubular Solutions – formally moved into firm’s Oldbury headquarters plant today (1st December 2015) to join management and workers there in building a new future for the business, which was bought out of administration over the weekend, saving nearly 350 jobs.

Representatives of the Gupta family, who acquired the business, along with members of the workforce, put the new ‘Liberty’ sign in place to signal a fresh start for this site and other parts of Tubular Solutions operation.

The Gupta family owns Liberty House, the steel and non-ferrous metals production and trading group, which operates from its four hubs in the UK, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong, with a network of offices across 30 countries.

Sanjeev Gupta, Group Managing Director of Liberty said he predicted a brighter future for the Tubular Solutions business, which is a leading UK designer, manufacturer and distributor of steel tube and various specialist engineering products to the automotive and aerospace industries.

He said: “Fundamentally, Tubular Solutions is a profitable and sustainable business with a highly-skilled workforce and management and we are very excited about the future we can create together.

“There are many natural synergies between our hot rolled coil production and this design, manufacturing and distribution business.  By working together these operations can create a integrated and robust new business model that will create value and protect jobs for the long term.”

Liberty recently restarted hot rolled coil production at its rolling mill in Newport, South Wales. The company imports steel slab through in its own port in Newport for rolling on site but is also considering the possibility of producing slab from domestic steel scrap at the same plant, which has an existing arc furnace.

Mr Gupta added: “I believe that, despite the current difficulties in the UK steel industry, there is a future for the sector based on streamlined and integrated production, processing and distribution. This, together with the new initiatives now supported by the Government, to lower energy costs for energy intensive industries, provides an opportunity for UK steel once again to be competitive.”

Douglas Dawson now Chief Executive of Liberty Tubular Solutions welcomed the investment by the Gupta family. He said: “The last few weeks has been a worrying time for everyone involved in this business but we know we have the skills, experience and motivation among the workforce and management here to make a big success of this business, not only in the UK but internationally as well. The fully integrated proposition from liquid steel to finished product that Liberty will make possible is truly unique in the industry and thanks to this investment we now have the opportunity to achieve this.”

The Gupta family completed the purchase of Caparo Tubular Solutions, a core part of Caparo Industries plc from administrators PwC in the early hours of Saturday morning (November 28th).