Daihen announced to acquire Lorch Schweiβtechnik of German long-established welding equipment 　manufacturer to expand its sales channels of welding equipment and arc welding robots in Europe. The acquisition amounts to EUR22 million (equivalent to about 3.417 billion yen). The transfer of shares will be completed in January next year.

Lorch founded in 1957 which is engaged in the sales of mainly mass-retailer models in the European market.

The latest sales (FY22 ending December) amounted to EUR54.24 million (equivalent to 8.427 billion yen) having distributors in 8 countries of France, U.K., Italy, Czech, Belgium, Austria and India including Germany. All of their affiliate distributors are included in the sphere of the acquisition at this time.

Daihen’s sales of welding machines and arc robots in the European market amounted to 6 billion yen as recorded in the FY2022 account. After the acquisition of Varstroj of East Europe in 2014, Daihen acquired LASOtech systems of German system integrator in 2019 and Femitec in 2022, and has been reinforcing the European business. Daihen at this time aims to expand the sales of joining machines in the European market taking advantage of Lorch’s sales network and the direct sales system of the major users in West Europe. Daihen plans to sell mass-retailing models with Lorch brand and the high-end models with Daihen brand in the European market.

The sales FY2022 of Lorch and Daihen brands will amount to 14.5 billion yen in total, but Daihen plans to expand the sales in Europe up to 20 billion yen in 2026.

According to the company, Fronius of Austria ranks at top in the current European market of welders and welding robots, but if Daihen clears the target of 20 billion yen, Daihen will take the top position.

Shoichiro Minomo president of Daihen says, “Also in Europe there are now increasing needs for the joining technologies aiming to reduce weight of vehicles by electrification using aluminum and high tensile materials.
We wish to expand our sales of new joining system such as our laser arc hybrid welding system and plasma jet TIG. Furthermore, it is also our target to develop our D Arc of thick plate welding system in the field of wind power generation in Europe.”

Daihen”s total sales FY2022 of welding equipment and arc welding robots marked 57 billion yen in total, but with the acquisition at this time, the company put into sight the sales development in the East Europe, China, USA and India where the brand power of European products could bring competition power.

President Minomo added, “Our target of sales in the field of welding equipment and arc welding robots in 2026 is 80 billion yen”.