Switzerland-based Sulzer Management Ltd., a company concentrating on pumps for oil and mining, has announced it is expanding into the cosmetics market with the acquisition of Germany-based mascara brush manufacturer Geka GmbH.
Sulzer has acquired Geka from United Kingdom private equity firm 3i Group for 260 million euros ($289.4 million).
Sulzer, based in Winterhur, Switzerland, emphasizes that the acquisition will see it double the size of Sulzer Mixpac Systems (SMS), its plastic injection molding business, which currently works on solutions for the dental and industrial adhesives markets.
SMS states that it will keep all of Geka's employees.
On a conference call covering the acquisition, Sulzer CEO Greg Poux-Guillaume pointed out that: “Cosmetics is highly resilient.”
Bechhofen-based Geka focuses on B2B customers and is expected to achieve sales of around 150 million euros ($167 million) and EBITDA of around 27 million euros ($30 million). The company currently has around 900 employees and two manufacturing locations in Germany, one in the U.S. and one in Brazil.
Sulzer saw sales of about 2.73 billion ($3 billion) in 2015.