John Wolz

W�rth Group of Germany acquired U.S. distributor Marine Fasteners Inc. and Danish fastener supplier Arvid Nilsson A/S.

The two deals total Euro 130 million (US$193.3m), Fastener & Fixing Europe reported.

Marine Fasteners was founded in 1984 by Carl Brantley to provide stainless steel fasteners to the boating industry. Marine has 60 employees and sales total $30 million. Marine Fastener has branches in Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin and is headquartered at 120 Maritime Dr., Sanford, FL 32771. Tel: 407 321-2994 or 800 862-7463 Fax 407 330-0951 Web: marfas.com

Pending approvals, the Arvid Nilsson acquisition will expand W�rth’s Scandinavian business. Arvid Nilsson, a fastening and assembly technology trading firm, joins the W�rth Industrial Network (WINWORK), which includes 35 businesses on all continents.

Founded in 1918 in Copenhagen by Swedish native Arvid Nilsson, the company now has branches in Norway, Sweden and China and is headquartered in Hvidovre, Denmark. The central warehouse is located in Kunglav, Sweden, and the company is headquartered at Arnold Nielsens Boulevard 77-79, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark. Tel: (45) 44 85 91 91 Fax (45) 44 85 91 81 E-mail: info@ArvidNilsson.com Web: ArvidNilsson.com. Arvid Nilsson acquired Norwegian fastener manufacturer Dokka Fasteners AS in 1995. Arvid Nilsson has 350 employees and expects 2007 sales to total Euro 110 million (US$163.6m).

W�rth told F&FE editor Phil Matten that the Arvid Nilsson acquisition “safeguards the infrastructure for the procurement management of assembly material and fasteners to be monitored globally particularly for W�rth customers with an international footprint. For the W�rth Group in the US, these are important markets whose potential is supposed to be tapped into more intensively in the future.” �2008 FastenerNews.com and Fastener & Fixing Europe