ONE of York's oldest family-owned businesses has been sold.

Derbyshire metal recycling and waste management company Ward, has bought York scrap merchant, L. Clancey & Sons.

Ward is itself a family firm, going back four generations, and says the deal with L. Clancey & Sons for its 3.9-acre scrap metal site in York and the business as a going concern, will further enhance the nationwide capabilities of Ward.

It also enables the succession planning of Clancey’s, as two of its partners take retirement.

Clancey’s has a well-established reputation, developed over its 160 year history and its operating model will remain.

One of the sellers, Richard Clancey, a member of the founding family, will stay on as site operations manager, employed by Ward and all other staff are being retained.

The business was founded in 1860 just a hundreds yards from York's famous Shambles.

For the past 60 years, it has been based in Murton Lane, Murton, where it has developed a modern recycling facility.

Ward commercial director Thomas Ward said: "This is a really exciting time for both our family businesses.

"Clancey’s have a solid reputation in metal recycling, they share our values, outlook and approach to customers.

"We hope they will become an extension of the Ward team operationally, while retaining its own identity.

He added: "This new site gives us even more geographical reach for both businesses with good transport links to our Midlands, Immingham and Redcar sites.”

Richard Clancey, partner, at L. Clancey & Sons, said: “Both our businesses are strongly family orientated and we have very similar values, from the way we look after our teams to the way we support our customers. This will be a really positive step for us all. Both myself and my daughter are looking forward to working with Ward and seeing what we can achieve together.”

Ward is more than 80 years old, it has 400 staff, a fleet of 120 vehicles and a turnover topping £300m.

The company says investment in the new site at York complements Ward’s existing metal processing and recycling facilities across the Midlands, Teeside, Lincolnshire and London, enabling it to expand its nationwide metal recycling capabilities.

Ward was supported with legal advice from Square One Law (led by Charlie Fielding) and financial due diligence was provided by PKF Smith Cooper (led by David Nelson). Azets (led by Stephen Garbett) and Harrowells (led by Matthew Rowley) acted on behalf of L. Clancey & Sons.

For more information on Ward’sgo to www.ward.com.

For L Clancey and Sons, go to www.clanceysofyork.co.uk/.