A SCIENTIFIC supply company which was part of the Shepherd Building Group in York has been taken over in a management buy-out.

MSS Clean Technology designs, supplies and builds "clean" rooms and controlled environments mostly for scientific laboratories and pharmaceutical production.

The takeover, for an undisclosed sum, was led by Paul Walters, the former commercial manager of MSS.

For the time being, the firm will continue to operate out of the Shepherd Building Group HQ at Frederick House in Fulford Road. None of the 17 jobs will be affected.

Mr Walters, now managing director, said today: "We are now looking for new, smaller offices in the Greater York area."

He said the plan was to consolidate but he declared the business to be "in terrific shape" with projects worth more than £2 million in progress.

The buy-out was with the co-operation of Shepherd, which retains a ten per cent stake. The group was, in any case, seeking to divest itself of operations which are not its core business.

Mr Walters described Shepherd's continuing financial interest as "an act of faith" in MSS, adding: "Traditionally the company has concentrated on providing large-scale projects to major blue-chip clients, but we are introducing a flexible and highly-competitive service which will enable smaller organisations to take advantage of our enhanced range of products and services."

The buyout, steered by York solicitors Harrowell Shaftoe, now has Nigel Squires as financial director and Tony Melling as technical director. Each of the three men in the buyout team had been with the Shepherd Group for more than 20 years.

Updated: 14:31 Wednesday, September 10, 2003