Sauermann buys leading instrument maker

BELGIUM: Condensate pump manufacturer Sauermann has acquired KGF, a French group which includes well-known instrument maker KIMO.

The deal for KGF, conducted through Sauermann’s French subsidiary, also includes KGF companies Taulou SAS and Katrem SARL.

KGF employs some 300 people and achieved revenues of €34m in 2014. Kimo is the most important part of KGF, accounting for 85% of the workforce and around 90% of group turnover.

Formed in 1979, KIMO is the market leader for measurement instruments in France, supplying a broad spectrum of customers from small hvac installers to large industrial plants.

Katrem SARL has been a KGF Group company since April 2009. It distributes, markets and offers calibration on a range of measuring instruments including electrical multimeters, air quality and water testing instruments.

Taulou SAS, based in Bergerac, is a manufacturer of moulds and plastic parts.

“Starting in 2004, we began setting steep objectives – from transformations within our financial structure, to strengthening our presence in all four segments of the hvacr sector, to establishing organisations in Asia/Pacific and North America. All of these targets were achieved successfully,” commented Serge Bohyn, CEO of the Sauermann Group.

“Even with these accomplishments, we were determined to go further,” he added. “Sauermann and KGF are extraordinarily complementary. We fit together perfectly. Our geographic structures fit, as do our organisation charts.”

As a global market leader, the Sauermann Group employs nearly 100 people throughout the world and had a consolidated revenue of some €27m in 2014.