Electrolux Backs Diamant Boart

VERONA, Italy – Diamant Boart should expect few changes – except for finding more business in the stone industry worldwide – in the immediate future.
The Brussels, Belgium-based maker of stone-cutting implements will be staying the course in the business plans of its Swedish parent company, the Electrolux Group, according to Anders Ströby, president of Electrolux Construction Projects.
“There’s no shakeup here,” said Ströbe at a news conference Oct. 3 at Marmomacc in Verona. “There may be a little bit of consolidation, but no dramatic changes.”
Ströby – head of the Electrolux division that includes Diamant Boart – says that the company headquarters, along with diamond-tools research and development, will remain in Brussels. And, stone products will remain as separate – including sales – within Electrolux Construction, although some corporate services will be shared with the construction-equipment sector.
Ströby noted that Diamant Boart currently holds a 13-percent market share in tooling for the stone industry worldwide, with other competitors trailing by at least five percent. However, 80 percent of Diamant Boart’s total sales are in Europe (including Turkey), with only five percent of its business coming from North America.
“There is still good opportunity for growth,” Ströby added.
Diamant Boart came under the Electrolux corporate umbrella in July 2002, when the Stockholm-based conglomerate bought the company for approximately $184.7 million from Candover, a U.K.-based private equity company. The North American head office for Electrolux Construction Products, including Diamant Boart, is in Olathe, Kan.