GEA explores possible sale of compressor supplier GEA Bock

Düsseldorf-based technology group GEA is exploring a possible sale of GEA Bock as part of the Group’s continued focus on its strategic core markets – the food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. As announced at the Capital Markets Day in September, GEA plans to divest selected activities of the future Farm Technologies and Refrigeration Technologies divisions in this connection.

On this basis, the GEA Bock business, which is part of the Refrigeration Technologies division, will no longer be treated as a core business of the GEA Group. A sale is expected to take place in the course of 2020. Both employee representatives and employees have been informed about the intended sale.

GEA Bock is a supplier of open and semi-hermetic piston compressors in the lower and medium refrigeration capacity range for stationary and transport-related cooling applications. The company employs around 300 people worldwide and generated sales of around EUR 90 million in the 2018 fiscal year. Two-thirds of these employees work at the company’s headquarters in Frickenhausen, Germany. The company has three additional locations: in the Czech Republic, India and China.

“GEA Bock as a reliable partner for its customers has a strong market position and is excellently positioned with its products. Since becoming part of the GEA Group, the business has developed very encouragingly and today generates significantly more sales than when it was acquired by GEA in 2011. However, the time has come to make important decisions for the future of this business and in the context of the new structure of the Group as a whole. Unfortunately, the synergies in the areas of portfolio, customers and development envisaged at the time of acquisition have not materialized. This makes it difficult to sustainably develop the GEA Bock business within the GEA Group. GEA is therefore convinced that GEA Bock has significantly better development potential outside the GEA Group structure and strategy,” explains Stefan Klebert, CEO of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft.