Metso selling parts of industrial rubber conveyor belt operation
Completion of divestment is part of strategy to improve efficiency and secure business competiveness going forward
METSO have completed the divestment of certain parts of their industrial rubber conveyor belt manufacturing and related sales and services operation. The operations comprise 27 locations with around 330 employees previously belonging to Metso’s Mining and Construction segment.
The industrial rubber conveyor belt manufacturing and sales/services locations in Finland were divested to ContiTech Conveyor Belt Group, while the sales/services centres in Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and in southern Sweden were divested to Lutze Group. The price of the transaction has not been disclosed.
‘Metso is a leading technology and services provider to the mining and construction industries and we want to focus on strengthening this position in the future,’ explained Pasi Jokela, Metso SVP, process wears solutions. ‘At the same time we need to continuously improve the competitiveness of our business and to further develop customer service. The divestment is part of our strategy to develop and simplify our current production capacity in Europe.’
The ContiTech Conveyor Belt Group, part of Continental AG, are one of the world’s leading suppliers of technical rubber products and specialists for plastics technology. The division develops and produces functional parts, components and systems for the automotive industry and other important industries. ContiTech have a workforce of approximately 28,000 employees and achieved sales of about €3.7 billion.
The Lutze Group are a family-owned business with around 160 employees. The conveyor business of Lutze Fördertechnik is focused on supplying and servicing its customers mainly with quality conveyor belts and spray coat wear protection. In 2012, net sales amounted to approximately €25 million.
