Federal Products Merges with Mahr Holding GmbH

Mahr Federal Inc. (Providence, RI) has completed a merger with Carl Mahr Holding GmbH, a dimensional metrology instrument manufacturer headquartered in Goettingen, Germany. The new company will be known as Mahr Federal Inc with the U.S. headquarters remaining in Providence. The merger will make the Mahr Group the third largest full-line producer of dimensional metrology instruments in the world, comprising 16 businesses with more than 1,500 employees and 1999 sales of about $170 million.

Formerly a subsidiary of Esterline Technologies, Federal Products is ISO 9001-certified, offering a broad spectrum of products from simple and easy-to-use hand gages and high accuracy reference artifacts to technically advanced form and surface finish measurement instruments. Federal is also well known as a producer of custom-designed measurement machines.

Founded in 1861, the Mahr Group in recent years has followed a carefully planned globalization strategy marked by continuous double digit growth and the foundation of many international sales and production facilities. In February 1999 it acquired WEGU Messtechnik GmbH (Wadgassen, Germany), a manufacturer of CMMs.

Mahr Group chairman Thomas Keidel believes the merger with Federal Products provides a strategically important production site in the U.S. along with a key sales, support, and development center in Cincinnati, OH. The new Mahr Federal will strengthen the Mahr Group's position in North and South America, England, and other English-speaking markets where Federal has strong sales.

According to Federal Products president, Joe Golemme, the merger "allows Federal to immediately become part of a major high quality global company. The pairing of these two companies is a natural one. Both of us have earned solid reputations for the quality of our products and our deep commitment to customer support."

The combined Mahr Federal line of precision gaging products will include calipers and micrometers; test indicators; dial and digital indicators; mechanical, air, and electronic gaging; dimensional standards; instruments for surface finish and geometry gaging; measuring instruments for threads and gears; length measuring instruments; gage calibration systems and custom gages; as well as PRIMAR Polar CMMs and multi-sensor CMMs.

Mahr Federal Inc, 1144 Eddy St, P.O. Box 9400, Providence, RI 02940-9400; phone: 800-FED-GAGE