Daihen (President:Tetsuya Tajiri) announced it acquired Slovenian welding machine manufacturer Varstroj (Varstroj Tovarna in rezalne opreme d.d.) on February 18. By the end of April it will buy up 100% of the issued shares. The invested amount including the acquisition, though not disclosed, is about 2 billion yen.

Varstroj d.d., located in Lendava northeast of Slovenia in East Europe, is a manufacturer of welding machines founded in 1964 and headed by Matjaz Vnuk. Having about 160 employees, it sells about 2 billion yen per year of welding machines and robots at a 50/50 ratio.

According to Daihen, Varstroj having customers mainly in the construction industry is the top seller of welding machines in East Europe who enjoys a sales share of 30%, with its established brand power and sales network. Varstroj is represented by more than 30 distributors in the East European region and has also been Daihen’s sales agent since 1999 on the other hand.

With the acquisition of Varstroj, Daihen will launch “Welbee” of its key machine into the European market as a footstep for business expansion. Furthermore, positioning Varstroj as Daihen’s production base of “Welbee” for Europe as well as for exportation to the developing countries including India. Varstroj’s production capacity, will be 150% of the current volume within 2015 though not officially announced, .

Daihen’s sales amount of mechatronics business accounts for 32.5 billion yen (2012), approximately 50% of which was attained abroad, including about 10% in the European market.

Last year President Tetsuya Tajiri put up his slogan of “Reinforcement of Welding Mechatronics Business in Europe” intended to expand sales in the region, and now aims at a sales of 10 billion yen in the welding mechatronics business in Europe in 2018, seizing the opportunity of acquisition at this time.

With reference to the overseas business, Daihen finds it difficult to deploy its business in such a matured market as North America and Europe. A local brand power will be inevitably necessary at any rate. A variety of choices will be expected based on the acquisition at this time.