Avalanche prepares to fall on pharmaceutical market

Spooner Vicars, a food equipment manufacturer, has announced plans to expand into pharmaceutical equipment and processing, following its purchase for an undisclosed sum by Avalanche Holdings.

The company employs 111 staff in Earlestown, St. Helens and has a turnover of £22m. Two thirds of the company's food equipment production is exported for clients such as Nabisco, Campbell, Kraft and United Biscuits.

'We are looking at growing Avalanche into a £200m group within the next three to five years through acquisition and growth in food and pharmaceutical processing and equipment,' said Bruce Stimpson, one of the owners of the company. 'We see a lot of opportunity to approach our market differently and we're very focused as a team on new ways to push the business forward.'

The deal, which took two years to complete, sees the business debt-free and in a position to invest. To date, the business has been active in a wide range of market sectors, including biscuits, cookies, crackers, pet food, bread, buns, cakes, wafers and pizza bases.

Bruce Stimpson and Wayne Poteet, the owners of Avalanche, are US-based engineering entrepreneurs with long track records in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Stimpson, 52, originally from Peterborough, has moved his family from Las Vegas to Lancashire to oversee their investment. Poteet, 36, will return later in 2005 to the US to run the company's Ohio-based subsidiary, Spooner Vicars Inc, which is included in the deal.