Sensor company SICK and measurement and automation technology specialist Endress+Hauser are aiming to enter a strategic partnership to broaden Endress+Hauser's product range, enhance SICK's process automation business segment and advance SICK’s process technology.

The joint memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed by both companies. By combining their strengths, SICK and Endress+Hauser are striving to provide better support for their customers, particularly in crucial areas such as energy and resource efficiency as well as climate and environment protection.

The primary goal of the partnership is to expand Endress+Hauser’s product range with SICK's expertise in process analysis and gas flow measurement engineering. To achieve this, the companies intend to establish a joint venture for the production and further development of SICK process technology.

The sales and service teams of SICK’s process automation business segment will become part of Endress+Hauser’s global sales network. In total, this segment currently employs more than 1 400 people in 28 countries and generates more than €350-million in sales yearly.

Complementary Offerings in Process Automation
The process technology offerings of both companies complement each other, says Endress+Hauser.

The process analysis and gas flow measurement engineering from SICK – for emissions monitoring in flue gas cleaning processes or for gas flow measurements, for example – are employed in various industries and sectors. These include waste incineration facilities, at power, steel and cement plants, in the oil and gas industry, in chemical and petrochemical production and in the marine sector.

In the past, the companies have frequently worked together on an order, project and customer basis.

Both shareholder families, as well as the respective supervisory bodies of SICK and Endress+Hauser, are backing the planned strategic partnership. Using the MoU as a foundation, experts from both companies are now conducting due diligence to determine how the collaboration can be accomplished and brought to fruition.

The contract is expected to be signed before the end of the first quarter of 2024, while closing of the transaction is scheduled for the middle of next year.

Shared Opportunities and Mutual Benefits
“Our strategic partnership is about mutual benefits at many levels. We want to seize shared opportunities by bundling our strengths. Because SICK and Endress+Hauser are already highly successful companies on their own, we are acting from a position of strength,” Endress+Hauser Group CEO Matthias Altendorf explains.

“We are convinced that together we will be even more successful. And by working cooperatively, we can support our customers even better and accompany them in the sustainable transformation of the process industry.”

“Through this strategic partnership, Endress+Hauser and SICK will break new ground. The impulse and source of momentum for this undertaking is the dynamic market environment for process automation, produced by the progressive decarbonisation of industry,” SICK executive board chairperson Dr Mats Gökstorp says.

He explains that through working together, both companies can better capitalise on these opportunities, while also developing the best solutions for and with their customers.

“Our years of collaboration in the past, similarities in the corporate cultures of our family-owned businesses, and our shared affinity for technology and people are key motivators. And successful joint projects with Endress+Hauser in the past show that we work well together,” Gökstorp says.

The core business in SICK’s factory and logistics automation, which accounts for more than 80% of sales, will remain unaffected by the strategic partnership.