Orchard ripe for picking

Aspen Pumps, which specialises in products that remove condensation from air-conditioning systems, has bought Orchard Electronic, a designer and manufacturer of printed circuit boards and miniature air-conditioning pumps.


Aspen Pumps, which specialises in products that remove condensation from air-conditioning systems, has bought Orchard Electronic, a designer and manufacturer of printed circuit boards and miniature air-conditioning pumps.

Aspen Pumps, which specialises in products that remove condensation from air-conditioning systems, has bought Orchard Electronic, a designer and manufacturer of printed circuit boards and miniature air-conditioning pumps.

Orchard has been a key supplier to Aspen for ten years and was targeted to bring design expertise in house to accelerate its new product development programme.

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but funding was arranged by Christian Hamilton and Charles Thompson of Inflexion Private Equity. The firm has held a majority stake in Aspen since it backed a management buy-out at the company in March.

Post completion, Aspen says there’ll be no changes to Orchard’s management structure and it will continue to be led by managing director David Gowland.

East Sussex-based Aspen was established in 1992 by three air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment engineers. Today it has 60 employees and supplies its products to more than 50 countries.

Orchard, which has been trading for ten years in the area, employs 35 staff at its 8,000 sq ft factory.

Marc Barber

Marc Barber

Marc was editor of GrowthBusiness from 2006 to 2010. He specialised in writing about entrepreneurs, private equity and venture capital, mid-market M&A, small caps and high-growth businesses.

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