Boryszew invests in components suppliers

Acquisitive Polish industrial group Boryszew is investing heavily to buy up European plastics component suppliers and aims to generate sales of €1bn to the automotive sector by the end of next year.

These moves represent an unusual reversal of the customary trend of western European groups taking advantage of acquisition opportunities in central and eastern Europe.

In August, Sochaczew-based Boryszew agreed to pay €6.7m to purchase assets of insolvent German plastics auto parts moulder Altmärker Kunststoff-Technik (AKT), including its Czech Republic offshoot AKT Čechy in Jablonec nad Nisou.

Earlier this year, the Polish group scooped up Theysohn Kunststoff, a key parts supplier to VW, and its mould making partner from Austrian precision component group HTI High Tech Industries. In 2010, Boryszew had bought the insolvent Italian automotive tubing producer Maflow International Group.

Boryszew, which has annual sales valued at around €440m, is now said to be seeking operational synergies between its AKT businesses and the Theysohn acquisitions.

Loss making AKT, based in Gardelegen, Germany, was declared insolvent in January 2011, but its plants are reported to have continued in operation since then. Apart from the German AKT plant, employing 900, and the AKT Czech unit, Boryszew has now bought the assets of the bankrupt group’s German mould maker WEDO Formenbau und Kunststoffverarbeitung of Doberschau.

However, Boryszew did not acquire a Spanish moulding subsidiary, AKT Plásticos of Amorbieta, Spain which was sold to the automotive parts processor Grupo ISN, based in Noáin in Spain’s Navarra province.

The Czech AKT offshoot focuses on injection moulding components for the automotive sector, supplying global vehicle builders including Volkswagen, Skoda and DaimlerChrysler, and tier one suppliers like Johnson Controls. It also manufactures parts for the domestic appliance industry serving OEMs such as Miele.

The Čechy moulding and assembly operation, which employs 200, operates a range of injection presses equipped with handling technology with a clamping force from 250 tonnes to 1,100 tonnes.

AKT companies supply interior auto parts including dashboard panels, head rests, speaker covers and cup holders for car manufacturers such as Opel, Volkswagen and BMW. In 2010, they recorded revenue of more than €140m.

Warsaw Stock Exchange-listed Boryszew has not won all its recent acquisition battles. An earlier bid to buy up another insolvent German auto sealing systems supplier SaarGummi in February this year later ended in failure. The Polish group withdrew in favour of the Chinese industrial group Chongqing Light Industry and Textile Holding.