Woodhead continues on take-over trail

Citation

(2001), "Woodhead continues on take-over trail", Assembly Automation, Vol. 21 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.2001.03321cab.006

Woodhead continues on take-over trail

Woodhead continues on take-over trail

Keywords: Electronics industry, Mergers and acquisitions

After significantly expanding its European operation in the past five years with the acquisition of three major players in the industrial process control market, the US Nasdaq-quoted group, Woodhead Industries, has now gone one step further by taking over Applicom International SA, in a deal which includes the French company's German and Italian subsidiaries, Applicom International GmbH and IMA Srl.

The Woodhead group – based in Illinois, USA, but running its European operation from a manufacturing base in the UK, with factories in Germany and Italy – specialises in the development and production of the electronic connection and communication products necessary to control industrial automation systems.

Two years ago the group took over SST, the Canadian-based company specialising in industrial communications technology. The group's current product lines include four recognised industry leading brands: Brad Harrison, mPm, SST and RJ-Lnxx.

Applicom – located in Normandy, France, with subsidiaries in Germany, Italy and the USA – produces software, interface cards, and related products to provide communication connectivity for automation systems through fieldbus and industrial networks.

Currently focused on the development of European industrial network technology and high-end Ethernet interface cards, Applicom's strength is known to be in the European-based communication protocols and it is thought to be likely that it will become Woodhead's European development centre for industrial fieldbus software and interface cards.

According to Arwel Rees, president of Woodhead's European operations, the combination of Applicom's European network technology, which includes Profibus and Ethernet, plus other networks, with those of SST, the group's Canadian subsidiary which specialises in DeviceNet, ControlNet, and DataHighwayPlus, should make Woodhead the world's No. 1 independent provider of industrial communication solutions.

Woodhead Industries currently has a worldwide annual turnover in the region of US$200 million, of which $60 million is attributed to the European operation. Applicom and its subsidiaries had consolidated sales in the year 2000 of approximately 62 million French francs (US$8.8 million).

Details on Woodhead and its products can be obtained on www.woodhead.com Details on Applicom and its products can be obtained on www.applicomint.com