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Hitachi eyes North American distribution network with Sullair purchase

Updated May 4, 2017
Rental compressors come in a variety of sizes, including single tool air compressors, and compressors large enough to power rock drills in quarries.Rental compressors come in a variety of sizes,
including single tool air compressors, and compressors large enough to power rock drills in quarries.

Hitachi is purchasing Sullair from Accudyne to pick up the company’s portable air compressor business and as a means of tapping into the brand’s sales network with a primary focus on the North American market. The announced purchase price is $1.245 billion.

“We are thrilled by the prospect of partnering with Hitachi to grow Sullair as we embark together on the next chapter in our proud history,” says Sullair President Jack Carlson.

Hitachi will have access to roughly 200 dealers in North America, and plans to also use the purchase to provide Sullair’s customers with digital solutions or Internet of Things (IOT) compatible products. Sullair will be under the Hitachi Industrial Products Business Unit.

Hitachi has been providing its own range of compressors in Japan and Asia and plans to add these products to the Sullair lineup, and along with the dealership expansion, “increase the scale of the air compressor business.”

“Through this fusion with Sullair’s strengths, Hitachi will increase its competitiveness and strengthen the air compressor business, and at the same time, by utilizing Sullair’s global footprint, mainly in North America, we will accelerate the global rollout of the Social Innovation Business,” says Masakazu Aoki, executive vice president at Hitachi and CEO of the Industrial Products Business Unit.

Through the Social Innovation Business effort, Hitachi says it integrated a “market-in business structure composed of ‘front’, ‘platform’ and ‘products’, back in April 2016. The “front” business has been working with customers on the “Lumada” IoT platform.