Hugh Davies and John Pritchard, who runs Daver Steels in Sheffield, met in the 1990s, when they both worked at McCalls Special Products.

When Mr Davies returned to Sheffield, after gaining global corporate management experience with two major American companies, the duo got together to find a suitable business to buy.

With help from Paul Fauset, from Sheffield accountants, Hawsons, they identified 32 potential companies.

Coincidentally, Beta’s owner, Ray Billington, was looking for the right person to take over the Goldthorpe company he had built up over 30 years.

Beta specialises in making precision components from exotic materials that are notoriously difficult to machine and Mr Billington was looking for an engineer with additional skills to take the company forward.

Having found Hugh Davies and John Pritchard, Mr Billington will stay on in an advisory role before retiring.

The deal has been put together with finance from UK Steel Enterprise, the Corus Group subsidiary which provides finance for growing companies; Alliance and Leicester Bank and South Yorkshire Investment Fund.

Invoice financing is being provided by Five Arrows Commercial Finance and legal advice was provided by HLW Commercial Lawyers.

Mr Davies will run Beta, while Mr Pritchard will provide advice and support as a non-executive director.

He believes he can use contacts he has built up over recent years to win new customers in niche markets and increase its business by up to a quarter.

“There’s a significant market out there for medium batch quantities of complex parts in materials which are difficult to machine,” said Mr Davies.

UK Steel Enterprise’s regional manager, Keith Williams, said, “We have been very impressed by Hugh’s approach and the expertise of the company. His depth of experience will add a new dimension to what is already a successful business.”