Ebor, suppliers of Breton CNC workcentres and Comandulli profilers and polishers to the stone industry, have bought out the venture capitalists who backed them in a buy-in management buy-out (BIMBO) in 2000.

The move sees two appointments to the new board. Dave Beckett, an engineer by training, is now stone division director. He has headed sales of stone machinery and tools since the early days of Ebor\'s entry into the stone market in 1996 after 16 years of supplying CNC machinery and tools to the glass industry, which they continue to do.

The other new board member is Simon Boocock, son of Stephen Boocock, the managing director. Simon becomes the glass division director. The finance director remains Jonathan Whitley. Ebor are now wholly owned by these four directors.

During the past three years Ebor have undertaken major strategic and organisational changes in preparation for their split with Lloyds TSB Development Capital (LDC), their backers for the BIMBO. They say the changes have made the operation more streamline and focussed.

The company says it is performing more strongly than ever and on the stone side Dave Beckett says they have just received orders for second Breton workcentres from companies in Dublin and Worcestershire. That will be in addition to three already installed so far this year.

Ebor have also just invested in a new £50,000 stock handling system at their headquarters in Rochdale, Lancashire. In two, 8m high towers (one for the stone side of the business, the other for glass) components are stacked on a series of shelves and automatically picked by computer-control.

The system is the Linpic vertical storage carousel. Someone requiring a part enters the relevant information and the part is delivered to them, which is a lot quicker than people searching shelves. It also aids stock control and provides real-time information about turnover of individual parts.

Additionally it means stock takes up a lot less floor space, leaving space available to accommodate new lines that Steve Boocock says are on the way.

The glass side of the business has been re-organised into regional divisions, but the stone industry, being smaller and having more individual requirements for their machines, will continue to be serviced throughout the UK and Ireland by Dave Beckett and Richard Lake. Ebor have also just recruited a young engineer straight from university, Neil Taylor, primarily to deal with Comandulli installations.

Out of the restructuring, two companies have emerged under the collective umbrella of a single holding company, Ebor Group Holdings Ltd. The trading companies are Ebor Equipment Ltd and Ebor Machinery Ltd.

Stephen Boocock says of the changes: "It has not been all plain sailing. The major restructuring of any organisation has its difficult moments, but it was the right course to take and our actions are proving to be the correct ones.

"The business is now wholly owned by the directors and we now have full control of a leaner, stronger business that customers and suppliers are already benefiting from as we move forward and grow at a more rapid rate than we could ever have envisaged."We have scheduled a whole range of new products and services to come on stream over the next few months, which will bring even greater benefits to customers as they continue to trade with Ebor."