KOLKATA: TRF, a Tata group company, has acquired UK-based Hewitt Robins International for £ 3 million (GBP). Post-acquisition, the company will become a 100% TRF subsidiary.

 

The investment by TRF represents a significant step in the globalisation of the Jamshedpur-based company. This is TRF’s second acquisition in less than a year. In June 2009, TRF had acquired 51% stake in the Sri Lanka-based Dutch Lanka Trailers.

 

Hewitt Robins has been engaged in the business of bulk material handling and processing for over ninety years. A bigger scale of operations will also give TRF a more meaningful presence in both European and Indian markets and the sub-continent. In particular, the advantage of low-cost production in TRF’s Jamshedpur plant, along with technical expertise from Hewitt Robbins in mobile crushing plants and screens will improve TRF’s competitiveness significantly.

 

The agreement between the two companies was signed by Mr Sudhir Deoras, managing director, TRF, and Mr Christopher Pratt, director, Hewitt Robins, on Friday. The TRF board had approved the acquisition earlier on March 22. The latest acquistion is part of TRF’s target of five-fold growth to emerge as a Rs 2,500-crore company by 2013, by enhancing focus on its material handling and auto applications business.

 

The company has also diversified into automotive applications business.

 

TRF Limited undertakes turnkey projects for infrastructure development industries such as power and steel plants, port, cement, fertilisers and mining. It specialises in the design and manufacture of a wide range of material handling equipment used in the infrastructure industries, such as wagon tipplers, stacker reclaimers, port and stockyard equipment.

 

Hewitt Robins is engaged in the design and manufacture of mobile crushing plants and screens and related products used in the quarrying, mining, recycling, iron and steel industries and has offices in the UK, France, the Czech Republic and the US. Hewitt Robins equipment is operational throughout the world in industries ranging from mining and quarrying to foundries and ore preparation plants.