MDM News Digest 3801

Investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, Omaha, NE, will buy 60 percent of Marmon Holdings Inc., a private holding company with more than 125 manufacturing and service businesses that operate independently, for $4.5 billion. The sectors covered include: wire and cable, transportation services and engineered products (including rail), highway technologies, distribution of pipe and tubing, flow products, industrial products (including fasteners, safety products and metal fabrication), construction services, water treatment equipment, and retail services. Companies have collective revenues of $7 billion. Marmon was formed in 1953 when it was acquired as a small ailing manufacturer in Ohio by Jay and Robert Pritzker. Frank Ptak is currently CEO of Marmon. More
Houston, TX-based Cooper Industries, Ltd. has acquired Sure Power Industries, Inc., OMNEX Control Systems, ULC, and Roam Secure. Combined sales for the three companies in 2007 will be $62 million and the combined purchase price is $100 million. Cooper, a global electrical manufacturer with 2006 sales of $5.2 billion, has closed 13 deals in 2007. More
Airgas, Inc., Radnor, PA, has acquired Smith Welding Supply &Equipment, Inc. and its affiliated company, Bayer Welding Supply, LLC. Six locations in the Detroit area have been integrated with Airgas Great Lakes, one of the regional companies within Airgas. Smith and Bayer had combined annual sales of $16 million in calendar year 2006.  More
Airgas has also acquired Pacific Diazo Products Inc., Colton, CA, a distributor of aqua ammonia, anhydrous ammonia and related products and services. Pacific Diazo has been integrated into Airgas Specialty Products. PDP had more than $9 million in sales in 2006.
Pima Welding Supply, Inc., an industrial gas and welding supply distributor in Tucson, AZ, has also been added to Airgas'portfolio. The business has been integrated into Airgas West, one of the regional companies within Airgas. Pima had sales of $5 million in the year ended June 30, 2007. More
WinWholesale Inc., Dayton, OH, has opened Shelton Winlectric in Shelton, CT, to provide contractors in three western counties with electrical equipment, parts and accessories. The counties are Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven. Another company, Nutmeg Winlectric in Colchester, serves eastern Connecticut. Shelton Winlectric is the first WinWholesale company to open in 2008. There are 462 Win local companies and 107 Noland branches, mainly in the Southeast.  More
MSC Industrial Direct Co. Inc., Melville, NY, distributor of MRO supplies to industrial customers, reported sales in the first quarter 2008 were $437.6 million, an increase of 8.8 percent from the prior-year period. Profit was up 16.3 percent to $46.9 million. CEO David Sandler said MSC's customers have told the company that "market conditions are mixed. While there continue to be many pockets of strength, there is less optimism among our customer base in general and more concern of cost inflation, especially in raw materials and energy costs. At the same time, the macroeconomic indicators we follow are also signaling the possibility of a slowing market."More
Diversified global manufacturer Illinois Tool Works Inc., Glenview, IL, has acquired Peerless Machinery Corp., Sidney, OH, a manufacturer and supplier of mixers, bread dividers, dough handlers, and other food processing equipment. The Peerless Group will be a wholly owned unit of ITW

and part of the company's existing food equipment group. ITW will continue to operate Peerless as a separate business under the Peerless brand name. More
German manufacturer Bosch has acquired laser-leveling business RoboToolz Ltd., headquartered in Hong Kong. The acquisition expands the company's capacity in measuring tools. RoboToolz has four locations: two in China and one each in the U.S. and Germany. In 2006, the company had sales of $11 million. More
Samuel, Son &Co., Ltd. has acquired Encore Coils division of Encore Group Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Steel &Aluminum Co. Wayne Bassett, CEO of Samuel said: "The Western Canadian market is a very important market for us and the acquisition of Encore Coils will significantly enhance our ability to service our customers in Western Canada."The company will now have 10 Western Canadian locations. More
Joy Global Inc., Milwaukee, WI, supplier of mining equipment, has agreed to acquire NES Group's Continental Global Inc., a conveyor systems supplier focused on mining and other industrial applications, for $270 million. Continental has customers on six continents and facilities in the U.S., UK, South Africa and Australia. Continental's 2007 sales of conveyor equipment are expected to be $340 million. More
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector failed to grow in December following 10 consecutive months of expansion, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report on Business. The news follows the recent trend toward slower growth. Industries close to the housing market appear to be struggling more than others, and those involved in exports seem to be doing better. Based on respondents'comments, slower demand appears to be more of a problem than excessive inventories. More
Construction spending during November 2007 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,165.1 billion, 0.1 percent above October, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The November figure is 0.1 percent below the November 2006 estimate. During the first 11 months of this year, construction spending amounted to $1,076.2 billion, 2.5 percent below the same period in 2006. More
In November, prices in Canada for manufactured products and raw materials were pushed up by surging petroleum prices. From October to November, prices charged by manufacturers, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI), rose 0.6 percent. The rise in the index was caused by surging prices for petroleum and coal products. On a 12-month basis, the IPPI declined 0.6 percent, continuing a downward trend. Declines in the prices for motor vehicles and other transport equipment, primary metal products and pulp and paper products were tempered by the steep increase in the prices for petroleum and coal products. More
The ERIKS group had sales of €949 million (US$1.4 billion) in 2007, up 74.6 percent from 2006, thanks to its acquisition of WYKO. Profit was about €45 million, up 62 percent. ERIKS bought UK-based WYKO, a distributor of power transmission, sealing technology, fluid power and maintenance products, in October 2006. WYKO had close to €320 million (US$450 million) in annual sales at the time of its acquisition. More
Electronic component distributor Avnet, Inc. has acquired YEL Electronics Hong

Kong Ltd. YEL, which was established in 1992, is a distributor of interconnect, passive, electromechanical and limited semiconductor components in the Asia region, representing more than 30 franchised suppliers. YEL had US$200 million of revenue in 2007. More
A. M. Castle &Co., Franklin Park, IL, distributor of specialty metal and plastic products, has acquired Metals UK Group, a distributor and processor of specialty metals primarily serving the Oil and Gas, Aerospace, Petrochemical and Power Generation markets worldwide. Metals UK Group has four processing facilities; two in Blackburn, England, one in Hoddesdon Northeast of London and one in Bilbao, Spain. Metals UK Group had sales of $72 million in 2007.  More
Leviton Manufacturing Company Inc., Little Neck, NY, producer of electrical and electronic wiring devices, has agreed to acquire ControlThink LC, a home and building control software and services company. Leviton manufactures over 25,000 different products for use in homes in the U.S. and Canada, and in commercial facilities, industrial plants and OEM operations. More
Emerson, St. Louis, MO, sold its Brooks Instrument unit to private equity firm American Industrial Partners Capital Fund IV, L.P. for $100 million in cash. Brooks, Hatfield, PA, provides flow measurement and control devices to the low-flow application market, and serves the chemical and semiconductor industries. Its sales in fiscal 2007 were $90 million.  More
Industrial cleaning product supplier Zep Inc., Atlanta, GA, reported sales in the first quarter ended Nov. 30, 2007, were $143.6 million, up 4.9 percent. Profit was $6.3 million. The company, which recently announced it would sell through industrial distributors, said the cost of commodities continued to increase, and Zep management anticipates higher costs in coming quarters. These increases in material costs are expected to be offset by higher selling prices. More


The Canadian economy is growing at or above potential, and labor markets are as tight as they have been in a generation, according to Review of the Canadian Economy, 2007-2008, available at mapi.net. Real gross domestic product grew by 2.9% at an annualized rate in the third quarter 2007 but is expected to decelerate to the 2% range before regaining momentum in the latter part of 2008. More

Many manufacturers, especially those with multinational interests, have been able to fend off challenges to the sector, according to the latest Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI Survey on the Business Outlook, available at www.mapi.net. The December 2007 composite index of 64 is just one point below the 65 reported in the previous two surveys conducted in September 2007 and in June 2007. A business index above 50 indicates that overall manufacturing activity is expected to increase over the next three to six months. The index measures the direction of change rather than the absolute strength of activity in manufacturing.