The move is seen as a major coup for AB Systems as Sterling Ancillary Services has been courted by many of the leading players in the materials handling and cooling arenas. AB Systems will now exclusively leverage the superior technical expertise brought by Sterling to the amalgamated organisation.

Sterling Ancillary Services will be familiar to all in the plastics industry. Headed up by Steve Payne, whose skill set is well respected throughout the sector, the company’s professional team of engineers worked largely on a contract basis, performing technical materials handling and water installations on behalf of major distributors. Sterling also had its own customer base of plastics manufacturers.

“As an independent company, Sterling serviced and installed all makes of materials handling equipment, and also had great deal of experience on the water side. This level and breadth of expertise is extremely valuable and very difficult to come by, which is a great advantage for AB Systems,” says Jeff Day, Managing Director at AB Systems. 

“In addition to gaining a team of excellent service engineers, the amalgamation with Sterling Ancillary Services means that AB Systems is able to offer a wider skill set for materials handling applications. This is likely to be troubling for our competitors, many of whom relied upon Sterling Ancillary Services to fulfill their technical installations and servicing programmes.”

Jeff Day and Steve Payne will be equal directors in AB Systems, although each will take on slightly different roles; Mr Payne will take the lead on the materials handling side, helping to manage projects, price jobs and oversee technical installations, while Mr Day will focus more on the water side, his specialist area.

“Sterling’s experience in installing and servicing a wealth of OEM equipment perfectly augments AB Systems’ skill base, meaning we can deliver an exceptional level of expertise across both materials handling and process cooling systems and all equipment manufacturers,” states Mr Payne. “Sterling also specialised in the installation and servicing of SB Plastics systems, for whom AB Systems is the UK distributor.”

Mr Day adds: “Steve and I have known each other for 20 years and there is a mutual respect for the capabilities that we each offer. AB Systems has worked with Sterling Ancillary Services before on many successful projects, which is why we know it will be a good collaboration. Both Steve and I see it as a real step up for our business as, together, we will be able to offer AB Systems’ customers a more complete solution – the best, we believe, in the industry.”

According to Steve Payne, the decision to merge with AB Systems was not a difficult one: “I knew AB Systems was a very solid company and was particularly drawn here by the team of people that Jeff works with – he has very strong resources and has worked incredibly hard to develop his staff. Once we started talking it was easy to see how things were going to work. We both have big ideas and aspirations, and together we can take the business forward exponentially. There hasn’t been much change within the industry for years, so this this will really shake things up.”

Steve will now set about further developing the service side of the business, reaching out to customers with a broad spectrum of equipment. Sterling’s own customers will also come in under the AB Systems umbrella. These projects will leverage the extra resources provided by the newly expanded team, building on the excellent platform established by AB Systems.

Mr Payne and his team of engineers from Sterling Ancillary Services, who were previously based at Leighton Buzzard, will transfer the short distance west (less than 20 miles) to AB Systems, working out of the company’s head office at Worminghall, Buckinghamshire.