Parvalux Electric Motors buys EMD Drive Systems

EMD Drive Systems Limited, which is based in Halstead, was purchased from Rubicon Partners LLP with finance provided by the Clark Group of companies - of which Parvalux is a member. Parvalux plans to align the two complementary businesses to become the UK's largest combined manufacturer of small electric geared motors. While Parvalux is a generalist manufacturer of motors and geared motors for applications that are typically industrial in nature, EMD is more application-oriented, serving customers in, for example, the leisure, mobility and retail sectors. Turnover for the combined company is projected to be 18.5million in 2009, with an output in excess of 300,000 units, all manufactured in the UK. This is thought to make the Parvalux-EMD combination double the size of its nearest UK competitor and in the top five manufacturers in Europe for this type and size of product.

Justin Levine, Managing Director, believes Parvalux has seized a rare opportunity to secure the position as the UK's number-one manufacturer within its market, saying: "We are focused upon an aggressive growth strategy which the combined strengths of the new business will clearly help to facilitate. First and foremost is the management talent at EMD that will complement our existing team; secondly, we will be able to expand our combined product offer across both Parvalux and EMD sales channels; thirdly, the combination of R&D expertise of the respective development teams will offer significant advantages - specifically, we will be able to offer EMD's depth of application knowledge with Parvalux's unrivalled choice of customisable geared motor technologies, from which customers will clearly benefit."

Steven Clark, Chief Executive, adds: "In EMD we saw a company that could benefit from our network of international distributors, from our marketing expertise and our strong international brand; and likewise we saw an opportunity to grow our specialist application knowledge and broaden our offer. So, needless to say, we are very, very excited about the future."

The plan is to continue running the two businesses at their respective sites and with the existing management teams. Therefore for both EMD and Parvalux customers it is 'business as usual,' with the added bonus that the intention is to strengthen further the already formidable engineering teams at both Parvalux and EMD.

Backed by the private equity firm, The Clark Group, Parvalux intends to invest further to modernise its production facilities and to meet the evolving requirements of its growing base of international customers.