Fair Friend Group includes the Feeler and Ecoca brands, available in the UK through The Engineering Technology Group and YMT Technologies respectively. MAG has representative offices in Birmingham. As of this announcement, there are no changes in the UK.
MAG's Industrial Equipment business unit is part of the German company MAG IAS GmbH and comprises manufacturing plants and service locations in Mosbach, Taunusstein, Chemnitz, Witten, Offenburg and, partially, Göppingen, all in Germany, as well as the Russian sales and service entity.
FFG Europe will take over all of MAG Industrial Equipment business unit personnel working in the locations of Mosbach, Taunusstein, Chemnitz, Offenburg, Witten and G?ppingen, as well as the personnel in the Russian subsidiary. All locations will be continued and not transfered elsewhere.
MAG's Industrial Equipment business unit will be incorporated into a new German vehicle, FFG Deutschland GmbH, and remain a separate entity to the already established FFG Europe. There will, however, be exchanges of management support both ways.
FFG recently grouped within FFG Europe the European holding company of FFG and the Italian machine tool manufacturers Jobs, Sigma, Sachman and Rambaudi.
The group's strategy is targeted at expanding its activities to form a strong global machine tool group with fully functional regional structures and the acquisition of MAG's Industrial Equipment business confirms FFG's the goal of becoming one of the world leading groups in the machine tool industry.
The automotive business unit of MAG IAS GmbH, with manufacturing plants in Eislingen, Göppingen, and Rottenburg, Germany, as well as its branches in China, Hungary and Korea and related companies in the USA, UK, and India are not part of the deal.
The Industrial Equipment division generates a sales volume of over €170 million, excluding the Russian subsidiary, with about 600 employees.
FFG and MAG Industrial Equipment have complementary strong sales and service subsidiaries throughout the globe and brands from both entities will benefit from the capillarity of the network resulting from the partnership.
Synergies will be implemented across the product portfolio of both entities, as well as from a marketing point of view.
In the first case, the manufacturing capacities in Germany, the value of the brands Hüller Hille, Hessapp, Modul, VDF Boehringer and Witzig & Frank will speed FFG group's growth substantially, the announcement says. The MAG Industrial Equipment's product portfolio matches FFG's strategy, filling out the advanced technology portfolio of FFG Europe, while targeting corresponding industries.
FFG says that MAG Industrial Equipment's product portfolio is "totally complementary to FFG Europe's Italian companies' portfolio", which includes vertical and horizontal high performance milling machines, as well as vertical machining centres, whereas MAG Industrial Equipment's portfolio is focused on horizontal machining centres, vertical and horizontal turning machines, gear technology through hobbing, chamfering and deburring machines.
In addition, joint product development activities will be pursued with the Taiwanese brands of the Fair Friend Group (Feeler, Leadwell, Ecoca), who are also active in turning machines and horizontal machining centres, although with different technical features and size ranges, as well as with the Italian Brands.
Further, the critical mass of the whole group will also strengthen its overall purchasing power.
Image: Rambaudi RS-SDM3225
Background notes The FFG group, established in 1979, includes over 60 companies and operates in leading industrialised and emerging countries with US$2.5 billion in sales.
The machine tool division, established in 1985 andposting a total of US$1.3 billion in sales, includes 32 manufacturing centres, mainly located in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, China, USA and Italy, with a total of 23 brands.
FFG machine tool brands take in: Feeler, Leadwell, Sanco, Equiptop and Ecoca. FFG Europe brands take in Sachman, Jobs, Rambaudi and Sigma Technology.
FFG describes itself as the most globalised world leader with production facilities and associated sales and marketing activities established in eight different countries.
FFG Group is mainly focused on CNC machine tool business (more than 50% revenue) and includes three more divisions: IT Industrial Division, Industrial Equipment Machinery Division, and Green Energy Equipment Division.
In the machine tools sector, FFG Group is partner in joint ventures with the following Japanese companies listed at the Japan Stock Exchange: Takamatsu, Citizen Miyano, Waida, Toyota Tsusu, Marubeni, F.T. Japan, EMC Japan, Takeuchi, as well as Mectron, and Yamamoto Sumizawa.
In the Industrial Equipment Machinery sector, the group is also partner in joint ventures with the following Japanese companies listed in the Japan stock exchange: Anest Iwata and Nippon Cable.
