ONSIDE / COMPANY PROFILE
From flow controls to money controls
Seneca’s investment into one of the best known players in the water treatment
industry marks a massive opportunity. Michael Taylor reports
A
ndrew Williams, the group
managing director of FJ Holdings,
is enthusiastic about the scale of
the opportunity ahead of him.
The £23 million turnover business
makes valves and engineering gates
that pump and control the flow of
water around distribution systems –
waste, or freshwater. It’s an enormous
global market, full of opportunities
and a canny acquisition of a leading
British innovator. It all has the feel of
a plan coming together.
FJ has acquired Ham Baker Adams,
bringing a group of businesses together
with Industrial Penstocks Ltd,
Industrial Pipeline Supplies Ltd and
Industrial Valves Ltd. It brings together
a group of businesses with a first class
reputation and a Queen’s Award for
Enterprise in International Trade. These
companies offer a complete solution
for quality flow control and process
equipment to the water, wastewater
industries, and potential to develop
further products and solutions in the
power, petrochemical and process
industries.
Investment in the group from Seneca
now means the business can support
the re-organisation of the business and
fund a capital expenditure programme.
“Ham Baker was on the market,
but losing money, there were all kinds
of inter-group guarantees from when
the business was part of the previous
group ownership,” he says.
“Our task now is to get the
engineering capability of both FJ and
Ham Baker focused and effective in
all markets.”
Andrew’s first job was to sort
out the integration of the businesses
and to introduce some management
controls which will improve and
streamline processes where the
business deals with regular suppliers
and contractors, prioritizing areas
of expenditure and reorganizing the
different sites the business operates
from.
“It’s one of the most respected
names in the global water industry,
but as a business we found it to be in
quite a disorganised state. The reason
it’s not been working is it’s not been
run as well as it should be, but we
can change that.”
Since the investment into the
business has been completed Andrew
has been getting to grips with all aspects
of the business and understanding what
it is possible to achieve.
“We supply everything in a treatment
works. But we’re now developing
turnkey sewage treatments where we
design, plan and construct a system,
doing everything except the civil
engineering.
“Selling our penstocks and valves
comes with a margin of about 20 per
cent, on systems it’s much higher.”
Typical of this is a recent contract
to design, manufacture, supply and
supervise the installation of high-head
special stainless steel penstocks in
Doha, Qatar.
These will be installed in stormwater
pumping stations for the Lusail
Expressway in Doha, due to be
completed in 2016. The project is a key
component of Qatar’s overall
Expressway Programme, which with
900km of new roads is one of the most
important infrastructure projects for
the country’s public works authority,
Ashghal.
Despite strong competition, Ham
Baker Adams secured the coveted
contract because they were able to fully
comply with the exacting specification
and site requirements. It also helps