Automation Firm Acquires Italian Drives Company

Automation Firm Acquires Italian Drives Company Mitsubishi Electric has acquired Tre Diamanti, the recently rebranded distribution arm of leading Italian drives specialist SCS. Tre Diamanti, which is Mitsubishi's largest drives distributor, has an inverter turnover of EUR 11.0 million and is now set for even greater growth following the take over. The acquisition reflects similar developments across Europe as Mitsubishi seeks to double its share of the European industrial automation market. Mitsubishi has served the Italian market through SCS for over 20 years, with the success based upon drives and servo technologies. Gualtiero Seva, factory automation division manager at Mitsubishi Electric's Italian branch, suggested that the general automation business will benefit with the influx of core product experts. He said: 'With this friendly acquisition of our long term partner, we will be able to combine the expertise and experience of their drives engineers with our specialists inPLCs, HMIs, Robots and Electromechanical systems. Our customers will benefit from an enhanced, quality service that assures a prompt and fast response to all automation issues.' In September 2006 Mitsubishi strengthened its presence in Northern Europe, Scandinavia and the Baltic States with the purchase of 15% of long term partner Beijers Electronics Automation for SEK 45m (about EUR 4.8 million or GBP 3 million). Simulataneously it opened new Factory Automation Centres in the Czech Republic and Poland to support the Central and Eastern European automation business. Steve Jones, vice president of Mitsubishi Factory Automation in Europe, added: 'Mitsubishi Electric has been actively building its Automation business across Europe for a year or more. With these latest actions we are cementing our commitment to the European market and plan to be one of the leading suppliers of hi-tech quality Automation Products for long in to the foreseeable future.'