A Bentham-based plant – believed to be the world’s leading manufacturer of industrial firefighting equipment – has been acquired by its management as part of a £62m buyout.

Angus Fire, which employs 250 staff between its Craven factory and its design office in Thame, Oxfordshire, was acquired from its United States owner UTC in a deal backed by the private equity firm LDC and a number of regional investors.

The company, established more than 100 years ago, designs and manufactures fire hoses, industrial hoses, foam concentrates and fire fighting systems for a variety of industrial sectors, including oil and gas, aerospace, military and ports.

Angus Fire also has subsidiaries in North America and France, and exports to more than 100 countries, including the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.

The new owners say they are now looking to capitalise on growing global demand for Angus Fire products within the oil and gas sector.

The business manufactures large-diameter industrial hoses for a variety of industrial applications including water transfer for the large and growing US hydro-fracking market, which produces shale gas.

As Bentham is at the northern end of the North West’s shale gas reserves, Angus Fire is ideally poised to benefit from any future development of the UK’s own hydro-fracking industry, which recently received Government support.

In this important new application, the group says it offers a solution to the oil field services sector that combines proven environmental benefits with lower total cost of ownership.

For the financial year ending December 31, 2012, Angus Fire recorded sales of £95.6 million.

Chief executive Paul Williams said: “LDC’s investment provides the financial and strategic support to help us capitalise on the increased demand in emerging markets and the buoyant oil and gas sector for our products.

“We look forward to creating a unified proposition and cementing the business’s market-leading position through investment in new plant and equipment and operational improvements to increase our manufacturing capacity and to be able to serve the market demand more effectively.”