HONEYWELL, the US control systems group, has acquired Elm Holdings, a privately-owned
Glasgow company that makes temperature control systems for commercial refrigeration cabinets such as those used in super-
markets.
Elm Holdings employs 150 people at its factory in Hillington and expects to make pre-tax profits of more than #1m on turnover of #14m to #15m this year.
Honeywell already has one factory at Newhouse in Lanarkshire, which employs about 500 people making other types of temperature control equipment, such as thermostats for central heating and air-conditioning systems.
But Raj Samuel, the executive chairman of Elm, said his plant would be a completely separate operation.
Samuel, who helped to found the company in 1985, will stay on to manage it for Honeywell.
Elm mainly sells networked refrigeration systems to supermarkets throughout the world, but all are controlled by computer from its headquarters in
Glasgow.
The company now serves more than half of all the supermarkets in Britain and has recently sought to expand overseas.
Over the past two years it has established sales offices in the US and France.
Samuel, a 46-year-old electronics graduate of Glasgow University, hopes that by joining the Honeywell group, Elm will be able to expand its export sales more quickly, particularly in North America and continental Europe.
''We will put our products on top of their service organisation,'' he said, predicting that annual sales of #2m to the US would treble over the next three years.
He is also keen to take advantage of Honeywell's strong presence in Germany.
''It's a perfect partnership,'' Samuel said.
''They do not have products in similar lines, so we are unique enough for them to leave us alone.''
Honeywell acquired Elm for an undisclosed sum from Samuel and fellow equity holder CK Chan.
Samuel said part of his own payment had been in the form of Honeywell shares.
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