The purchase price for Lion has been confirmed as £38m.
The acquisition was agreed in April, announced in July and cleared by the Competition & Markets Authority in August.
A-Plant bought Eve Trakway and its parent company Accession Group for £28m in 2013.
Between them, Lion and Eve have inventory of 90,000 panels and have 400 employees. From 1st January 2017, they will be rebranded (Brangelina-style, but hopefully for longer) as Live, taking two letters from each company name.
Dale Robinson, who left Eve to found and run first TPA then Lion, will manage the business.
Live will be part of A-Plant’s specialist products division, which also comprises A-Plant Accommodation, PSS Hire, FLG Services, GB Access, Leada Acrow and Live.
Richard Thomas, managing director of the specialist products division, said: “It’s a bold decision to consign names such as Eve and Lion to history, but we want all our staff, as the shop window of the business, to feel equally proud of the brand. A new brand is the best way of ensuring that happens.
“This is a merger of equals. It’s two big, strong businesses coming together, combining a huge amount of skills, knowledge and expertise and we’re going to be a very compelling, solution-based proposition for our customers.
“Dale, who has built and grown TPA and Lion will lead Live, bring it together and grow the business further. We as A-Plant take pride in the fact that, while we’re a big company, we give entrepreneurs like Dale the freedom to flourish.”
Dale Robinson said: “We’re going to put all the equity we’ve got behind us and move forward as one great business. Our customers will definitely see the benefit, not least because of the huge quantity of high quality of trackway panels, fences and barriers we can offer.
“Furthermore we see real scope for growth in supply of trackway in this country to transmission and construction projects. HS2 is going to be a huge for temporary access, by way of example.”
A-Plant investment will see more aluminium panels arriving and a push to grow Lion’s German business under the Live brand and develop a European market, which has been slow to adopt an engineered trackway solution.
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