FAIRLAWN, Ohio—From the perspective of the hose business, the transition from the former Veyance Technologies Inc. into the ContiTech A.G. business of Germany's Continental A.G. has gone seamless.
The combination of products, the integration of two staffs and the acceptance by customers of the new organization and brand name have gone smoothly since the deal was completed early this year, according to Guy Enta, director of the America's Industry hose unit for ContiTech.
“We are one company, one family, and we are combining the strengths of the two entities,” he said.
The acquisition brought together two firms that had strengths in different product lines in industry hose, which consists of industrial and hydraulic hose lines and related products. ContiTech was by far the stronger of the two in Europe, particularly Germany, while Veyance was much more dominant in North America.
“There's a lot of technology between the two companies we'll be able to share with others,” Enta said. “From the industrial hose standpoint, it really was two companies with different strong footprints. So there was not a lot we had to amalgamate. It's more expansion than rationalization.”
In addition, while both had comprehensive lines to target such market segments as petroleum dispensing, chemicals, air and multipurpose, wood products and others, ContiTech products mostly were engineered to European standards, which can be different than North American ones, he said. So ContiTech may have a higher working pressure in one line, while Veyance may have been more robust in another.
“Even though we're attacking the same markets, we're doing so with different product solutions,” said Enta, a veteran of about 30 years with Veyance and Goodyear. “It will allow us to bring the two together. We joke that with this acquisition we want one plus one to be greater than two, and I think with industry hose we're going to be able to pull that off.”
He said Veyance also filled a strategic need for hydraulic hose, where ContiTech had a limited scope. While Veyance was a relative newcomer to the hydraulic market—the vast majority of its hose revenue still came from industrial hose—it has been building its business steadily over the past several years. “We're going to expand that throughout the Conti organization globally,” Enta said.