Officials of Barnes Group Inc. gave more details about the Italian maker of end-of-arm tooling maker, Gimatic srl, that the company bought for $420 million in its first move to build an automation group.
Barnes executives held a conference call Nov. 15 to discuss the deal, which was signed Sept. 9. Officials first announced the industrial conglomerate wants to create an automation group in its third-quarter conference call three weeks ago.
Gimatic's 2017 sales were about $52 million, with more than 80 percent of that originating in Europe, said Barnes President and CEO Patrick Dempsey. Founded in 1985, Gimatic employs about 240 worldwide.
Dempsey said Gimatic generates 60 percent of its sales from plastics and special handling, which means Gimatic should work well with Barnes' Molding Solutions Group that includes Synventive hot runners, mold makers Foboha and Manner and controls maker Gammaflux.
Gimatic, based in Roncadelle, Italy, holds more than 100 patents and has more than 15,000 customers worldwide, Dempsey said.
Answering an analyst's question, Dempsey said the market is for end-of-arm tooling is “very fragmented” with a number of fairly small competitors.
Chris Stephens, Barnes' senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer, called Gimatic ”an anchor investment in a high-growth market.”
