David Brown and Santasalo merge to create a new global force in mechanical power transmission

David Brown and Santasalo, two of the world’s leading mechanical power transmission companies, merged on June 1st to create David Brown Santasalo, a new, truly global force in the gear industry.

With more than 1,000 employees, 7 major manufacturing plants and 23 service centres across 6 continents, the business is ideally equipped to serve its growing customer base in commodities, marine, defence, power, industrial and consumer end markets.

With over 150 years of gear engineering leadership, and substantial geographic expansion over the last decade into high growth countries such as China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, David Brown Santasalo is well positioned as a world leader in its field.
Under Clyde Blowers Capital ownership, David Brown Santasalo has benefitted from significant investment in world-class manufacturing, new product development and service centre expansion.

Through its highly responsive and capable local teams, David Brown Santasalo brings the connectivity and responsiveness to support the specific needs of over 5,000 customers worldwide.

Thomas Burley, Chief Executive Officer, David Brown Santasalo explains:

“I am delighted to have this opportunity to lead a business with such a diverse, international team. We now combine extensive sales and service presence in all regions with a world-class engineering and manufacturing capability. David Brown Santasalo covers varied end markets including naval ships, minerals processing and the manufacture of a wide range of pulp and paper products. Across all these markets, our core differentiator is our fundamental capability to design and engineer gear systems for the world’s most demanding applications. We are committed to maintaining and growing this through continued investment in our people and manufacturing capabilities over the coming years.

“Our strategy comprises three main elements:

• To continue to expand our sales and service network, becoming ever more local to our diverse customer base
• To use our in depth gear engineering knowledge to enhance our product offering and support our customers in their end market
• To invest further in world-class manufacturing, ensuring we have full production capability in key regions to meet the growing demand for our products.”

Jim McColl, Chairman and CEO, Clyde Blowers Capital adds:

“In bringing together David Brown and Santasalo, we have created a large scale industrial gearing business with proven management, highly complementary products, a unique global service network and increasingly efficient manufacturing. Whilst both have progressed well independently, we now have a business with all the necessary attributes to further grow and develop as an industry leader.

“Clyde Blowers is committed to invest in the business over the coming years, including acquisitions that further enhance its position in key markets. We look forward to continue working with the leadership team at David Brown Santasalo, as we have done successfully to reach this stage.”

David Brown Santasalo is an excellent example of Clyde Blowers’ proven model of identifying and acquiring industrial businesses with strong growth potential. Clyde Blowers’ strategic and operational expertise enables this potential to be realised, meeting the long-term needs of investors, customers and employees.