Brazil acquisition to give SDMO a boost

SDMO said the recent acquisition of the Brazilian genset manufacturer Maquigeral will give it an important route to targeting the country's fast growing rental sector in the country.

Maquigeral is a US$50 million business that sells almost exclusively in Brazil, with rental companies being one of its key customer groups. Although acquired by Kohler - which owns SDMO - Maquigeral will be operated by SDMO.

Herve Prigent, marketing director of France-based SDMO, speaking to IRN at Intermat - where the company was launching new machines in the Compact rental range of generators - said the big benefit of the deal was that it gave SDMO an inroad into a market where it had not been selling in recent years.

He said that apart from the product range that the acquisition brings - in the 40 to 700 kVA sizes - local production also gave customers in Brazil access to highly preferential interest rates on loans.

He said "the major focus will be Brazilian products for Brazil", but said consideration could also be given to exporting Maquigeral's generators elsewhere in Latin America as well as to production of SDMO sets in Brazil.

He said that both the SDMO and Maquigeral brands would be used in the country.

SDMO is a sister company to Kohler Power Systems within the Kohler Group. SDMO has responsibility for genset sales in Europe, Latin America (including Central America), the Middle East and Africa, while Kohler Power Systems operates in North America and Asia (including India, China and Australia).