Germany's Gildemeister and Japan's Mori Seiki plan to combine their machine tool sales and services in Europe, Gildemeister announced yesterday (26 July). The pair intend to set up a joint company for all European markets (excluding Germany).

The new holding company will manage all the sales and service activities of the European DMG/Mori Seiki companies. The German market will continue to be managed by DMG/Mori Seiki from Stuttgart.

The cooperation in Germany and Europe comprises the sale and all technical services, such as customer service, training courses as well as technical support.

In the future, 17 national companies – responsible for 37 European markets – will be brought together in DMG/Mori Seiki Europe.

Following the successful integration of the two companies sales operations in numerous other markets – such as Asia, the USA and Japan – the market in Germany and the remaining European markets will now be developed jointly.

In selected countries (Poland, Russia, Austria) the merger is still subject to approval by the authorities. The cooperation in Germany and Europe will start at the beginning of September, with a total of about 1,350 employees. Of these, 600 employees work in Germany and 750 in other European countries.