Profine achieves ambitious acquisition

Glass Times editor Nathan Bushell welcomes non-coronavirus news.

It’s refreshing to publish headline news unconnected to the coronavirus pandemic; and even on a normal news day the acquisition of Synseal assets (via Aperture) by Profine is significant news.

The German systems house had not made any secret of the fact that it was looking to build a UK extrusion home, and that acquisition was a likely route. Its new base in Huthwaite will provide the firm with the ability to extrude its own profile for use in the UK and in Europe, along with a match-ready workforce.

There are questions that still need to be answered about whether this is simply a way of building the Kömmerling brand in the UK, or if Profine will invest in the number of brands that it has acquired as part of this move.

In a release announcing the news, the company did say the newly acquired brands and products from the Aperture business will also be considered for other export markets, leveraging its significant presence in more than 100 countries, with over 3,500 employees.

And Gareth Jones, managing director of Profine UK, said: “It’s been something we’ve been looking at for several years and now we can continue to build market share for the Kömmerling brand and support it with others such as WarmCore and Evolve, which will also benefit from investment.”

However, I imagine there will be consolidation, and it will be interesting to see how this develops. We will bring you more news as we get it.

Finally, the exhibitions industry is up in the air as exhibitors announce that they won’t support international shows while the pandemic rages, and that organisers should also not fill everyone’s diaries in 2021.

Glasstec has therefore moved to June 2021, just three weeks after the rescheduled FIT Show. This may not be as awkward for FIT as a clash with Fensterbau (which has moved to the end of March 2022) but there is still some crossover on the glass side.

People talk endlessly of a ‘new normal’ and maybe that is something that exhibitions will have to adjust to as well.