Viessmann acquires Norpe

FINLAND: The German heating and refrigeration group Viessmann has acquired the Finnish commercial refrigeration equipment manufacturer Norpe.

Founded in 1953, Norpe employs a staff of more than 450 and generated a turnover of over €130m in 2012. A leading European supplier of retail refrigeration equipment, Norpe has its headquarters and factory in Porvoo, near Helsinki, Finland. It has subsidiaries in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Poland and Estonia, a sales office in Latvia and a representative office in Russia. The company is also actively operating in Central Europe, the Middle East and Australia.

“We want to continue on our path to becoming a full-range supplier of cooling technology similar to our position in the heating sector,” says Dr Martin Viessmann, owner of the Viessmann Group. “To achieve this, in the next step, we concentrate on expanding our range of products for the food retail industry. We are confident that Norpe’s comprehensive and attractive product portfolio fits in well with our strategy.”

The move is inspired by the reunification of Viessmann’s refrigeration and heating businesses in October of last year. Founded in 1917, the family business had split in 1992 when, at the age of 75, Hans Viessmann transferred the heating operation to his son Martin Viessmann, creating two separate independent companies. Hans continued to devote himself to the refrigeration business until his death in 2002. In October 2012, Viessmann’s heating business acquired all the shares of its former refrigeration business Viessmann Kaltechnik, best known as a coldroom manufacturer, to reunite the 100-year-old family businesses.

Viessmann has described the acquisition of Norpe as “an important step for Viessmann towards establishing a comprehensive product range for commercial refrigeration solutions as well.”

A company statement said: “By entering the cooling and refrigeration sector in 2012, the company has not just taken account of the convergence of cooling and heating but has also set to exploit additional market potential in countries where heating plays a minor role due to weather conditions.”