The Liberty House Group has bought Mabey Bridge Renewables’ steel tower production equipment plant, which was closed down at Chepstow in south Wales in 2015.
The company said the acquisition will form part of a major new manufacturing centre it will set up to supply the offshore wind market and turbine casings for Tidal Lagoon Power, in which Liberty’s sister company Simec is an investor.
It said it will initially recruit a workforce of over 100, including engineers, welders, fabricators, assemblers, blasters and painters.
However, the number is expected to “grow significantly as the business develops”, Liberty said.
The company said it will announce the location of its new manufacturing centre within the next few weeks.
Liberty said the equipment is capable of making towers up to 56 metres high with a five-metre diameter for onshore wind installations, but it has plans to upgrade the facility to make 110m by 10m towers for the offshore market.
Liberty executive chairman Sanjeev Gupta said: “Our aim is to create a world-class centre for the production of tubular towers and other large scale steel fabrication.
“Most of these products are currently imported, so there is great potential to substitute this with our own production of best-in-class and competitive British towers, building sustained value and creating skilled jobs in a growth sector.”
Image: a Mabey Bridge tower unit (Metalisation)
