Atlas Copco Agrees to Acquire German Drum Cutter Manufacturer

Atlas Copco has agreed to acquire Erkat Spezialmaschinen and Service GmbH, a manufacturer of drum cutter attachments for excavators.

Erkat is based in Hämbach, Germany, and has sales and service locations worldwide. The company makes drum cutter attachments for excavators used primarily in construction and demolition and for quarries and tunnels.

Erkat has 38 employees and had 2015 revenues of €12 million (about U.S. $12.8 million.)

“Drum cutters are an ideal complementary product for Atlas Copco as a solution provider in rock excavation, tunnel and foundation profiling and demolition,” said Vladimir Kozlovskiy, president of Atlas Copco’s Construction Tools Division. “Drum cutters close the gap in certain applications between the ordinary buckets which are suitable for soil excavation and the highly sophisticated hydraulic breakers which are used in hard rock extraction.”

The companies did not disclose the purchase price. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2017.