Acquisition creates Europe's largest automated guided vehicle group

Citation

(2001), "Acquisition creates Europe's largest automated guided vehicle group", Assembly Automation, Vol. 21 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.2001.03321bab.009

Acquisition creates Europe's largest automated guided vehicle group

Acquisition creates Europe's largest automated guided vehicle group

Keyword Automated guided vehicles

Automated guided vehicle (AGV) specialist, Indumat Systems Ltd of Basingstoke, advises that on 1 January 2001 its German parent company was taken over by AGV manufacturer, Eilers & Kirf GmbH of Buchholz, Germany. The share ownership of the Indumat group has been transferred from the previous holding company, Linde, for an undisclosed sum. The strategic move forms a group whose companies in 1999 had a combined turnover of more than DM34 million and employed 130 people (see Plate 2).

Plate 2 A typical Eilers & Kirf AGV installation in Germany

Managing director of the Basingstoke operation, Peter Holdcroft, said, "It will be business as usual as far as our customers in the UK are concerned, as we shall continue to operate autonomously from our existing premises and there will be no staff changes."

He went on to explain that the two companies installed 30-plus systems deploying over 100 vehicles in 1999, representing a 22 per cent market share and making the new group outright market leader in AGVs in Europe.

The expertise available from Basingstoke will be enhanced by complementary products, technologies and capabilities from the Eilers & Kirf organisation which, in 1996, absorbed the AGV businesses of Jungheinrich and Mannesmann Dematic. Indumat and Eilers & Kirf will continue to manufacture at their existing locations and the two sets of products will largely be marketed independently under their respective brand names.

Significant customer benefits are expected through synergy in the development, production and service support of the group's AGV systems and from the wealth of experience amassed by both companies over many years in installing hundreds of automated materials handling systems in warehouses, factories, municipal establishments and elsewhere.

For further information, contact: Peter Holdcroft, managing director, Indumat Systems Ltd, Kingsclere Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XQ, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1256 470079; Fax: +44 (0)1256 470072; e-mail: peterholdcroft@indumat.co.uk; Web site: www.indumat.de