Historically, Gunnebo’s penetration of the market in Italy has tended to be low, and the acquisition of Chubb Lips S.p.A., which is active in both physical security and electronic security, will also give the Group a strong market position in Italy. The Italian business has an annual turnover of some MEUR 15 and around 80 employees. Most of the business is located in Milan.
“To date, only a small proportion of our sales have been in the Italian security market,” says Bjarne Holmqvist, Gunnebo’s President and CEO. “The acquisition of Chubb Lips S.p.A., which already distributes some of Chubb Safes’ security products and has some 20 per cent of Italy’s physical security market, will give us a very strong platform for further growth.”
The physical security business of N.V. Chubb Security Systems in Belgium has an annual turnover of around MEUR 6 and some 30 employees, of whom 16 are service technicians. The business consists of physical security products and service for banks and the retail sector.
“In acquiring Chubb’s physical security business, we are improving the sales potential in Belgium for our products and strengthening our position, especially on the service side,” says Bjarne Holmqvist.
The acquisitions are expected to make only a marginal impact on earnings per share for the current year, but will make a positive contribution as of 2005.
