Ace Containers acquires fellow Leeds firm Northern Containers

Ace Container Services has completed the acquisition of Leeds container depot Northern Containers with support from NatWest.

Based in Stourton, Leeds, Ace Containers buy, sell and hire new and used shipping containers to customers throughout the UK for export or domestic use, as well as trading containers globally.

Ace Containers has its own hire fleet of over 400 units serving businesses and end users nationwide. With its acquisition of Northern Containers, the businesses now boast a combined fleet in excess of 800 units.

Northern Containers primary business is providing container services to international shipping lines, as well as having a domestic sales and hire department offering containers for hire both on and off site.

Last year, Ace Containers expanded its space at Stourton with a satellite yard to facilitate the growing demand for repairs and conversions. The acquisition of Northern Containers will support this area of the business by allowing Ace to streamline Northern Containers’ workshop facility, which Ace previously utilised as a customer.

Ace Containers employs a workforce of over 25 staff members across the group.

John Hanson, who formed Ace Containers in 1999, said: “One factor in pursuing the acquisition, which took almost two years to complete, was the job security of the existing staff at Northern Containers and once the finance was in place we had to see off several interested parties.

“I felt that had someone else acquired the business then the livelihood of the staff might have been put at risk. In an era where growth through merger or acquisition often results in job losses, it was important to safeguard peoples futures.

“I have known the team at Norcon for many, many years now, some of whom have been associated with the company longer than myself, so to allow this to happen on our doorstep would not have been compatible with our ethos. Without the team here at Ace/Norcon, we are nothing.”

He added: “As a business we have grown significantly over the last few years through container trading and continue to expand our customer locally , nationally and internationally. Despite this growth we have kept the same down-to-earth approach to our work. Acquiring Northern Containers will help us to grow the business and offer a wider range of services to customers with greater efficiency, as these services are now in-house for Ace.”

When they came to obtain funding for the acquisition, John turned to NatWest senior relationship manager Mark Forsyth for support. Mark obtained a six-figure loan for Ace to facilitate the acquisition.

John said: “Mark and the team at NatWest have been very helpful. We have been going through some changes as a business with the site expansion last year and now the acquisition but Mark and NatWest understand our goals and do what they can to support us.”