newsworthy
GLOBAL FORKLIFT SALES LEADER TOYOTA INDUSTRIES CORP.
(TICO) has agreed to acquire Vanderlande Industries B.V., the Veghel,
Netherlands-based material handling company, in a move that advances
Toyota’s ambition to increase its presence in automated material handling and offer customers total solutions from a single company.
Reports out of the Netherlands pegged the purchase price at
about US$1.3 billion. Toyota said it would purchase 100 percent of
Vanderlande’s shares through a wholly owned European subsidiary. The
deal is expected to close during the second quarter of 2017, after receiving customary regulatory approvals.
Toyota, which will
buy Vanderlande from
Dutch investment
firm NPM Capital
N.V., plans no changes to the company’s
brand, Vanderlande
said in a statement.
Vanderlande said it
will retain its name and
corporate identity, and
will continue as a standalone entity operating from the same worldwide
locations.
Toyota made the deal to expand its portfolio of automated material
handling products and services, and will gain Vanderlande’s expertise as
a provider of value-added logistics process automation at airports, in the
parcel market, and in warehouses, Vanderlande said.
“Vanderlande complements our current offering by providing a full
range of integrated automated material handling solutions,” TICO
Managing Officer Norio Wakabayashi said in a statement issued by
both companies. “We also see a strong strategic match in our extensive
sales and service networks. This acquisition creates even better global
coverage across almost all of the markets that have a requirement for
automation.” Wakabayashi was named the designated chairman of
Vanderlande’s supervisory board.
The move comes less than two months after TICO purchased systems
integrator Bastian Solutions LLC to lay the groundwork for a new division, called Toyota Advanced Logistics Solutions (TALS), that will sell
integrated automation and productivity solutions to material handling
and logistics markets in North America.
Toyota acquires
Vanderlande for
US$1.3 billion
Supply chain consulting firm
Fortna Inc. has opened a software development hub in Hanoi,
Vietnam, to capitalize on a talent
pool of skilled software developers in order to meet global
demand for the company’s systems and services.
West Reading, Pa.-based Fortna
said it would use the new Vietnam
office to develop future releases of
its “Fortna WCS” and “Fortna WES”
software. Those warehouse con-
trol system (WCS) and warehouse
execution system (WES) applica-
tions help users integrate and
automate their material handling
equipment in distribution opera-
tions to improve fulfillment flow,
speed, and resource utilization.
Distribution center operators
are scrambling to meet the grow-
ing demands of omnichannel and
e-commerce sales, and are looking
to warehouse software to deliver
solutions to complex fulfillment
challenges, the company said.
Fortna turned to Vietnam after
determining the country’s grow-
ing cadre of software developers
would be up to the task, said Nikko
Pianetto, a group vice president
at Fortna. “Vietnam is becoming
recognized as an innovation hub
and is well known for excellence in
software development,” Pianetto
said in a press release.
Fortna has seen fast growth in
recent years, expanding its sales
base into Mexico, Latin America,
and the Europe/Middle East/Africa
(EMEA) region by increasing its
investment in systems, methodologies, and research and development, the company said.
Fortna opens software
office in Vietnam
