HISTORY OF WESTAL LTD., REDDITCH.

This leading manufacturer of chocolate moulding and filling equipment was acquired for £3.5m in April 1985. Westal was a small, privately run company, employing 23 people. It was the pioneer of single-shot chocolate moulding and its equipment was complementary to the chocolate tempering and confectionery processing machinery of Baker Perkins BCS Ltd. The technology available to Baker Perkins through the Westal acquisition enabled the group to regain entry into a market sector in which it was last involved some thirty years earlier.

For a time after the acquisition, it continued to be managed by the existing directors under the overall direction of Baker Perkins BCS and a Westal universal moulding plant was installed in the Westwood Works Experimental department in 1986. In common with the majority of Baker Perkins' UK operations, Westal exported about 75% of its equipment. The business was transferred to Peterborough and Westal closed in October 1987.

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