Illinois Tool Works Inc., Glenview, IL, has agreed to buy commercial foodservice equipment supplier Enodis for $2.1 billion in cash plus the assumption of debt, bringing the market value to $2.3 billion.
 
Enodis had reported revenues of $1.6 billion for fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2007. The company’s product line includes food equipment mainly for fast food restaurants, institutions and supermarket/grocery stores. Major products include cooking equipment, ice and beverage dispensing equipment, and stand-alone refrigeration as well as refrigerated display cases. Enodis’ brand names include Frymaster, Garland, Lincoln, Scotsman, Convotherm and Kysor Warren.
 
ITW’s existing food equipment businesses had revenues of $1.9 billion in 2007 and feature products primarily for casual dining restaurants, institutions and supermarket/grocery stores. Key products include warewashing equipment, cooking and food processing equipment, refrigeration equipment and ventilation and pollution control systems.
 
ITW food equipment’s brand names include Hobart, Vulcan, Traulsen, Avery Berkel and Bonnet. With more than 50 businesses in 23 countries, food equipment represented 12% of ITW’s total company revenues in 2007.
 
We believe that the combination of ITW Food Equipment and Enodis will create an expanded global food equipment platform with very complementary strategic, operational and geographical growth positions,” said ITW CEO David Speer. “The collective businesses will have a significantly enhanced product portfolio in addition to greater scale to compete even more effectively and successfully in the global food equipment industry.
 
“As we have done in past acquisitions, we intend to operate Enodis as a standalone business group within the Food Equipment segment.”