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Engineering firm is all Smiles

An engineering firm is under new ownership after the completion of a six-figure management buy-in.

Smiles Engineering in Newcastle is now owned by engineer Gordon Mockett, who has bought it from cofounder Brian Smiles, who is retiring after 30 years with the business.

The firm, based on the Brough Park Trading Estate, in Newcastle, currently employs around a dozen people, a number which the new owner is hoping to eventually increase.

Smiles works across different sectors of the commercial transport industry, including buses, agricultural vehicles, industrial, marine and specialist automotive.

Gordon Mockett said: “Having acquired considerable experience of running engineering operations through my career, I had long-term ambitions to use it to run a successful business of my own, and identified Smiles Engineering as a well-run firm with an excellent employee skills set and potential for expansion.

“With Brian looking to sell the business on and retire, the MBI provided an excellent way to safeguard the jobs of his workforce, and now gives me with the opportunity to take it forward with their help.

“Having been responsible for developing and implementing new processes and systems throughout my career, I’ll now be concentrating on finding ways in which we can work even more efficiently, as well as searching out potential new customers who would benefit from the high quality service Smiles is renowned for providing.

“We have a strong order book filled with a number of high-quality contracts, and provide the sort of long-term service which cements client relationships over a long period of time, so we’re very confident about the company’s future prospects.

The buy-in was completed with the help of £150,000 investment from Evolve Finance, a division of regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers, with additional funding from Venture Finance.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .