Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH (Mannheim, Germany; www.pepperl-fuchs.com), a globally leading company in explosion protection by intrinsic safety and in industrial sensors, announced the acquisition of ecom instruments GmbH (Assamstadt, Germany; www.ecom-ex.com), the world market leader for mobile industrial devices for hazardous areas. The ecom instruments achieved its position as technology leaders by developing explosion-proof cell phones, 4G smartphones and tablets. With this Pepperl+Fuchs complements the portfolio and the know-how in explosion protection with mobile solutions.
“In ecom instruments we found an industry pioneer with 15% growth rate lately who, for decades, proved and strengthened his technology leadership in mobile explosion protection and now complements our offering with a competitive portfolio reaching far into the future” says Gunther Kegel, CEO of the Pepperl+Fuchs group.
“Besides the expanded product portfolio we can see new opportunities arising along the entire value added chain. With this we can not only strengthen our offering in the field of explosion protection, but we can achieve a much better market position – with a partner from our region – and consequently generate new solutions around the complex of Industry 4.0”, adds Kegel.
“The expertise in explosion protection and the wide-spread international sales force of Pepperl+Fuchs made them our favorite partner from the very beginning. Our innovative devices do not only fill a gap in their portfolio, but allow ecom instruments and Pepperl+Fuchs to develop future business models and solutions at the Center of Competence at Assamstadt to gain access to the enormous growth potential of the ongoing digitalization of industry,”says Rolf Nied, founder and managing partner of ecom instruments.