Hitecsa buys companies in Spain and France to grow
The Catalan manufacturer acquires two businesses with which it hopes to double its income, up to 30 million, and go from 110 to 238 employees.
Two years after emerging from bankruptcy, Hitecsa is now the one that goes shopping through the commercial courts. The air conditioning equipment manufacturer, controlled by the PHI fund, has purchased the production units of different businesses in Catalonia and France, which will allow the Catalan company to double its size. Hitecsa closed 2013 with 110 workers and sales of 15 million euros, but after the two acquisitions it will incorporate another 121 employees and hopes to generate an additional business volume of between 15 million and 20 million euros per year.
The first productive unit that has been acquired is that of Adisa, a company from Arenys de Mar (Maresme) that filed for bankruptcy in May 2012 with a liability of 18.5 million. Hitecsa has paid around 100,000 euros for the company’s production unit, specialized in the manufacture of industrial kitchens and heating systems.
Hitecsa will maintain Adisa’s activity linked to industrial kitchens in Maresme Kitchens and air conditioning.
Sources from PHI, which acquired Hitecsa at the time for 1.3 million and also owns the Catalan companies Atrian, Covit and Capresa, explain that Adisa’s business will be divided into two. On the one hand, 50% of the 31 subrogated workers will become part of the new Adisa Cooking, a new company that will focus on the kitchen business.
industrial and will maintain its headquarters in Arenys de Mar, where it has two factories. “We started in the Arenys production facilities, but the headquarters of everything will be in Vilanova i la Geltrú,” explain the sources consulted, referring to the fact that Hitecsa’s headquarters are in the capital of Garraf. “This brand was the leader in the industrial kitchen business in Spain, with top-level clients in the sector around the world,” they argue.
Hitecsa has paid two million for the French brand Wesper and its factory, with 97 employees.
The rest of Adisa’s business – boilers and heating and domestic hot water equipment – will be incorporated directly into Hitecsa “to complete its current range.” The company, which in the last two years has focused its efforts on the development of new products and the area of innovation, will now also set foot in France, which “represents a qualitative leap in internationalization.” In this operation, Hitecsa has been advised by David Vilajoana, a partner at Mazars.
Hitecsa has paid two million euros to buy the business of Wesper, a company located in Pons, a French city located 104 kilometers north of Bordeaux. The Catalan company will assume control of the factory and its 97 workers, in addition to the brand. “We have long wanted to consolidate ourselves in France – our main market outside of Spain – and with this purchase we hope to achieve it,” they explain.
