BUSINESS NEWS
BSA rides out perfect storm
BY JON GRIFFIN F
ormer Birmingham Chamber President Steve Brittan turned industrial firefighter
to rescue BSA Machine Tools from the depths of collapse – and launch a brand new company. Steve, a well-known figure in West
Midland business circles, spearheaded a salvage operation which has seen the Kitts Green machine tools firm re-emerge under new ownership as BSA Technologies. The former £5 million turnover machine tool company, which had been part of the Midlands industrial landscape for decades, was placed in administration in September after being hit by a ‘perfect storm’ of events. “If ever you wanted an example
of a perfect storm, this was it. With the oil sector, there were problems with falling oil prices which meant that the sector was not investing. We supply the oil sector globally in China, Mexico and the US with equipment for oil extraction, oil
discovery and fracking but for the last two years, orders had started to fall off,” he said. “In addition, access to finance
was extremely difficult. And we were trading with Pakistan supplying POF, the Pakistani ordnance factory, and that became a big issue when we had to apply for an American re-export licence. “We had been working with
Pakistan for more than 60 years since their independence but I was talking to the banks on a daily basis as to what was going to happen if we couldn’t get the funds in from Pakistan. And unfortunately Keith Bailey, the chairman of BSA Machine Tools and of parent company Automation Investments, has Alzheimer’s Disease. “For three months – June, July
and August – I didn’t know if I was to going to be able to pay all the salaries. We had 40 people at that stage but people left as things got difficult and we were down to 30 when we went into administration.” Steve said he decided to put BSA Machine Tools into
Steve Brittan: 2015 was an annus horribilis
10 CHAMBERLINK FEBRUARY 2016
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