Bulten and Ramco have teamed up to create a fastener distribution joint venture for the North American automotive industry.
Named Ram-Bul LLC, the equally owned company will be headquartered in Ramco’s new corporate HQ in Hudson, Ohio. Ram-Bul will offer sales and distribution of fasteners for the USA through Bulten’s FSP concept.
Using Bulten’s manufacturing expertise in externally threaded fasteners and Ramco’s manufacturing experience in internally threaded fasteners, Ram-Bul is to offer a full range of domestically manufactured fasteners in Ramco’s already established infrastructure.
Bulten boosts manufacturing in the USA
Bulten is also setting up a subsidiary to produce externally threaded fasteners for the same market. Both operations are expected to start this year. Set up in the same building, this will be Bulten’s first unit for manufacturing externally threaded fasteners for the North American market.
Bulten will spend around US$9 million on the projects over four years. The annual business potential for Bulten is expected to be in the region of US$30-40 million and will be at full volume by 2020.
“Bulten’s previous experience in forming joint ventures has been taken into account when setting up the company structure, and we believe that this is the quickest and most cost-effective way of supporting our customers in the US market as well,” said Tommy Andersson, Bulten President and CEO. “Ramco has been a partner of Bulten for many years and I am really looking forward to our extended cooperation, which I am convinced will create long-term value for our shareholders.”
Rick Malson, Ramco Specialties President, added: “Bulten has been a key partner with Ramco in Europe. This new joint venture will allow both companies to capitalize on their unique strengths bringing value to the North American fastener market. We are excited about the opportunity to expand our North American manufacturing and distribution capabilities.”