As of December 17th, 2012 Ansell announced the acquisition of Hércules Equipamentos de Proteção Ltda (“Hércules”), a privately held Brazilian company located in São Paulo, with sales of about USD30 million.
Hércules is one of Brazil’s leading manufacturers of personal protective equipment (PPE), with about 350 employees. The factory is located in São Bernardo do Campo, and has a wide distribution throughout Brazil. Its product lines include equipment for firefighters, military and first responders, protective clothing for foundries, steel mills, and fall protection equipment and gloves. Hércules was founded in 1989 and has enjoyed great growth, fueled by Brazil’s economic growth and always focused on workplace safety.
Magnus Nicolin, Ansell’s CEO and Director, commented: “Hércules is an excellent company with a strong management team, it is a well recognized and trusted brand by workers and is growing steadily in the Brazilian PPE market.
This acquisition represents another strategic milestone in Ansell’s journey to expand into new markets, with further investments in protective clothing. This way we will better serve several strategic sectors, (Construction, Military and First Responders, Mining and Oil & Gas) and at the same time strengthen our presence in one of the world’s largest emerging markets. Today Ansell and Hércules’ customers can find the products on the same distribution networks and the entire team is now one.