STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Trelleborg A.B. has purchased a niche business to strengthen its position in the offshore oil and gas sector.
The company's Trelleborg Offshore & Construction business finalized the acquisition April 8 of Ambler Technologies Ltd., located in Rochdale, England. Financial details were not disclosed.
Ambler develops and produces composite materials and components using a wide range of high performance materials that create strictly specified buoyancy and insulation properties in applications used primarily in deep sea environments, a spokeswoman for the Stockholm-based company said.
Trelleborg's purchase gives it access to cutting-edge expertise and expanded production capacity of key components, the company said.
It strengthens the Swedish firm's position in oil and gas exploration and extraction, particularly with high-end subsea buoyancy modules used in Remotely Operated Vehicles.
Ambler, which posted sales of about $7.8 million in 2102, also designs and manufactures molds and tools for the rubber and polyurethane industries at its Rochdale plant.
The firm's products fit well with Trelleborg's global offshore offerings, according to the spokeswoman.
Bringing Ambler into the fold "will leverage an entrepreneurial culture and application expertise for new business development" in the offshore oil and gas market along with other segments, including aero¬space, automotive and energy, "thanks to its unique expertise and knowledge about composite products," the spokeswoman said.
Trelleborg's offshore business accounted for about 11 percent of the firm's net sales in 2012.
Ambler operates a 27,000-sq.-ft. factory that sits on 1.75 acres in Rochdale, located north of Manchester, England.
The firm employs about 55 and all are expected to remain with Trelleborg along with the operation's Ambler management team and plant.
"With a focus on customer-centric development, we are moving in the direction of increasingly engineered polymer solutions with a higher technology content," according to Fredrik Meuller, president of the Trelleborg Offshore & Construction.
Ambler has unique expertise and experience in composite materials that complement Trelleborg's global offerings, he said, "primarily in the exploration and extraction of oil and gas in deep-sea environments but also in other interesting segments."
Meuller said that in conjunction with the acquisition, the company will create a center of excellence focused on advanced modules in subsea environments that will offer fully integrated products used in deep waters.
Trelleborg has been building its offshore product business regularly during the last two years.
In January, the firm launched an expansion of its Skelmersdale, England, factory that produces polymer and syntactic foam-based products to handle more demanding deep-sea applications.
The expansion will more than double the size of the roughly 40,000-sq.-ft. plant. In addition, the factory is being upgraded, and new equipment will be added.
Included in other recent moves the company made were the additions of two plants in Brazil—one in Santana de Parnaiba and another in Macae.
Both factories manufacture oil and marine hose for surface and subsea applications.
The firm purchased the Santana de Parnaiba site in 2011, spent about $4 million to refurbish it and add machinery and inaugurated the factory in October 2012.
The 75,000-sq.-ft. Macae facility op¬ened in September 2012.