(Contact: Epoch 5 Public Relations)

Festo Didactic, the education division of the Festo Group, acquires the US-Canadian company Lab-Vol

Germany/Canada/USA – The German-based provider of technical education solutions, Festo Didactic, acquires the US-Canadian company Lab-Volt. For the customers of both companies, this acquisition opens up the availability of a much broader range of products and services worldwide. Lab-Volt’s and Festo Didactic’s product portfolios will be integrated according to a joint portfolio and branding strategy.
Festo Didactic, a global education company, is the market leader in technical education with focus on both, learning systems and training services.

Lab-Volt is the leading specialist for equipment and solutions in the technical training and continuing education sectors, focusing on electronics, electrical and mechanical engineering, and telecommunications.

Dr. Nader Imani, CEO of Festo Didactic Inc. and Festo Didactic Ltd.:
“Festo Didactic’s acquisition of Lab-Volt will result in a much stronger presence for both companies in the international market for technical education. It gives all employees at both companies a considerably strengthened basis to develop their product range and to deal with business in the international market. The jobs at all sites have been secured and the setup of the joint activities will be designed in detail in the integration phase of the two companies.”

Lab-Volt is located in New Jersey, USA with a daughter company in Québec, Canada operating as the main production site. Lab-Volt was founded in 1934 and employs more than 250 people. With a very strong portfolio of integrated learning systems and modular multimedia education programs in the electronics, electrical and mechanical engineering and telecommunication fields, Lab-Volt complements Festo Didactic’s product range, making it the most comprehensive portfolio in the international training and development market for technical education solutions. Lab-Volt will subsequently be integrated as a part of the Festo Group.

Festo Didactic is recognized worldwide for the development of high-quality, intuitive learning systems. The company’s products – learning factories and training facilities – are offered in conjunction with training and e-learning programs in more than 40 languages. Festo Didactic’s customers include educational institutions, universities, colleges and industrial companies all over the world.

The Festo Group is a family-owned business within the industrial automation and education sector. Festo Group employs approximately 16,700 people in more than 250 branch offices worldwide and generated 2.3 billion euro turnover in 2013. The Didactic subsidiary of Festo employs 500 people worldwide, with 200 staff members working in Germany alone.

What characterizes the learning systems of both companies is their high practical relevance through the use of real industrial components combined with the intuitive way of teaching educational content, making the technologies and processes used in automation immediately more tangible and visually understandable. Both companies have regularly set innovative standards on the international technical education market with products such as MPS® (Modular Production System) or FACET® (Fault-Assisted Circuits for Electronic Training) and have thus provided educational institutes and companies with solutions that enable learners to accumulate the real and practical experience they need to work independently and to contribute to a company’s productivity.