In the latest edition of the Pump Industry Briefing, we looked with interest at United Technologies Corporation’s Sundyne pump portfolio in the light of recent divestments (of the canned motor pump business to Nikkiso) and acquisitions (of the Spanish Marelli Pumps range of heavy duty centrifugals). In particular, we remarked at the lack of overlap between the specialist centrifugal pumps for process and hydrocarbon duties, and the Maso range of sine pumps, manufactured in Germany.
It appears that Sundyne has now acknowledged the lack of fit for the hygienic pump specialists and has sold its Maso/Sine business to Watson-Marlow (part of Spirax-Sarco Engineering plc). The purchase price is €25 million (subject to a final valuation of the net tangible assets on completion of the deal), and will be financed from a newly agreed €25 million loan facility.
Maso/Sine products are sanitary positive displacement pumps for the food and beverage, pharmaceutical and industrial applications. The sinusoidal rotor pump technology is used by manufacturers to process and package liquids and semi-solids such as whole strawberries for worldwide distribution. The existing Maso sales operations serving Germany, the USA and the UK will be merged into existing Watson-Marlow Pumps Group sales companies, and its manufacturing plant in Ilsfeld, Germany will be maintained. The company will be known as the MasoSine brand within the Watson-Marlow Pump Group.
Sundyne paved the way for this change when it announced that Colin Guppy from its senior management team would be taking over the management of Maso/Sine in 2008, replacing Martin Sommer the son of the company’s founder. MASO had been originally founded in 1961 by Manfred Sommer to develop machines for the gentle transfer of grapes in the wine and beverage industry. In 1981 the Maso Sine pump was developed to handle viscous and shear sensitive products. Sundyne acquired Maso in 1998.
The deal provides an additional growth opportunity for Watson-Marlow, which had been exclusively a peristaltic pump maker in the past. Watson-Marlow has been very successful in leveraging its leading position in peristaltic pumps to expand the peristaltic share of the rotary positive displacement pump market. Could this move signal ambitions to establish the company across a broader technology base? Will the acquisition of other rotary positive displacement pump specialists follow? Such a strategy could conflict with the company’s unambiguous position as a champion of peristaltic pumping technology ahead of all others. It will be interesting to see how it copes with this potential identity crisis.
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I have had so many problems with my centrifugal pumps. I've spent way too much money trying to keep them up, and doing all of the work myself. It's time for me to get some professional help. Whatever professional means.
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Process $ Chemical Engineering