Takeover heralds Edwards culture change

Swedish firm Atlas Copco announced at the start of the year that it had completed its $1.6 billion  (£968 million) acquisition of Edwards, which will remain at its Crawley, West Sussex offices and be incorporated into Atlas Copco’s newly created Vacuum Solutions division.

Edwards was sold to Atlas Copco by its private equity owners Unitas Capital and CCMP Capital Advisors. Atlas Copco Vacuum Solutions president Geert Follens told Process Engineering that the culture of an industrial owner would be very different to what Edwards employees would have been used to while being owned by private equity.

We will look at taking the time in product development to produce quantum leaps in technology

Atlas Copco Vacuum Solutions president Geert Follens

“Now they have an industrial owner who focuses on long term technology development,” said Follens.

As part of the $1.6 billion takeover Atlas Copco cleared Edwards debts, and Follens added that with a “clean” balance sheet Edwards could now “focus on other things rather than generating the cash as they had to do with private equity”.

These “other things” include more investment in research and development.

“We still want to make money of course, but we take a more long term than short term approach,” said Follens.

“A clear example of this is product development. We will look at taking the time in product development to produce quantum leaps in technology instead of quickly turning around new models that makes little steps in terms of development.”

Another area where Follens said he hoped Edwards employees would see an improvement under Atlas Copco’s ownership was training provision.

“The thing I found is that Edwards has very good people, but the previous owners could have invested more in human capital in terms of training people,” he said.

There will also be some additions to staff in Crawley and at Edwards’ Technology Centre in Burgess Hill, “but it will be a small number”, said Follens, “a maximum of 10 people”.

There would be no benefit in killing the Edwards brand

Geert Follens

Following the takeover, Edwards has been divided into four business units, three of which will remain branded as Edwards. These are: semiconductors and emerging technology; general vacuum, which includes solutions for the process industries; pumps for the R&D and scientific community; pump service.

The fourth division, rough vacuum, will mix Edwards products with those from Quincy Compressors and existing Atlas Copco vacuum pump technology, and will be branded as Atlas Copco.

“We have a multi-brand strategy at Atlas Copco,” said Follens.

“Edwards will be run as an independent company, though of course they will now be able to use the Atlas Copco sales channels. The company is, for example, the technology and market leader in the semiconductor business. There would be no benefit in killing the Edwards brand.”