Applied Automation acquires assets of CME Automation Systems
8 October 2024 
Plymouth-based Applied Automation (UK) has acquired the brand, intellectual property and assets of Somerset-based CME Automation Systems, following its liquidation. Details of the transaction have not been released.
Administrators were appointed at CME in May, despite it having received “significant” private equity backing in 2023.
CME (Colin Mear Engineering) specialised in automated lines for packaging applications, especially in the tobacco, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage sectors. It will now be known as Applied Automation – CME Solutions, and will move from its original location in Combe St Nicholas, near Chard, to join Applied Automation’s Engineering Solutions, Build to Print and Marine Solutions Divisions at its 140,000ft2 (13,000m2) Plymouth site. Several key members of the CME team have joined Applied.
“It’s always sad to see a business that’s been trading for over 40 years end up in administration and it’s even sadder when they are based, like ourselves, in the South West of England,” says Applied Automation’s managing director, David Rowe. “However, we’re very much looking forward to working with CME customers in the future and we believe that by running the business as an entity within our existing engineering division it will provide us with some exciting new possibilities.
“We see this acquisition as an opportunity to increase our sales in the FMCG packaging sector and to expand our services to existing CME markets in both North America and Europe,” he adds.
Applied Automation (UK) has been trading for more than 38 years and employs more than 170 people. It designs and manufactures automation and control systems for industrial and marine applications.
Applied has a Technical Distribution Division based in Cardiff and Portsmouth, and also owns PTG Precision Engineers, PTG Workholding and Applied Tube Technology, which specialise in tube technologies and tube-bending machinery.
