SKF acquires Italian Machine Tool Spindle Company
SKF acquires Italian Machine Tool Spindle Company SKF has acquired a leading European supplier of spindles and ball screws for the machine tool industry, the Italian company Gamfior S.p.A. Gamfior has 180 employees, an annual turnover of 180 MSEK and is located in Turin. The company's technological leadership in design and manufacturing of high speed motorized spindles and precision ball screws, enhances the SKF Group's capabilities to provide solutions with higher added value to the machine tool industry. SKF already has an extensive expertise in rotating systems, linear systems and high precision components. -With this acquisition SKF becomes one of the world's leading suppliers of machine tool spindles, says Christer Gyberg, President of SKF's Industrial Division. With our earlier acquisitions of the US company Gilman, the Canadian company Revolve and our own manufacturing in Germany and Japan, we have now established ourselves as leaders in a fast growing business. -This is fully in line with the Group's strategy to move further into mechatronics and products with higher added value. We are focusing our development towards high technology spindles, utilizing controls, sophisticated motors and sensor technology. This will enable us to offer our customers more competitive products and solutions, Mr Gyberg continues. Gamfior also provides new locations for SKF Spindle Service with experienced spindle repair sites in strategic markets. This allows SKF to expand the opportunities for supporting integrated maintenance service and other service elements dedicated towards the Machine Tool aftermarket. SKF's network of Spindle Manufacturing and Spindle Service Centers now includes facilities in Austria, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Sweden, UK and USA. SKF also manufactures ball and roller screws in France. The addition of Gamfior's ball screw manufacturing competence and capacity, will, in addition to the machine tool market, further strengthen SKF's position in the other key markets for linear motion products such as medical equipment, electronics production machinery, and robotics. The Group's total Linear Motion and Machine Tool business has yearly sales of some SEK 2500 million and employs 1530 persons. Göteborg, April 23, 2001 Aktiebolaget SKF (publ.) For further information, please contact: Lars G Malmer, SKF Group Communication, tel +46-(0)31-3371541, e-mail: Lars.G.Malmer@skf.com Aktiebolaget SKF, SE-415 50 Göteborg, Sweden, tel +46-31-3371000, fax +46-31-3372832, www.skf.com ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/04/23/20010423BIT00400/bit0002.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/04/23/20010423BIT00400/bit0002.pdf