2021 Directory

Key Signatory R&G Fluid Power is one of our industry’s best homegrown success stories, currently supplying a wide range of fluid power components and services to over 8000 live OEM, distributor, systems integrator and end user accounts in every UK industrial sector. The Group’s origins can be traced back to the year 2000 when Chris Ford, formerly MD of Dixon in Europe, founded The Millennium Coupling Company, establishing facilities in the UK, France and Australia. “This company proved to be very successful over many years, serving a wide range of customers in different industrial sectors,” explains Ford. However, in 2016, he made the decision to sell the overseas subsidiaries and concentrate solely on the UK market. “I like being UK-based and understand the home market and the opportunities it offers particularly well,” says Ford. “So, in 2017 I changed the name of the company to R&G Fluid Power with the goal of consolidating the UK fluid power marketplace in terms of the products and services I felt I understood best.” At this time, Ford explains that R&G Group comprised six companies. However, over the past three years, the Group has grown substantially and now consists of 23 separate companies spanning a distance from Aberdeen to Cornwall. “Over the Group, we employ over 360 people and I really believe we have some of the most knowledgeable employees in our chosen market sectors, covering everything from pumping facilities and users of industrial hose couplings, to the nuclear industry where we supply a lot of sealing & gasket products in particular,” explains Ford. “These Group companies also possess what I consider to be the most experienced fluid power senior management team in the UK, with hundreds of years of technical and commercial trading activity in hydraulics, industrial hose & fittings, pneumatics and sealing products between them. However, even though we are now made up of a large number of companies all with their own unique strengths, we still very much operate as a tight unit under the R&G Group umbrella.” Collaboration A key factor in R&G’s growth has been the successful trading and collaboration on joint projects between Group companies. In 2019 the Group significantly out- performed the industry average with like- for-like sales growth of 9% in the first half and 15% in the second half. Moreover, Ford points out that R&G Group’s intentions are very much focused on continuing to acquire UK-based fluid power companies where opportunities arise in order to strengthen its position even further, with the ultimate aim of being the UK’s market leader. “Even during 2020, which proved to be a challenging for just about everyone, we were looking to acquire the right type of business to add to the Group,” he points out. “In fact, right in the heart of the first lockdown we bought Global Hydraulics, which was, and still is, run by managing director Tim Harper. Tim has been enthusiastically involved in the BFPDA for many years and I believe he is to become vice-chairman of the BFPDA during 2021. He is a great champion of Association and sits on the BFPDA’s hydraulics division committee, which encapsulates 11 companies that are mainly hydraulics based.” The companies within R&G Group are split into separate divisions: Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Seals & Gaskets and Industrial Hose & Couplings, together with Consolidating the benefits of membership 44 www.bfpa.co.uk The BFPA Yearbook spoke with Chris Ford, managing director of new BFPDA member, R&G Fluid Power Group Ltd, about the organisation’s rapid growth and the key benefits of membership for R&G’s individual companies as well as for the Group as a whole.