Beijer Electronics Acquires Westermo

Dec. 20, 2007
Swedish maker of switches, routers, fiber-optic modems and modems for LANs and wireless communication fits Beijer's plans
Beijer Electronics has acquired Swedish industrial data communications company Westermo, which is active internationally. The company has 148 employees. Commenting, Göran Sigfridsson, Beijer Electronics’ CEO and president, says: “The acquisition of Westermo is a strategic milestone in the Beijer Electronics group’s continued development. Westermo’s broad product range and high organic growth complements and enhances Beijer Electronics’ automation offering for industrial and infrastructure.” Westermo is a family business founded in 1975. It is a niche data communications player with know-how in industrial applications. Westermo offers products developed in-house like switches, routers, fiberoptic modems and modems for LANs and wireless communication. The company also manufactures at its plant in Stora Sundby, west of Stockholm.“Data communications are becoming a more important part of the automation solutions in manufacturing and infrastructure projects,” says Sigfridsson. “That’s why we anticipate yearly growth of 15-20% in industrial communications, and especially in the industrial Ethernet segment, where Westermo has a strong product offering. At the same time, many customers want to deal with fewer but larger vendors of total solutions. So with the acquisition of Westermo, Beijer Electronics is sharpening its overall competitiveness.”