Investors buy APV Baker
software firm.
APV Baker, which supplies process equipment and services to the food industries worldwide, has been acquired from UK-based Invensys by private investors John Cowx and Brian Taylor.
The new company will trade as Baker Perkins, its original name. The business has plants in Peterborough, UK and Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the US.
The company makes processing machines for the bakery, biscuit, cookie, confectionery, breakfast cereal and snack sectors. It also makes extrusion machines for the food and pharmaceutical sectors.
Cowx takes over as managing director of the company. Taylor is the chairman.
"We are committed to the long term development of the business," Cowx stated in a press release. "We believe that the freedom of a stand-alone enterprise will allow us to release the skills and potential within the company through a more flexible, focused and entrepreneurial culture."
The Grand Rapids plant was bought by Baker Perkins in 1978. Its customers include Keebler, Kraft, Nabisco and Pepperidge Farm, according to a local newspaper report.
