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Spring 2019 Truck and Track 15
BUSINESS NEWS
VBG Group’s division VBG Truck Equipment is acquiring the
business concerning drawbar assemblies from BPW-Hungária
Kft, amemberof theBPWGroup. Theacquisitionwill strengthen
the division’s product offering to its customers in Europe.
VBG Truck Equipment has signed an agreement with the specialist
for agricultural and trailer running gear systems BPW-Hungária
Kft. to acquire its business concerning drawbar assemblies for
commercial vehicles. The acquisition will provide the division with
products that complement its current product offering.
“In2015, we adjusted our businessmodel for the Central &Western
European markets to correspond to the model we were already
successfully using in the Nordic region. The businessmodel is based
on us offering complete coupling systems rather than individual
products, which significantly facilitates for our customers.
However, we had a gap in our product offer for Central & Western
Europe, but we have now secured the final important piece of the
puzzle to make our system offering complete” says Anders Erkén,
Division Manager of VBG Truck Equipment.
The purchase agreement has been signed today, March 15,
2019. The acquisition concerns BPW’s drawbar business as a
going concern and includes product rights and both tangible and
intangible assets used in the business, such as patents and ECE
approvals for variants of drawbars and rigid drawbars for center-
axle trailers and trailers as well as folding underrun protections and
hitch blocks.
“The BPW Group is already our distributor of drawbar couplings
in a number of countries and we have a long and good business
relationship that we will continue in the future. We have therefore
been in discussions for some time and arrived at a solution that
favors both parties” says Anders Erkén.
Michael Pfeiffer, personally liable managing partner of BPW
adds: “The BPW Group researches, develops and manufactures
everything needed to ensure that a trailer keeps moving and is
safe, illuminated, intelligent and digitally connected. In order to
streamline our product portfolio in this sense, we have decided to
carve out the product division of drawbar assemblies.”
The acquisition will be finalized in approximately nine months,
on December 31, 2019. The purchase price amounts to EUR
2.4 million. VBG Truck Equipment is VBG Group’s second largest
division in terms of sales and a world-leading supplier of coupling
equipment for trucks. The division’s Western European market
represents about 40 percent of the division’s total sales.
“It is a minor acquisition financially for us, but from a strategic
perspective the acquisition is very important, since it is entirely
in line with our ambition to create high customer value in the
products” says Anders Birgersson, President and CEO of VBG Group
AB.
VBG Group acquires BPW’s business
concerning drawbar assemblies
As part of the 2018-2026 mid-life programme, Eurotunnel is
signing a contract with Bombardier Transportation to renovate
nine “PAX” Shuttles. Composed in total of 254 wagons, each
800-meter long shuttle ismadeup for passengers’ vehicleswith
passengers remaining in their vehicles during the 35-minute
Channel crossing. In the 25-year period since the opening of the
Channel Tunnel, these Shuttles have each travelled an average
of 300 round trips per month and have enabled over 236
million passengers to travel very comfortably between France
and Great Britain.
The contract is valued at €150 million ($171 million) over a period
of 7 years. Deliveries of the newly refurbished Shuttles will start in
mid-2022 and continue until mid-2026.
Teams from Bombardier France and Belgium1 originally designed
and built these unique vehicles in the 90’s and launched
Bombardier’s activities in France. This year, the company celebrates
30 years since its establishment at the Crespin facility in the Hauts-
de-France Region.
“Mobility technology leader Bombardier brings its expertise and
experience to Eurotunnel to renovate the shuttles it uses in the
Channel Tunnel. This project, the largest in Europe in terms of
scope and ambition, marks a milestone in the development of our
refurbishment activities and places Bombardier as the leader of
this market in France. As well as their own know-how, our French
teams will be able to tap into the overall engineering expertise
and processes across the Bombardier group to make a success of
this unique project,” said Laurent Bouyer, President of Bombardier
Transportation France.
“EurotunnelhaschosentoputitstrustinBombardierTransportation
for the renovation of its Passenger Shuttles. We are celebrating 25
years of operation of these unique Shuttles that were built 30 years
ago. This strategic investment, our most important in 25 years,
allows Eurotunnel to maintain the highest level of quality service
and to affirm trust in its long-term perspectives,” said François
Gauthey, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Group.
Bombardier will be responsible for the renovation of 26 wagons
on each of the nine Shuttles, including 12 single-deck carriages for
coaches, minibuses, caravans and vehicles over 1.85 meters high,
12 double-deck carriages for cars and motorcycles, and 2 double-
deck loader wagons, in addition to two spare loader wagons. As
project technical advisor, Bombardier will lead the integration
and renovation operations except for the single-deck loaders and
will lead on engineering design and procurement for onboard
equipment.
Eurotunnel will undertake design and procurement of key
equipment suchas brakes, doors, firedoors, firedetection, HVACand
thedouble-deck loaders. Eurotunnelwillmanage thehomologation
process of the renovated Shuttles with the appropriate authorities.
Bombardier will provide the technical support to prepare the
required documentation.
1 Who won the historic cross-Channel Fixed Link contract as a member of the Euroshuttle
Wagon Group consortium
Eurotunnel entrusts the mid-life renovation of its Passenger
Shuttles to Bombardier Transportation
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