BCF Designs bought for £12.5m

Defence and aerospace group Ultra Electronics has spent £12.5m to buy electronic test specialist BCF Designs.

Cirencester-based BCF designs and produces electronic test systems for the military and civil aerospace sectors.

Its customers include the UK MoD and US DoD along with corporate giants Boeing, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems.

BCF’s activities include custom-designed equipment to test aircraft fuel systems and protective filters for electronic systems. It also supplies interconnecting wiring harnesses that are designed to suit specific aircraft variants.

The company was set up in 1992 and employs 40 people in Gloucestershire plus a small marketing and support team in the US.

They will join more than 3,000 staff already employed in the UK and North America by London-based Ultra, which said the acquisition would add to its existing specialist capabilities in the aerospace sector.