Daifuku, the world’s largest materials handling companies, announced that it is buying an 80% stake in one of its biggest competitors in the airport baggage handling systems industry: BCS Group, New Zealand’s 11th largest tech firm.
Daifuku — which is headquartered in Osaka, Japan, and has an annual turnover of $2.3 billion — reportedly wants to get its hands on BCS’s innovative baggage handling technology in order to open the market up for the company for further global expansion.
Patrick Teo, BCS’s CEO, said the Daifuku’s acquisition of his company makes perfect sense from a business perspective.
“We see it being mutually beneficial,” Teo told The New Zealand Herald. “BCS adds to Daifuku’s global presence in baggage handling and we are big in countries where they are not.”
The purchase comes as BCS is having a banner year, with annual revenues growing by 67.7% to $140 million, much of which came from a $55 million deal to build the new baggage handling systems at Kaula lampur’s International Airport. BCS collaborated with Daifuku on that project.
Teo said Daifuku intends to allow BCs to operate with its existing staff and company practices and that he was excited to be getting under the Japanese materials handling giant’s umbrella.
“The reality is that we will increase our portfolio of innovative solutions and products that will benefit not only our customers in the airport sector but also in the high growth courier sortation market,” Teo said. “We will also be investing more heavily into (Research and Development) and that has got to be good both from an employment perspective and our ongoing need for more staff, as well as creating more high value jobs.”