Comtest (Pty) Limited (Comtest) has acquired the entire share capital of Instrotech (Pty) Ltd (Instrotech) and Digital Process Measurement (Pty) Ltd (DPM), from the owner, Dave Howcroft.
DPM designs, manufactures and sells process control products to resellers throughout South Africa. Instrotech distributes the DPM product range as well as process control instrumentation, load cells, sensors and accessories in South Africa for fourteen European and American Manufacturers.
Peter Verwer, Managing Director of Comtest says he is very happy that the entire staff complement of both companies have agreed to stay on with the new owners and that Dave Howcroft will remain as a non-executive director, in an advisory capacity, until 31 December 2011. Robert Howcroft has been appointed as a director to the new board which will be headed up by Paul Mason, the new Managing Director. John Wilson, a well respected member of the Calibration Industry in South Africa, as well as a non-executive director of Comtest, has been appointed as a director who will oversee the manufacturing processes of DPM .
The markets addressed by Instrotech are similar to those addressed by Comtest. Both companies address these markets via a network of resellers. This will lead to synergistic opportunities, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where Comtest has an established dealer network.
As a result of the acquisition, Comtest has decided to exit the telecoms test arena to concentrate on developing the core businesses of Comtest, Instrotech and DPM and, as a result, has ended its relationship and contracts with all the Principals it represents, including JDSU, in this market. Comtest and JDSU are working closely together to ensure that all JDSU’s customers in South Africa are looked after in terms of receiving products, service and support. Comtest will also honour all its obligations in terms of the contracts currently in place to ensure that these customers receive the training, support and service they require. Gary Casper, who was previously the technical support manager for the JDSU division has agreed to stay on at Comtest in his new capacity as technical support and training manager for the test and measurement instruments division, but will be available to service all the JDSU contracts currently in place with Comtest.
We are looking forward to meeting the challenges and growing our new extended business in the years to come, says Verwer.