Barbour Brown Engineering Ltd
Barbour Brown Engineering Ltd
Section A: Starting up (Outcome 1)
Barbour Brown Engineering Ltd, a firm of consulting engineers was set up by David Barbour and Neil Brown 14 years ago, in a main town within a large rural area. Initially the firm concentrated solely on civil engineering projects such as road and sewer developments for the increasing number of private housing developments, which were springing up.
During the 1980s Neil and David had both worked for a large city firm (Floyd and Fleming Ltd), which had an office in the town. David had been branch manager and Neil, a younger and very enterprising individual, headed up the structural development section before spending two years working in the Middle East. In 1989 Floyd and Fleming Ltd decided to close the branch office and concentrate their business in the city.
Neil had recently returned from working in the Middle East and had enjoyed the freedom and flexibility of being his own boss. He discussed with David the possibility of continuing to offer the engineering consultancy service in the town, under a new joint partnership. David had local experience and was aware that there were sufficient smaller projects to sustain the firm’s viability. He also had savings and equity that could be used for a management buy-out. Neil, likewise, had savings acquired through his work abroad. With these resources the pair had enough capital to buy the offices that housed the current Floyd and Fleming business. A business plan was drawn up to secure additional funding to buy over the business. Funding to support this venture was acquired through a bank loan and a grant from the then Scottish Development Agency. The management buy-out was agreed on the condition that they would not accept or carry out work within the central belt for a period of five years.
In 1990 the new firm of Barbour Brown Engineering Ltd opened. The team comprised...
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