Reduction Engineering Inc. has purchased the pelletizer business of Stuttgart, Germany-based C.F. Scheer & CIE GmbH + Co. KG.
``Reduction Engineering is building a worldwide presence through a strategy of acquisition, strategic partnerships, capacity expansion and investment in research and development,'' said Robert Sly, president of the machinery company based in Kent, Ohio.
Under the deal, announced Nov. 6, the German pelletizer operation will operate under the name Scheer Reduction Engineering GmbH. Sly said the company will manufacture in Stuttgart and at its Kent headquarters.
Scheer has operated under insolvency reorganization for the past three months, after what officials said were problems with financing some major orders.
Sly said Scheer employs 42 in Germany making strand and underwater pelletizers. He declined to say how much Reduction is paying for the business.
The German company builds pelletizers in Stuttgart and runs a subsidiary in Shanghai to handle sales, service and parts. In a news release, Reduction called Scheer the world's largest manufacturer of strand pelletizers.
Ludwig Zollitsch, a 30-plus-year veteran of Scheer who retired as sales manager in 2007, will return as president of Scheer Reduction Engineering.
In the United States, C.F. Scheer and Bay Plastics Machinery Corp. have a 10-year-old joint venture, Scheer Bay Co. in Bay City, Mich. That operation is not part of the deal, Sly said.
Buying Scheer continues an international expansion in pelletizers by Reduction Engineering. Under an agreement earlier this year, Reduction is manufacturing pelletizers from Austria's Econ GmbH, and providing sales and service for Econ's U.S. customers in the Americas.
Sly said Reduction will make both Scheer and Econ pelletizers in Kent. Meanwhile, in Stuttgart, Scheer will build the Reduction line of pulverizers. Reduction Engineering also has started building pulverizers at the Brazilian headquarters of its Rotoline rotomolding machinery business.
