Fri, 24 Jan 2025 | BUSINESS SALE
A 160-year-old business which started life providing cough medicine to soldiers in the Crimean War has been bought by the Wescom Group.
Cardiff-headquartered survival and life support equipment specialist BCB International was founded in 1854 when a Dr Browne invented Brown’s Cough Bottle for British troops in the Crimean trenches. Over the years it has grown to provide other products to soldiers, seafarers and adventurers around the world including shark repellent for the U.S. Navy and medical equipment for Everest climbing expeditions.
It now has a core product range of around 500 products many of which are NATO approved. Key items include medical and survival kits, camouflage and concealment and field equipment. It also supplies FireDragon eco-fuel to soldiers for cooking.
Its main customer is the UK Ministry of Defence.
The company, which has a turnover of around £15 million boosted by increased defence spending following the Ukraine war, was taken over by Cardiff chemist Deryck Howell in 1949 and has remained in the family ever since.
Derby-based Wescom Group is a supplier of safety equipment in the defence, outdoor and marine sectors. It has specialist manufacturing facilities across multiple sites in Germany, UK, Spain and Australia.
Wescom Group chief executive Ross Wilkinson said: "Today we can announce the successful completion of the acquisition of BCB International Ltd., a partnership that will further enhance Wescom Group’s core safety and survival product portfolio. We are excited to work with the management team on growing the business through the group’s extensive distribution network, whilst also having a strong focus on new product development programs."
BCB International’s managing director Andrew Howell said: "This announcement is an exciting opportunity and the BCB team are energised to be joining with Wescom Group. This partnership will help us to deliver BCB’s innovative MSC technology and world beating FireDragon eco-fuel to a much wider international audience as well as our core products that are constantly evolving. We have known some of the Wescom team for many decades and it is invigorating to be working with them to help save lives and protect the protectors to a much larger scale."
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