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Hardinge acquires Bridgeport intellectual property
The Hardinge Group, a leading global machine tool company with sales in excess of $200 million, has acquired the Intellectual Property Rights and the sales and support services division of Bridgeport.
The Hardinge Group, a leading global machine tool company with sales in excess of $200 million, has acquired the Intellectual Property Rights and the sales and support services division of Bridgeport As a result, 51 employees in Leicester and 11 in Holland have joined the Hardinge Group and the Bridgeport brand will be added to Hardinge's existing portfolio of brands, including Hardinge branded high precision lathes, Kellenberger cylindrical grinding machines, Hauser jig grinding machines, Tschudin high production cylindrical grinding machines, Tripet internal grinding machines, Hardinge branded collets, chucks, indexing fixtures and other industrial products and now, Bridgeport knee mills and machining centres
The Bridgeport brand will continue and Hardinge will work to ensure continuity to Bridgeport's existing customers. Customers will be able to continue to use the existing phone numbers and contact people.
This was a fantastic opportunity for Hardinge to acquire one of the world's leading brands in the machine tool marketplace and rescues 62 jobs which were threatened by the receivership of Bridgeport Machines Limited.
Hardinge already has an impressive portfolio of well-known brands and adding Bridgeport makes clear strategic sense.
The enhanced business offer this deal provides will maintain Hardinge's leading position in the global machine tool market.
Adding the Bridgeport brand to its portfolio means that Hardinge will significantly increase its presence in the Vertical and Horizontal Machining Centre market, supplementing its current offerings of vertical machining centres, along with its lathe, grinding and workholding sectors.
The staff at Bridgeport's Sales and Support Services Division include a highly capable application engineering design team, that has demonstrated an ability to develop innovative machining processes and machine tool products.
They will be a valuable addition to the Hardinge family.
Hardinge has had a business relationship with Bridgeport since 2002, manufacturing Bridgeport's knee mill products in the US and they have been very successful in reasserting Bridgeport's presence in the US market.
As a result of this acquisition, Hardinge sales outlets across the world will now have access to Bridgeport's knee mill products.
Bob Duxbury, Managing Director of Hardinge Machine Tools, said: "Bridgeport has an excellent reputation and brand in the marketplace and we are extremely excited by this acquisition and the opportunities available by adding the Bridgeport brand to our portfolio.
In the long term we believe that we can grow the Bridgeport sales, just as we have with our existing brands." "We are committed to retaining the Bridgeport brand, to continuing with the products already under development and ensuring continuity for Bridgeport's customers to provide them with the quality of service that they expect and to remain in the East Midlands region, eventually with a newer demonstration and support centre for this important region of England." J.
Patrick Ervin, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of parent company, Hardinge in the United States added: "We are excited to continue the tradition of the Bridgeport name and to provide worldwide customers with uninterrupted service and spare parts support for the large installed base of Bridgeport machines. In England and Holland, we will be adding 62 knowledgeable, dedicated, and hardworking people to our organisation who are experienced in dealing with Bridgeport products and machine tools in general. We are glad to have them as part of the Hardinge team. This further strengthens our commitment to our European customers by building on strong support already given by our subsidiaries, Hardinge Machine Tools in Exeter, Kellenberger in St Gallen, Switzerland, Hauser Tripet Tschudin in Biel, Switzerland, and Hardinge, in Krefeld, Germany.
"We will continue to look for opportunities to expand our product lines and global reach in the machine tool market. Today's announcement comes after a long period of evaluating ways to bring this strong brand into our portfolio. Hardinge's growth strategy was started over a decade ago, and we remain committed to being a consolidator of valuable brands and operations in our industry. We believe we can grow our sales and our profitability by providing our customers with more products and more support wherever they have needs for the finest machine tools," Ervin concluded.
http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/hae/hae115.html
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