Halma acquires Ramtech

This week Halma sold Texecom Ltd. to its management team for a reportedly £65 million. At the same time, the FTSE 100 company announced three acquisitions.

Halma operates in three sectors: Safety, Environmental and Analysis and Medical. The acquisitions span the first two of these three sectors.

In the Safety sector, Halma has acquired Ramtech. The company is headquartered in Nottingham, UK, and supplies wireless fire systems for temporary sites, primarily in the construction markets.

Ramtech turns over £10 million annually, employs 65 people and is rapidly expanding in terms of the products and services it offers. Ramtech will become part of Halma’s safety division but will operate independently, retaining its name and brand. Ramtech’s senior team will remain with the company, including Andy Hicks, the company’s managing director and one of Ramtech’s co-owners before the sale. Halma divisional chief executive Charles Lombard will join Ramtech as chairman.

Ramtech offers safety on construction sites, including fire safety. Currently, Ramtech’s WES3 technology and REACT system is installed on the 7km west section of London’s new Thames Tideway Tunnel – an ambitious 25km ‘super sewer’ that, once completed in 2025, will prevent the River Thames from being polluted by overflow sewage.

The system is also currently being deployed on the construction works at Everton’s new ground at Bramley-Moore Dock, and was recently used to protect almost a millennium’s worth of heritage and some of Nottingham’s most treasured artefacts during the £30 million redevelopments of the city’s castle.

Ramtech’s WiSE alarm and monitoring technology are installed at many of the largest UK holiday and leisure parks.

In the Environmental and Analysis sector, Halma has acquired Dancutter A/S, a Danish designer and manufacturer of trenchless pipeline rehabilitation equipment, and Sensitron S.r.l., a gas detection company based in Milan, Italy.