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After a highly successful period of growth and development the shareholders of CEL International have agreed to sell the shareholding of the company to WSP Group.

WSP is one of the world’s fastest-growing design, engineering and management consultancies. Specialising in property, transport and environmental projects approximately two thirds of their work is in the private sector and the balance in the public sector. For further information visit their website: www.wspgroup.com.

Notable activities of WSP are that they are structural engineers for three of the new towers at Ground Zero, New York and were engineers for the new GSK corporate headquarters at Brentford.

They have a worldwide presence and are in the top 250 listed companies on the London stock exchange. Their reputation is second to none and as such they will provide CEL with significant new opportunities. We have no doubt that WSP will add to CEL’s reputation for excellence with an international brand and presence.

CEL’s position within the Group will be unique, in offering a process engineering capability, and this will be recognised with the continuation of CEL as an autonomous entity.

Every effort will be made to maximise synergies within the wider group and this will allow for growth potential to match the ambitions of both parties. This ensures the continued requirement for all CEL’s current staff and significant opportunities for future development of every individual.

All the current management of CEL are being retained in the business.

Our customers will remain the essential focus of CEL. It is not envisaged that there will be any disruption to our activities or changes to our delivery or management of our processes. We fully expect to retain the personal approach to customer liaison whilst offering the support of a significant business that fully understands the challenges of running an engineering organisation.

The management team will make itself available to answer any questions: please feel free to contact them.

We very much look forward to supporting our staff so as to serve our customers and work with the supply chain as successfully as we have in the past.

This is an opportunity to strive for even greater levels of service and to offer fulfilling roles for our entire team with supportive new colleagues within a highly complementary culture.

CEL International has been awarded the top award in the Coventry Telegraph Business Awards 2007.

We were named Business of the Year at the ceremony held on 5 July at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. The awards have been run for 14 years by the local newspaper in association with the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce.

We were one of 24 companies recognised at the awards, which were attended by business leaders from all over Coventry and Warwickshire.

Following the recent acquisition by CEL International of its Irish partner IPDC Ltd (Integrated Process Design Consultants), a Process Engineering Group has been established. The group will serve the Irish market based from the Cork office.

CEL International is a process-led project management consultancy firm, headquartered in the UK, with over 40 years of experience delivering projects to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, food and chemical industries.

The new group will led by Frank Riedewald, who joined CEL in November 2006. Frank is an accomplished process design engineer with over 15 years’ experience, particularly in the bulk and secondary pharmaceutical areas. He also has extensive experience of the fine chemical and chemicals industries. Frank is chairman of the ASME Bio-processing European Sub-committee on Design for Sterility and Cleanability and has published numerous papers and spoken at conferences on these topics.

Frank, who has a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin, has specific experience in secondary aseptic processes, containment, technology transfer and environmental engineering. He has worked with a number of clients in Ireland to include Abbott, Alza Corporation, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Merck and Warner-Lambert (now Pfizer).

The recruitment of Frank to lead the Process Engineering Group at CEL International is a key step in improving the service offering, particularly to the pharmaceutical industry, in Ireland.

We’d like to thank you all for your support and help in 2006, which has been another successful year for CEL. As one would expect, the year has not been without its challenges and highlights.

The key challenge for our industry has been the availability of skilled staff during a prolonged period of high demand in the UK and overseas. On occasion this has presented issues for us, but CEL’s strength has been seen to be its commitment and ability to respond and continue to deliver to our valued customers.

Turning to highlights: we have consolidated our regional strategy by moving both our Northwest office to Runcorn and our Scottish office to new premises in Glasgow. Both moves have been necessary to deal with growing repeat and new business demands. We have also taken on additional space and staff at our Coventry Headquarters to continue to effectively deliver larger projects in the pharmaceutical and biotech, food, consumer, chemical and environmental sectors.

We’re pleased also to reflect on a year that has allowed us to consolidate our position in Ireland through our acquisition of Cork-based Engineering Consultancy IPDC, and our expansion of our Chinese business through the establishment of a locally incorporated company and a doubling in the number of staff.

All of the above is only possible because of the ongoing support of customers, colleagues and members of the supply chain, and we’d like to thank you all again for the opportunities to continue to deliver “Best Value Service Through an Integrated Team”.

Returning to the challenge of effective resourcing, we have recognised that this is a key industry challenge and have responded by taking the difficult decision to decline over £100M of new work, enabling us to continue to service our existing clients to the very best of our ability. This reflects our view that our long-term relationships and effective service delivery are more important to us than short-term workload revenues.

Our core business is, and will remain, the delivery of high quality, flexible project services across the process and related industries. You will continue to see an increasing ability to support your projects locally from our regional offices. We have a strong consultancy offering and can support you with these activities, ranging from master planning new sites, via specialist engineering and process modelling through to land remediation and decommissioning.

Our recently updated strategic intent sets some of the above into context.

Thank you again for your support through 2006, and we look forward to working with you through 2007 and beyond.

Ed Wilson, Chief Executive Officer
Gareth Davies, Managing Director

On behalf of the CEL Management Team

CEL International is pleased to announce the further expansion of its Irish operation through the acquisition of its Irish partner IPDC Ltd (Integrated Process Design Consultants).

CEL International is a process-led project management consultancy firm, headquartered in the UK, with over 40 years of experience delivering projects to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, food and chemical industries.

CEL International currently employs in excess of 380 specialist personnel. This includes the Cork-based Irish operation which has a current staff of 30 professionals and is anticipated to grow to a workforce of 60 as it expands its current market position.

As part of the development plans the Cork Office has established a Process Engineering Group led by Frank Riedewald. Frank is an accomplished process design engineer with over 15 years’ experience, particularly in the bulk and secondary pharmaceutical industries.

Kieran Goode, Managing Director of the Ireland operation, comments: “The continuing growth within the Irish pharmaceutical, food and chemical sectors, fuelled by the biotech sector, lends itself to a continuing need for the supply of cost-effective project management services. CEL International, with its excellent worldwide reputation for project delivery, is now well positioned to support this with its Cork-based office.”

CEL International are delighted to announce the acquisition of IPDC Ltd (Integrated Process Design Consultants).

IPDC, who are also Cork-based, provide a fully comprehensive project management, engineering and design service. The principal partners of IPDC are considered leaders in their particular fields and have worked on numerous projects in the food, pharmaceutical and construction industries in Ireland.

The merger of the activities of IPDC and CEL International is a logical extension of a close working relationship developed over the last two years. Kieran Goode will lead the combined business working as part of a close-knit team with Denis Harley and Tom Kelly, from CEL’s established Ireland team.

Support to Ireland will be available from CEL’s headquarters in Coventry, UK. However, it is intended that the merged Cork operation will retain its autonomy and grow organically to support the market in Ireland and particularly to target the food and pharmaceutical industries, where both companies have an established track record.

CEL International Chief Executive, Ed Wilson, adds: “We are confident that the prospects for the combined business are excellent. CEL can supplement the IPDC skillset with specialist skills in the pharmaceutical, environmental and other specialised process areas. In addition we believe that other parts of CEL’s business including our international client base will benefit from the greater presence now offered in Ireland”.

Tank farm at Diageo, Leven

Following successful delivery of Phase 1 of the Tank Farm 3 project at Diageo’s bottling plant in Leven, Fife, CEL International have now been awarded Phase 2. Diageo, the world’s largest drinks manufacturer, blend and bottle a range of alcoholic spirits at this facility, including whisky, rum, vodka, gin and ready-to-drink products.

The tank farm contains spirit vats each of 125,000 litres capacity that are currently being used for the storage of ‘non-whisky spirits’ prior to subsequent blending and bottling operations. Phase 1 was won in competitive tender, CEL having offered an innovative and appealing solution at a competitive price.

CEL International Ltd are responsible for the mechanical and electrical design, procurement, construction and commissioning of the plant, and act as Principal Contractor. Civil and structural elements of the tank farm have been designed and managed by Blyth and Blyth Ltd. These services are being provided from CEL’s Scotland Office in Glasgow. Design was progressed by forming an integrated team with the key Diageo project personnel and Blyth and Blyth. The excellent effort and teamwork from all parties contributed greatly to the overall success of the project and will form a model approach for other joint projects in the future.

Construction started in October 2005 and Phase 1 of the tank farm entered service in March 2006. The facility is a Comah site and full compliance with Comah, DSEAR and BS61511 was required. Although the tank farm was built on a disused cask storage area, a new CIP set and interface pipework were installed in live production areas handling alcoholic spirits (and classified as hazardous zones). This work was carefully planned and co-ordinated to minimise risk and avoid disruption to production. Diageo are pleased that CEL have delivered the project on budget and to a high standard, and have now subsequently awarded CEL the second phase of the project to install six additional vats within the facility.

The opening of the Victrex Asia Technical Centre

Victrex plc have recently opened their Asia Technical Centre, in Shanghai, China.

CEL were responsible for the design, procurement, project management and construction management of the facility, which was delivered on time and within budget. The quality of CEL’s services “met or exceeded the expectations of the Victrex team throughout the project”.

Victrex Asia Technical Centre

The Directors and Senior Management team from Victrex expressed their thanks for the outstanding efforts of the CEL team in China and for the excellent teamwork between Victrex and CEL, which made such an excellent facility delivery possible.

Victrex are the world’s leading manufacturer of VICTREX PEEK, a thermoplastic with end-users and processors in a variety of markets including aerospace, automotive and electronics. The facility will service the Asia business commercially, as well as acting as a technical centre for development and excellence serving the worldwide market.

Simon Maguire, Director of CEL China, commented: “The facility shows that with good teamwork, CEL are able to deliver premium class facilities in China at a very competitive price. We have been excited on this project to be part of a truly integrated and focused team, and are pleased to have successfully extended our working relationship with Victrex from the UK into China.”

CEL International has been awarded two separate major contracts to provide a state-of-the-art R&D facility and a bulk chemical active pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturing expansion at Pfizer Limited’s site at Sandwich in Kent, England. Both projects were awarded against stiff competition from major UK EPCM companies.

The new facility represents a significant investment by Pfizer in its UK-based R&D operation. This facility is expected to be on-stream by the end of 2007.

The award of the manufacturing expansion followed a successful detailed engineering study by CEL International. The multi-million pound investment should be in production by 2008.

Both projects will be delivered from CEL’s Head Office at Coventry. CEL International’s Managing Director, Gareth Davies, stated: “We have enjoyed an excellent working relationship with Pfizer UK at both their Sandwich and Morpeth sites. The award of these two additional important projects follows a strong track record in supply chain team working, innovation and robust project delivery. We are delighted to be involved in Pfizer’s ongoing business success.”

Marketing Director Craig Chapman receives the ACTIVE Award
from Sir Michael Latham

CEL International is delighted to announce that they have been awarded a prestigious ECI ACTIVE Project of the Year Award. Nominations for awards are open to all ECI (European Construction Institute Members) members in Europe for projects in which they have had a significant involvement.

The award is for Small Project of the Year 2006 and is for the Genzyme Enzyme Production Facility at Maidstone in Kent. Overall, the project included the installation of a cGMP enzyme production and purification suite. Genzyme’s Kent facilities play a global role in their sales and marketing, manufacturing, and research and development of diagnostic products.

This was a complex project undertaken on a working site where it was critical that there was little, ideally no, disruption to ongoing production. Key to achieving this was the establishment of an integrated team between the client Genzyme, the main sub-contractor Felcon and CEL International. The project, which involved creation and validation of new clean rooms, renovation of existing rooms, upgrade of utilities and HVAC and provision of a Water for Injection system, was successfully delivered on time, within budget and safely with no lost-time accidents

The project team, led by CEL Project Manager Rick Skelton, successfully applied the ACTIVE initiative (Achieving Competitiveness Through Innovation and Value Enhancement) throughout the project with specific emphasis on value-enhancing principles of project concept and definition, project team Mmanagement, project execution, and supply chain relationships. The use of industry best practice and value-enhancing practices in these areas ultimately culminated in the project’s success.

CEL International are please to announce that they have won one of the prestigious Gold Medal RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards for 2006.

David Rawlins, RoSPA Awards Manager, said: "CEL International have demonstrated how seriously they take health and safety management and are a fine example to many other companies. We would like to see more organisations following their lead by providing a positive example."

Mike Draper, CEL’s Safety and Quality Adviser, said: “I believe that this award shows that our approach to project management and engineering is founded on sound principles of hazard identification and risk reduction at all stages of the project lifecycle to deliver leading performance in a challenging market sector. To us, every project is unique and needs its own blend of solutions to ensure we are building in safety and adding value to our customers.”

The RoSPA Awards are not just about reducing the number of accidents and cases of ill-health at work; they are also about ensuring that organisations have good health and safety management systems in place. They help to reinforce the message that good health and safety is good business and clearly demonstrate an organisation’s commitment to the achievement of high levels of performance in this crucial area.

CEL International is pleased to announce that it has been selected to work with British Sugar in an integrated team to assist with design and construction of the UK’s first bioethanol production facility at British Sugar’s Wissington factory, near Downham Market, Norfolk. CEL were selected for the project based on their relevant skills and experience, their approach to building integrated project teams and their expertise in effectively delivering complex fast track investments.

Despite increasing concern about the impact of global warming, UK carbon emissions have continued to rise. The challenge facing us is immense, particularly for transport, which is responsible for nearly a quarter of all UK carbon emissions. In response British Sugar has pioneered the development of UK-based bioethanol: a biofuel that can be mixed with petrol to help reduce carbon emissions from cars.

The project at Wissington recently received two major boosts. Firstly, the Government announced the introduction of a renewable transport fuels obligation (RTFO), for which the company had been pressing for some time. This was quickly followed by the granting of planning authority for the plant by King’s Lynn Borough Council.

The final element, which has allowed the project to proceed, was agreement between British Sugar and the National Farmers’ Union on the contractual arrangements for the supply of the sugar beet needed to supply this plant. This plant, which is designed to utilise sugar beet that would previously have been used to produce non-quota or ‘C’ sugar for export onto the world market, will produce 70 million litres of bioethanol each year.

CEL and British Sugar have set up an integrated team to deliver the project. Also included within the team are Praj, an Indian-based company specialising in the processes which convert sugar into bioethanol, and Cowan and Linn, a Scottish Building and Civil Engineering consultancy who have long established partnerships with both CEL and British Sugar.

This project illustrates CEL’s increasing expertise in environmentally-based projects. Building on its specialist process, environmental and project skills, CEL are now also working on projects in areas such as waste treatment, fuels cells, land remediation and environmental consultancy in addition to delivery of services into the chemical, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, food and consumer industries.

CEL’s Operations Director Gareth Davies comments: “This is the beginning of an exciting new industry and approval of this project marks a great achievement for British Sugar. CEL have supported the development of this project for three years and are delighted to be able to bring their award-winning project staff and processes together to create the integrated team which is so important for a challenging project such as this.”

CEL International has been present in China longer than most British project management companies and can trace its roots back to the mid-1960s.

CEL’s first project in China, the equip and fitout of an acrylics plant in Lanzhou in Gansu province, was awarded in 1967 after the successful completion of projects in Poland and the former Soviet Union.

In the 1990s, following the liberalisation of the Chinese economy, foreign investment became easier and CEL had the opportunity to capitalise on its commitment. In 1991, after building China’s first foreign-invested paint plant, CEL realised the need to establish a permanent presence in the country. In 1994 the CEL China Office was established in Shanghai, chosen because of the concentration of plants in the Yangtze Delta area that need processing expertise. However, CEL has also managed projects in many different parts of China and today China generates an important component of its overall business.

Read the entire article from China-Britain Business.