From 1st January 2011, IMS UK will be trading under the name of Abraservice UK. This name change brings the company in line with the European brand identity within the new Group, resulting from the merger of IMS Group and Jacquet Metals.
Abraservice UK will operate from the current location in Saltley, Birmingham, UK. The legal entity of the company will remain as IMS UK Limited.
Adrian Hance, Divisional Director commented "from an operational stand point we are the same company, with the same staff and technical expertise and we will be making every effort to ensure the transition from IMS UK to Abraservice UK is seamless for all our customers and suppliers."
The new Group will be organised around four strong brands corresponding to the four markets in which the Group will operate and already has strong strategic positions; IMS for engineering steels, Stappert for stainless bars, Jacquet for stainless quarto plates and Abraservice for wear resistant and high yield steels and components.
Abraservice UK will be subsidiary of Abraservice Holding, itself a 100% subsidiary of IMS SA, and the new Group is likely to generate a turnover of €1 billion in 2010. It has a work force of almost 2,500 with a network of 60 subsidiaries and 90 distribution centres across 22 countries, spanning Europe, Turkey, China and the USA. The Group is the largest independent distributor of special steel grades across Europe with manufacturing facilities to match in Germany, Italy, France and the UK.
Abraservice UK will continue to supply a leading range of abrasion resistant and high yield specialist steels from accredited European steel mills such as Dillinger Hütte for Dillidur, Dillimax and Dillidur Impact products, Duferco for Quard steels, Ruukki for Raex products as well as Creusabro from Industeel and high yield material from Tata.
Abraservice UK remains a major distributor in wear resistant and high yield steels and components in a wide range of sectors including quarrying and mining, mechanical engineering, recycling, cement and concrete, energy, water treatment and environmental industries.