Ellesmere-based dairy equipment firm Fullwood sold to Dutch company

Fullwood Packo, which is based in Ellesmere, has been acquired by JOZ, a specialist in contemporary barn cleaning solutions.

Operating under the name Fullwood JOZ, the firm's offices will remain in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium, and all existing staff will stay with the company.

The organisation will maintain existing services and the dealer network will also remain unchanged.

JOZ CEO Arend Kuperus said: “At JOZ, we specialise in developing robots and smart solutions for barns, but until now we didn’t have our own milking systems.

“With this acquisition, we can now provide end users with innovations in the field of milk production, alongside our existing range of efficient manure removal and smarter feed distribution systems.”

“Fullwood JOZ will provide a base from which we can offer effective solutions that support farmers with products relevant to them, focused on the three principles of milking – fast, complete and stress-free.

"With this, we can offer a solution for every step within our vision of circular farming, which will help those running agricultural businesses to farm more smartly and efficiently. The circle really is complete now.

“We will, of course, continue to refine the milking systems, especially in the area of software and data collection. We will open new branches, which we expect will allow us to double the number of robots. We have all kinds of ideas about how we can make the milking robots even easier to use, so that end users can work more smartly and efficiently.”

Roel Nizet, on behalf of Fullwood shareholder Pindustry, said: "With this step, Fullwood and its employees are embarking on a long-term, new phase under JOZ's wings. By joining forces, there will soon be a strong, high-tech dairy company with a complete product range."