OIL services industry entrepreneur Toby Ross and his wife Sheena have sold their Aberdeen-based Ross Offshore business to Glasgow-headquartered Glacier Energy Services for millions of pounds.

Mr Ross expressed his "delight", as the sale was announced yesterday, that Ross Offshore's 10-strong team would remain in place in the wake of the transaction.

Asked if he was happy with Glacier as a buyer, and with this purchaser's expansion plans for Ross Offshore, he replied: "I am delighted, and I am delighted we are all well looked after and everyone in the company has a place. That is the main crux of it. The money isn't the issue. It is that the company stays as it is, and everyone is secure."

Mr Ross emphasised: "We definitely didn't need to sell out."

The exact price being paid for Ross Offshore was not disclosed, but it is believed to be between £2 million and £5m. The business was owned by Mr and Mrs Ross.

Founded in 1998, Ross Offshore is focused on the North Sea oil and gas sector. It carries out servicing, maintenance and shutdown work for a raft of majors, including BP, Shell, Total, Marathon, Apache and Taqa, and specialises in heat exchangers, coolers and radiators.

Mark Derry, managing director of Glacier's offshore division, said of Mr Ross: "He is a key part of our strategy moving forward. He enjoys what he does. He is going to continue to lead that (Ross Offshore) business and work for me and take that forward.

"That was a huge consideration for us in buying the business. All of the management team is staying."

Glacier said that following its latest acquisition, it would have an annual turnover of more than £15m, with a workforce of about 110 people across its operational hubs in Glasgow, Newcastle and Aberdeen, and its recently-opened south-east Asia base in Singapore.

Mr Derry highlighted Glacier's appetite for further acquisitions.

He said: "Ross is certainly not the last. We are looking at a number of targets just now. Some are more advanced than others. We hope to be announcing further acquisitions in the relatively near future."

Glacier chairman Scott Martin said: "Bringing Ross Offshore on board is another key element of our growth-through-acquisition strategy."

He highlighted the fact that Glacier's buy-and-build strategy continued to be supported by investment from private equity backers Maven Capital Partners and Simmons Parallel Energy.

Together, these private equity providers invested £8m to back Glacier's purchase of portable pipe-cutting tool manufacturer Roberts and welding services company Wellclad from MB Aerospace Holdings back in 2011.

The MB Aerospace Holdings business came into being through a management buy-out from Motherwell Bridge in 2007.

A spokesman for Glacier said that Maven and Simmons had invested further in the Glasgow-based company to back its acquisition of Ross Offshore.

Glacier said it would establish an offshore division headquarters at Ross Offshore's modern facility at Peterseat Drive in Aberdeen.

In June last year, Glacier bought Newcastle-based Site Machining Services for about £1m. SMS is a specialist provider of on-site engineering services to the global oil and gas industry.

Mr Ross noted that he had in 2002 sold his Ross Exchangers business, which he had built up over 20 years with a focus on maintenance, fabrication and repair of heat exchangers from a workshop in Edinburgh, to a private individual.

He noted that, when he had owned Ross Exchangers, it did some North Sea work, but also had the power station and refinery sectors as major customers.

He kept on Ross Offshore when he sold Ross Exchangers.

Mr Derry said: "Ross Offshore is a natural strategic fit for our offshore business, enhancing the range of on-site technical services we can deliver for operators and service companies.

"Ross Offshore's equipment and technology support capability complements Site Machining Services' specialist engineering offering."