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Licensing Deal Secures £Multi-Million Orders and Prospect of New Jobs- 10/11/2009
West Midlands’ law firm FBC Manby Bowdler has helped an entrepreneur licence a new technology for use in the food processing industry, which has landed potential advance orders worth more than £5 million, and could lead to the creation of 12 new jobs.
Stuart Rea, a Partner in the Corporate Department at FBC Manby Bowdler’s Shrewsbury office, advised Tom Ritchie, and his company Surewaters Consulting Limited, on obtaining the exclusive European rights to a waste water cleaning process for use in the food processing industry.
Tried and tested in the oil and gas industry, the technology removes fats, oils, greases and metals from waste water, allowing food processing companies to re-use water or to reduce the cost of disposal of waste water. In total, installation of this new process can save processing plants hundreds of thousands of pounds each year and can pay for itself in less than six months.
Mr Ritchie has preliminary orders worth more than £5 million from companies across the UK in the diary, fresh food processing and agricultural industries. He also holds the European rights to supply the technology to the textile, car and nuclear industries. He is presently working to secure the funding which will allow his customers to finance the first installations.
Once the first orders have been delivered over the next six months, he expects to be in a position to recruit up to 12 new staff which will include sales people, technical experts and a financial director, in new premises in Shrewsbury.
Mr Ritchie said: “As food processing companies get to know about the water cleaning technology and understand just how much money it can save them and how quickly, then our business will go from strength to strength.”
A professional bio-chemist working in the pharmaceutical industry, Mr Ritchie, 32, established Surewaters Consulting in his home town of Shrewsbury in January 2008, having spotted the opportunity to transfer the water cleaning technology to the food processing industry. He turned to local law firm FBC Manby Bowdler to help him licence the Intellectual Property rights.
Stuart Rea and his team prepared the Intellectual Property licensing agreement for use of the technology for particular fields of use and in particular territories between Mr Ritchie’s company and the technology owner, and advised on standard commercial contracts for Mr Ritchie’s company to use with his customers.
Mr Rea said: “We worked with Tom to ensure we had all the correct agreements in place, which are vital for the future of his business. His early business success and prospects for growth show that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the West Midlands.”
With 36 partners, FBC Manby Bowdler is the fourth largest law firm in the West Midlands. It has offices in Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, Telford, Bridgnorth and Willenhall.