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New strategic acquisitions for Saint-Gobain Denmark

Innovation in Saint-Gobain also means looking at what’s on the market and acquiring innovative companies that will enrich its portfolio of products & services. In the past year, Saint-Gobain Denmark acquired 3 small companies, AirForce (specialized in consulting on ventilation projects), Vergutech (renting mortars pumps) & MobilePeople (developing IoT platforms for smart sensors).

Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distribute materials and solutions that help creating great living places and improving daily life. In Denmark, Saint-Gobain is one of the first French employers with 1900 people working in both the industrial and distribution sectors. One of the market’s leaders in all its businesses, whether industrial with Isover, Gyproc or Weber, or in resale with Dahl, Saint-Gobain Denmark has registered a turnover of 6 billion Danish Crowns in 2020.

For more than 350 years, Saint-Gobain has consistently anchored itself as an innovation-driven company. As one of the 100 most innovative companies in the world, Saint-Gobain continues to deploy its technological know-how. Sometimes however, innovation doesn’t come through R&D but by acquiring dynamic and innovative companies that will enrich the existing portfolio of products & services. And that’s what Saint-Gobain Denmark has been doing successfully for the past year. 3 small Danish companies have been welcome into the Saint-Gobain family strengthening its promise to deliver well-being to the end-users and more productivity to the contractors & installers.

Complex ventilation systems – AirForce

In early 2021, Øland, a Saint-Gobain Distribution business specialized in ventilation, acquired AirForce, a small company of 17 people, located in the vicinity of Aarhus. AirForce is not a manufacturer but a knowledge company which, over the years, has gained recognition and expertise in leading very complex ventilation projects from the design and specifications phases to the sourcing and delivery phases. Ventilation can become a critical part of any construction project, and when not done properly, occupants of those buildings will feel the effect on their well-being. That’s why having the right knowledge from the start of the project is crucial to ensuring the best end-results. Complex ventilation projects include for example underground parking garage where toxic gases need to be diverted to allow human beings to use those facilities with no health hazards.

Mortars pump for installers – Vergutech

Saint-Gobain Weber, specialized in the manufacturing of mortars & concrete, acquired in February 2021 the small 7- people business of Vergutech, based in Karlstrup where one of the Weber plants is located. As a service company, Vergutech rents pumps for mortars to the installers. Thanks to those new services, Weber is increasing its customer offer, allowing them now to not only buy the construction materials but also to rent the equipment that will allow them to apply them properly. This new service has already increased customer satisfaction.

Smart sensors – MobilePeople

Dahl, the leading Distributor for Saint-Gobain in Denmark, has acquired in March 2020 a branch of a company called MobilePeople. That specific department, now integrated to Saint-Gobain, is specialized in IoT (Internet of Things) platforms, and supplements Dahl’s offer of smart sensors. Indeed, Dahl has for several years commercialized various smart sensors, and in particular sensors measuring water quality for water distribution companies in Danish municipalities. Thanks to the IoT platforms and the new competences of the team from MobilePeople, Dahl can now grant access to those companies to the data gathered by the smart sensors. Municipalities are naturally very interested by those technological possibilities in order to monitor for example, water quality in certain areas. The municipality of Copenhagen is studying potential projects to analyze bacteria levels in the water or to monitor the public trash cans in order to optimize their collection only when full. The market for smart sensors and their data analysis is growing and Dahl has strengthened its position with this latest acquisition.