ALMOST 100 jobs have been saved at a Weymouth engineering firm following its sale.

It has been announced that the business and assets of FGP Precision Engineering, which is based on the Granby Industrial Estate have been sold to FGP Systems Limited, preserving the jobs of 98 employees.

However, it has also been announced that 26 people were made redundant at the firm between September 16 and 18.  

The firm was placed in to administration earlier this month after it ‘encountered problems’ with short term cash flow pressures and working capital constraints.

Efforts by company directors to find short-term funding- or sell the business to stabilise the company initially proved unsuccessful.

Richard Hawes and Matthew Cowlishaw of restructuring partners Deloitte were appointed Joint Administrators on September 10.

Mr Hawes, has expressed his delight at the sale.

He said: “We are delighted to have completed this sale to FGP Systems. The sale of the business preserves 98 jobs, saves a historic brand in the aerospace components industry and provides a solid financial footing on which the business can be taken forward.

“We wish FGP Systems every success and would like to thank the staff and customers for their support in making this deal possible.”

Peter Schwabach, managing partner of Cyrus Investment Management LLP, the company which completed the acquisition on behalf of FGP Systems Ltd, also expressed his pleasure at the deal’s completion.

He said: “We are pleased to have completed the acquisition of the business and assets of FGP Precision Engineering Ltd on behalf of FGP Systems Ltd. We intend to build on the strengths of this business, which is a critical supplier to the global aerospace industry.”

Several new members of senior staff have also been appointed at the company following the acquisition.

The company’s new managing director will be Cyrus IM CIO, Ian Watkins with Nigel Pitman becoming sales director and Nigel Manning taking up the role as operations director.

FGP was originally founded in 1970 as a precision grinding company called Fine-grind Products.

The engineering firm works in the fields of aerospace, hydraulic, pneumatic, nuclear and automotive component manufacture.

In August, Universal Engineering, also based on the Granby Industrial Estate went in to administration resulting in 40 staff losing their jobs.

This followed 44 workers losing their jobs at Universal in July and a further 28 who were made redundant at the end of last year.