VDL Groep acquires Siemens Hengelo’s operations
VDL Groep has added Siemens Hengelo to its industrial group of family companies as its 100th operating company. The takeover announced in July has now been completed. VDL is to place Siemens Hengelo’s operations in two companies. Most of the staff will join VDL Energy Systems and continue to assembly gas turbines, compressors and their parts that will be supplied to Siemens. Other employees are to carry out development work for ASML at VDL ETG Technology & Development Hengelo's high-tech cluster. Multi-year work assurances from both Siemens and ASML form the basis of the takeover.
For the first year after the acquisition a transition period has been agreed with Siemens. During this period Siemens’ order portfolio will initially be delivered. With the assembly of gas turbines and compressors, which are used to pump gas under high pressure through gas pipelines, VDL is further expanding its competences in the oil and gas industry. A number of companies that are already part of VDL Groep are also suppliers to these sectors.
VDL Energy Systems
VDL will take over the total number of 430 full-time jobs from Siemens Hengelo. VDL Energy Systems will employ 230 staff and VDL ETG Technology & Development Hengelo will gain approximately 130 jobs. “Our commitment is that, as soon as the other staff become available in the transition period, we will do our utmost to create new work or to place them elsewhere at VDL,” says President & CEO Willem van der Leegte of VDL Groep.
Craftsmanship
Willem van der Leegte says: “Thanks to the combination of craftsmanship with robotisation and automation, we are demonstrating that the high-quality manufacturing industry in the Netherlands has a future. This takeover fits perfectly into that picture. It is a fantastic development that by taking over Siemens Hengelo’s operations so much high-quality craftsmanship can be retained for the manufacturing industry. With our new employees’ knowledge and skills we can further strengthen the cooperation with our leading partners, Siemens and ASML. In addition, with this acquisition we are considerably strengthening our engineering capacity at VDL ETG Technology & Development, to over 350 employees. With the competences of our new colleagues in Hengelo as well as through cooperation with other VDL companies, we can also develop new product-market combinations.” VDL Groep, in conjunction with VDL Energy Systems, also aims to play a role in the energy transition, the move from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources.
Jobs
“For Siemens the retention of jobs was always the priority”, emphasises Hans Winters, CEO of Siemens Nederland. “With this agreement we have achieved this. The mutual trust between VDL and Siemens and keeping the final result in mind have made this possible. A new phase is about to start now, in which VDL, along with ASML and Siemens, will successfully shape this agreement for all parties.”
Cooperation
Peter Wennink, CEO of ASML, has this to say: “We are very pleased that the takeover by VDL has now been completed and that many of the jobs are to be retained. ASML has issued a multi-year work assurance through which we will immediately get a connection to the new VDL company in Hengelo. We look forward to fruitful cooperation.”
Family business
An interesting aspect of this is that the origins of the plant in Hengelo go back to 1868 and were the forerunner of Stork. 150 years ago this family business witnessed the rise of Twente as a knowledge-based region, in which the manufacturing industry in the Eastern Netherlands has been able to flourish. In 2011 the Hengelo manufacturing company merged with Siemens in The Hague and Assen and the firm became part of Siemens Nederland.
New director
VDL Groep has appointed Ivo Wessels (49) as director of VDL Energy Systems. Mechanical engineer Ivo Wessels, who lives in Hengelo, comes from VDL ETG Almelo, where he worked for 20 years. Over the past 13 years Ivo Wessels has been a member of the management team at this high-tech company in Almelo.