FACE TO FACE
ISMR : How is the Pivatic integration going ? How will you manage the businesses going forward ?
MM : I love the Pivatic brand . It might be that we move the coil feeding systems under the Pivatic brand in the future . However , Vaski also ‘ coil enables ’ various machine builders today so we will probably retain the Vaski brand when selling to machine builders and , when selling to end customers , do that through Pivatic . There will be some sales integration but I am separating direct customers sales from partner sales and sales support . There must be no crossover .
We will also probably sell the blanking and slitting solutions through the Pivatic brand to end customers — these fit very nicely as a sheet metal solution and complement our customers ’ activities . Vaski will keep supplying flat bar solutions : 80 % of its business is in the copper market i . e . switchgears ; transformers ; charging station infrastructure ; power generation and data centres .
I then picked up lots of good engineers and technicians . Vaski ’ s business has grown well and it now , combined with Pivatic , has a € 27m business with a strong machine order book .
Vaski offers custom machines but the standard machine business is growing very strongly at the moment . Vaski serves the sheet metal industry with its niche MULTICOIL blanking and slitting technology . Our major USP is rapid and fully automatic coil changeover ( in up to 40 secs ). Operators have the flexibility of punching from blanks with the speed and material utilisation / nesting savings of working from coil . This is better for the circular economy and it means that the middle man can be cut out on blanking . Scrap is also lower with material savings from nesting . So , we have turned coil-fed punching into a flexible process .
ISMR : You bought Pivatic Oy earlier this year . Please take us through your reasons for this acquisition and the synergies that are involved ?
MM : The Pivatic industrial fit is very strong for Vaski . Pivatic is a 50-year-old company with a large installed base and lots of service business . It makes well respected coil-fed punching systems ( the company is number one in the world for coil-fed punching ). It also manufactures wonderful niche punching and bending technology , which is why I bought the business .
Vaski ’ s business has grown well and it now , combined with Pivatic , has a € 27m business with a strong machine order book
Pivatic technology is great for applications that no-one else can do or if customers need an extremely high takt time . For example , some Pivatic machines are designed to manufacture electrical cabinets which are punched , bent and stud welded every ten seconds on a high-productivity line for one customer . That is an extremely rapid , continuous working time with the sheet moving efficiently through the line and being processed into hundreds of parts . Now , using Vaski MULTICOIL technology , the line only stops for less than 40 seconds for automatic coil or material changeover . This keeps productivity high so the combination of Vaski and Pivatic technologies works very well .
Both Vaski and Pivatic are based in Finland and have the same supply chain ; CNC suppliers ; tooling ; laser marking etc . In my view , there is no company with a closer industrial fit ( in terms of how machines are designed and built ) for us than Pivatic . Our products are complementary : we both make highly customised machines and tailored solutions for customers so there was a logic to the choice .
Vaski significantly enhances its coil-fed systems business with Pivatic ’ s focus on coil-fed punching and bending lines for sheet metal processing . Pivatic , in turn , benefits from Vaski ’ s focus on coil-feeding technologies for industry .
ISMR : What are your hopes and expectations for this acquisition ?
MM : I see a great future for Vaski and Pivatic . Pivatic has been a 12 to 18-millioneuro business for the last 20 years and has barely changed in size over that time . The technology is amazing — Pivatic has moved into bigger and bigger systems , way beyond punching and bending , into large , fully automated lines . I see that future continuing with larger systems and longer lines for Pivatic .
Of course , we will focus on our strengths ( punching and bending ) but I do believe that full factory automation is the future . Pivatic is a wonderful platform for this and has been driving towards it for years .
ISMR : What are your views on the current global business climate for sheet metal , coil processing and copper bar professionals ? What are your views on the business climate for 2025 ?
MM : I believe that the industry forecast is largely accurate i . e . a return to growth in Europe next year and a slowdown in the United States . I think that there will be a spike after the U . S . election and the U . S . market will slow down in Q2 next year . It has been growing very strongly for a while , compared to the rest of the world .
Half of our European customers are saying that they have reached the bottom and are now seeing recovery while the other half are saying that they have not seen recovery yet . This signals to me that the recovery has started . Industry is quite healthy , from what
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