DEKRA to Acquire British Process Safety Specialist Chilworth Global

With nearly 160 employees, Chilworth Global has annual sales of around EUR 15 million and is specialised in safety solutions for the process industry.

Aug 16 2011 --- The international expert organisation DEKRA is acquiring Chilworth Global, the explosion protection and process safety service company based in Southampton, UK. With nearly 160 employees, Chilworth Global has annual sales of around EUR 15 million and is specialised in safety solutions for the process industry. As a result, DEKRA will become a leading international provider in this area.

Chilworth Global operates testing laboratories in the UK, in the US and has branch offices in India and in continental Europe (France, Italy and Spain). The range of services includes material testing, consulting and training services for the process industries with a current emphasis on the chemical, pharmaceutical and food industry sectors.

Through the acquisition, DEKRA strengthens its leading role as a provider of quality and safety services. From an organisational standpoint, Chilworth Global will be assigned to the DEKRA service line "Product Testing and Certification” and will work in close co-operation with the laboratories of the DEKRA Certification Group in Arnhem, the Netherlands, and DEKRA EXAM in Bochum,  Germany, in which DEKRA’s explosion protection activities are based.

“The pairing of Chilworth Global and DEKRA is a decisive step in DEKRA's strategy to expand the industrial business with high-quality expert services in the process industries on a global scale”, says Stefan Kölbl, Chairman of the Board of DEKRA e.V. and DEKRA SE. “We are decisively expanding our position in the UK and the important markets in India and North America and are establishing a further strategic platform for the development of markets in Asia and the American continent.”

“Chilworth Global contributes outstanding expertise to our organisation and will enable us to develop great synergy potential”, comments Mark Thomä, Member of the Management Board of DEKRA SE and Head of the Business Unit DEKRA Industrial. “DEKRA and Chilworth Global are positioning themselves as a full service provider for process safety for multinational companies, in both process plant construction and operations.”

“DEKRA is the ideal partner for Chilworth Global in order to further develop the company within the worldwide DEKRA network and to provide exciting opportunities for our highly skilled and valued staff”, says Dr Paul Cartwright, CEO and one of the founders of Chilworth Global. “DEKRA stands for values such as openness, customer satisfaction and innovation, which we have also extolled from the beginning as the foundations of our corporate activities and which are also practiced by our employees.”

DEKRA is acquiring a 100 percent share of the privately held company founded in 1986 from Chilworth Global. In the future, the company will be headed by Bert Zoetbrood, CEO of the DEKRA Certification Group in Arnhem, the Netherlands, as well as the co-founder and CEO Dr Paul Cartwright.