Continental has acquired WCCO Belting, Wahpeton, N.D. With this acquisition, the technology company complements its conveyor belting customer portfolio and strengthens its Conveying Solutions business in multiple industries.
Additionally, equipment manufacturers, distributors, dealers and farmers will benefit from a combined product and service portfolio generating a full multi-tier offering that will enable better support and service.
“This strategic acquisition is a threefold perfect fit: portfolio, sales market and people. Moreover, we continue our transformation towards a holistic solutions provider in one of the growing industries, namely the off-highway industry,” said Philip Nelles, member of Continental’s executive board and head of the ContiTech Group Sector.
WCCO Belting is specialized in agricultural, aggregates and construction industries belting.
Established in 1954, WCCO Belting has more than 300 employees. It manufactures and distributes farm machinery applications such as draper belts, baler belts, pickup belts, tube conveyor belts, merger belts, as well as industrial belt applications for material and package handling, recycling, forestry and aggregates.
The company distributes to more than 20 countries. WCCO Belting is known for its belting innovation, which helps meet the unique needs of its customers around the world. By designing each product according to the operational requirements of a specific application, the belts consistently outperform the industry standard in numerous product segments. This effectively lowers the total cost of ownership of equipment for operators.
“We perfectly fit to Continental as we share the same passion for our industries. Everything we do is to better support our current and prospective customers’ needs based on our longstanding experience and with our team’s dedication contributing to the process of creating custom rubber products that impact businesses across the world. We are very much looking forward to our future common path,” said WCCO Belting’s CEO and President Tom Shorma.
“We intend to leverage and grow our manufacturing capability to elevate Continental’s opportunity in this area and to offer complete technical solutions to manufacturers and distributors with the goal to improve profitability and speed to market with new innovations and products,” explained Jim Hill, head of the Group Sector’s North American business.
Song Qi, head of ContiTech’s Conveying Solutions Business Area adds that Continental will boost sales of high value specialty belts in the global marketplace as well as make use of Continentals global sales team to further expand WCCO Belting’s business outside of the Americas.