Partner Article

Hay & Kilner helps company double in size

Law firm Hay & Kilner has helped the UK operation of a German medical devices’ company move into larger North East premises leading to a doubling of its regional workforce.

Having enjoyed years of strong growth Pajunk UK Medical Products is relocating to a 5,200sq ft unit on the Newburn Riverside Park, Newcastle.

Richard Freeman-Wallace, property partner at Newcastle law firm Hay & Kilner, conducted the lease negotiations with UK Land Estates on behalf of Pajunk UK.

German parent company Pajunk GmbH makes specialist needles for delivering anaesthesia and pain management and the company’s UK base, established in the North East in 2002, sells and distributes these products nationwide.

Hay & Kilner’s Richard Freeman-Wallace, who is ranked in the top band of commercial property lawyers in the region by Chambers UK Guide, said: “ The time constraints made the transaction challenging however the team stepped up to the mark and made sure that we completed on schedule.“

Stephen Brown, joint managing director of Pajunk UK Medical Products, said since establishing the UK office in the 2002 it has enjoyed consistent growth.

“Our needles are now used by anaesthetists in virtually every hospital anaesthetic room in the country. This is not a business which is affected by the overall economic situation and we have grown the business year-on-year since establishing an office in the UK.

“We had been using a distribution outlet in Chesterfield but have now decided to bring this operation in-house.”

The move has led to the recruitment of a new operations manager, a warehouse manager and two additional customer service assistants to complement the existing four regional staff.

It also employs a further eight sales staff across the UK. Pajunk had been located at Prestwick Park, near Newcastle Airport for almost five years after moving from Newcastle Quayside.

Its new premises includes almost 4,000sq ft of warehousing with ample office space for support staff.

Mr Brown praised the service provided by Newcastle-based, 26 partner, multi-disciplinary law firm Hay & Kilner.

He said: “We set them deadlines to hit along the way and they hit every single one. We are very pleased with the way they handled the negotiations.

“We had to move quickly and the deal was completed in less than 10 weeks.

“They were able to talk us through the whole process and we could rest assured that our interests were being well-served by Richard Freeman-Wallace and the rest of the Hay & Kilner team.”

Richard Freeman-Wallace, a partner in Hay & Kilner’s 40 strong commercial unit, handles all aspects of commercial property work and is regularly involved in acquisitions for investment and operational purposes for a range of clients including property developers, builders, business clients and the healthcare sector.

In the recent Chambers guide Hay & Kilner’s real estate team was described as “very professional and knowledgeable” with Richard being singled out by sources as being an “absolutely first class and very well-liked guy.”

Pajunk was established by brothers Horst and Heinrich Pajunk in Geisingen, southern Germany in the 1960s.It specialises in making products for laparoscopy, regional anaesthesia, biopsy as well as dental.

Pajunk operates in most countries around the world with direct sales operations in Germany, UK and the USA. Other countries are served by long standing distribution companies.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Peter McCusker .