Group Rhodes board of directors involved in the acquisition: left to right James Gascoigne, operations director; Raghunath Chandrasekaran, commercial director; Rebecca Wood, finance director; and Mark Ridgway, CEO of Group Rhodes

Wakefield-based Group Rhodes, a manufacturer of machinery serving the metalforming, composites and heavy ceramic sectors, has acquired Barnsley-based BJD Crushers Ltd (BJD), a manufacturer of size-reduction machinery.

BJD, formerly British Jeffrey Diamond, offers a wide variety of material processing equipment and high-capacity crushers designed to control product size. This complements the portfolios of two Group Rhodes businesses, namely Craven Fawcett and Hallamshire Engineering Services, which manufacture machinery and spare parts for the heavy clay and materials handling sectors. BJD also supports a strong aftermarket for double-roll crushers and primary reduction machinery and targets export sales in sectors ranging from recycling to aggregates.

Mark Ridgway, CEO of Group Rhodes, said: “This is an important acquisition which forms part of a group strategy to strengthen our materials handling division to operate alongside our major metalforming and heavy ceramic operations. BJD is a strong strategic fit for us and the strengths of the combined operation will drive significant value for customers. It will help further develop our vision to be a major player in the UK material handling sector. We have an exciting future ahead of us.”

Great reputation
Group Rhodes expects that the acquisition will create at least one role imminently, that of business development manager and a further nine jobs over the next two years. Peter Mills, managing director of BJD, will remain as a consultant to Group Rhodes for the coming months. He said: “BJD has a great reputation within the materials-handling market and I am certain that the business will continue to go from strength-to-strength under Group Rhodes’ ownership.”

The company can trace its heritage back to 1897 with its origins also in Wakefield. The British Jeffrey Diamond name came into use in 1926, following the acquisition of the Diamond Coal Cutter Company of Wakefield by the Jeffrey Manufacturing Company of Columbus, Ohio. BJD Crushers was a spin-out from BJD Processing in 2001, with the company relocating to Barnsley in the same year.

BJD will continue to operate from its Barnsley headquarters until the end of 2023, at which stage it is expected that its operations will transfer to Group Rhodes’ purpose-built factory at Calder Vale, Wakefield. Group Rhodes is planning on additional recruitment and investment to both support the business and to strengthen Hallamshire Engineering’s synergistic material-handling operations.

Group Rhodes actively manufactures and markets over 50 ranges of machinery from its facilities in Wakefield, which it sells to both the UK and global markets. The company, which celebrates its 200th anniversary next year, has extensive capabilities including the design, development and manufacture of bespoke equipment and providing complete turnkey solutions.