Italian Subsidiary Buys German Glass Business

Seattle, WA, USA--(Jobwerx News)--World leader in glass block production supports new synergies for manufacturing to ensure international growth of acquisition.

Yesterday, Saint-Gobain Oberland, a German subsidiary of the Saint-Gobain Group, signed an agreement for the sale of its glass blocks business to Seves of Florence, Italy. Its products, sold under the Solaris brand, are used in the construction industry, and particularly in contemporary interior and exterior architecture.

Seves group - Special curved glass block (24x21,2x12cms.) produced for the Hermès Megastore in Tokyo, by the architect Renzo Piano. Click on photo for High Resolution image.

The business is located at the Wirges plant in Germany, which is equipped with a furnace and four production lines used solely for manufacturing glass blocks, notably colored and fireproof blocks. Total sales for this business in 2004 amounted to €24.4 million. The business will now be managed by Solaris GmbH, a new subsidiary of the Seves Group whose name reflects the commercial brand.

By selling its glass blocks activity, Saint-Gobain Oberland will concentrate on its core business, namely the manufacture and sale of glass containers for the food-processing industry.

Saint-Gobain, France, is a global producer, processor and distributor of materials such as glass, ceramics, plastics, cast iron, and more.

This acquisition by the Seves group, Italy, provides expansion of its product range and strengthen its position as world leader in glass block production. Seves is also planning to put the weight of its R&D behind this business, and implement new synergies to ensure international growth.

Seves concentrates its business in the following areas;

Insulators

A wide range of glass or composite, rigid and suspended insulators for medium, high and very high voltage power transmission systems.

Glass blocks

Glass blocks in the Pegasus Vetroarredo superior quality version for furnishing and luxury decoration, offering an extraordinary and extremely wide range of colours, etched glass patterns, designs and formats, and are also available in customised form. Excellent quality Weck and Vidromatone glass blocks. Traditional and high quality glass blocks for the building industry by Vitrablok, Vitrolux and Sindoco.

Lighting glass and Special glass

High-quality pressed and blown glass for lighting purposes, manufactured using semi-automated and automated processes.

In addition to statistical controls, such equipments allow to carry out almost all kind of type tests, according to international standards as may be required by customers and the various international regulations (IEC, ANSI, British Standard, etc.).

Also, in addition to the operations located in Italy, Germany, Czeck Republic and France, the Seves Group has operations in Brazil and China. Their worldwide manufacturing presence is also coupled with a commercial network that, in addition to the above-mentioned countries, also extends to North America.