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| Zumtobel Group sells Thorn Airfield Lighting to the Safegate  Zumtobel, Austrian lighting group, sold the airfield lighting activities of Thorn Lighting (Thorn AFL) to the Swedish airport guidance and docking systems specialist Safegate. Thorn AFL is a division of Thorn Lighting specialising in the manufacture and sales of airfield ground lighting. Thorn Lighting is one of the world's leading manufacturers of professional indoor and outdoor lighting systems and a member of the international Zumtobel Group of lighting companies. Zumtobel and Safegate have agreed to treat the value of the deal in confidence.Parts of the operations of the Thorn AFL division have to date been handled by Thorn Europhane SA based in France, the Australian subsidiary Thorn DNT Airfield Lighting PTY Limited, and the UK sister company Thorn Lighting Limited. Sales have been managed by sales offices in France, England and Australia, and AFL research and development by the R&D department based in France. The sale does not include the production of AFL products in France, as Thorn will continue to manufacture these products for Safegate. As a result, the production facilities in France will continue to be owned by Thorn. As part of Thorn within the Zumtobel Lighting Division, Thorn AFL was a relatively small unit, accounting for just 2% of total Group revenues. One decisive factor in the decision to sell was the extremely cyclical nature of Thorn AFL's business, with projects that had increasingly come to involve contracted services at the installation stage, which could not be supplied by the Zumtobel Lighting Division. This also led to a low level of synergy effects between Thorn Europhane in France and Thorn AFL. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |