Bradville adhesives firm gets stuck into Swedish market

An award-winning Milton Keynes manufacturer has brought a majority stake in a Swedish firm.
Beardow Adams, in Blundells Road, Bradville, has paid Lyckeby Industrial an undisclosed amount for 60 per cent of the shares of adhesives-maker Svenska Lim, in the western coastal town of Landskrona.
Mark Rowland, finance director of the Milton Keynes firm, said: “They weren’t a fantastic fit for their owners but for us they are our existing distributor and we can possibly sell their products in our other markets.”
Beardow Adams, which makes adhesives for things like breakfast cereal boxes, already has a presence in Barcelona, Spain and is due to start manufacturing at a factory in Charlotte, in the USA, early next year.
Mr Rowland said the acquisition of Svenska Lim, which employs between 15 and 20 peope was more an opportunistic one than a deliberate strategy of buying other companies.
And he added the move was a potentially good one for employees in Milton Keynes as “we hope to grow the market for hot melt adhesives.
“It makes the business stronger as Svenska Lim has a lot of potential.”
Beardow Adams has been recognised as a manufacturing exemplar over the years, winning five Queen’s Awards for Industry in 1994, 1999, 2002, 2007 and 2012 for innovation and export growth and has a slew of awards for international trade from Milton Keynes and North Bucks Chamber of Commerce.