The tough and ugly streets of the fastener industry always love acquisition rumors. Kind of like sports junkies look forward to trade deadlines or draft day. Who’s getting who? Over the last several years, a few companies have stood out as newsmakers in the mergers and acquisitions area. You got Brighton Best, Wurth, the Elgin Group, just to name a few. People are always wondering what those companies are doing next. Many companies are very direct about their intent to grow, and grow quickly, and acquisitions are often the only way to make that happen. Quietly we have seen Fastenal gobble up a couple manufacturers including Holokrom and Cardinal Fasteners (via Wurth). Lindstrom acquired Titan, and there are others.
Last week, one particular acquisition caught my eye…the Berkshire Hathaway acquisition of Precision Castparts. Certainly, that acquisition involves a lot more companies than just fastener companies. And, PCC (Precision Castparts) might be a name better known to those in the aerospace industry. But, just in case you missed this, the sale was for $37.2 billion cash. Yes, billion…in cash!! Can you imagine the companies you could buy in the fastener industry with $37.2 billion in cash?? Heck, with that kind of money you might be able to get Solution Industries or maybe even the Fully Threaded Radio franchise.
In case you have forgotten, this is not Berkshire Hathaway’s fist dabbling in the fastener industry. A few years ago they purchased the Marmon Group which netted them Nylok, Pan American Screw and Atlas Bolt & Screw. With the acquisition of PCC they add AVK Industrial Products, Cherry Aerospace, Avibank, SPS Technologies, SPS – Greer Locknut, Shur-Lok International, and several other aerospace related fastener companies. Those are some good, longstanding fastener companies. Lots of history there. Again, the folks at Berkshire Hathaway (did I mention a guy named Warren Buffet works there) do not seem to be gravitating towards the commodity, imported keg product but rather towards the higher end, engineered parts. But they have made enough acquisitions to make you realize they know a thing or two about the fastener market and certainly have their eye on us.
Wonder if we could get Warren Buffet to speak at the Vegas Fastener Show?
TS/All:
Responding to your final question, we probably cannot get Warren Buffet to speak at the ‘Vegas Expo, however, we will be serving some “War-m Buffet” items at the festive, poolside party on Wednesday evening, October 21 at Treasure Island.
This year’s show is even larger than 2014 and features a worldwide marketplace of thousands of products, services, and solutions offered by well over 600 manufacturers from throughout the USA and 17 other nations around the globe.
Complete info and online registration is available at http://www.fastenershows.com, or by contacting Susan Hurley, GM, at (614) 895-1279 or email info@fastenershows.com.
See ya’ in ‘Vegas!
Looking forward to the show!
Good thing or bad thing? I am hoping for the former. Our industry, as well as others, has been devastated by company boards looking to squeeze out short term profits at the expense of long term growth. Companies like Heads and Threads are gone and Pop is a shadow of what it once was.
I am a fan of Warren Buffet and his management style. Lets hope this acquisition offers PPC’s subsidiaries the opportunity to demonstrate that American fastener companies can innovate and prosper through growth is this global economy.