Continental acquires American belt manufacturer WCCO Belting

Continental has acquired family-owned belt manufacturer WCCO Belting, based in Wahpeton, North Dakota, USA. With this acquisition, the technology company complements its portfolio of conveyor belt customers and strengthens its Conveying Solutions business in the agricultural sector.

Additionally, equipment manufacturers, distributors, dealers and farmers will benefit from a combined product and service portfolio that generates a multi-tiered offering that will provide better support and service.

"This strategic acquisition is perfect in three respects: portfolio, sales market and people. Furthermore, we continue our transformation to become a provider of holistic solutions in one of the growing sectors: the off-highway industry", says Philip Nelles , member of the Executive Board of Continental and president of the ContiTech sector group. Both parties agreed not to disclose the terms of the transaction.

Focus on the agricultural sector

Driven by the megatrend of global population growth, protein demand and climate change-induced crop pressure, Continental expects global demand for food and feed to continue growing and changing in the coming decades. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, insights report FReSH and Boston Consulting Group estimate that the trend is also based on the rapid growth of the global middle-class population: with nearly 5 billion people in 2030, their share of the global population has increased almost fivefold in the last thirty years. With a much larger world population, increasingly higher housing standards and changing attitudes to nutrition, transparency and sustainability, eating habits are becoming more diverse and demanding across the world.

This is why the Continental Group's ContiTech business area continues to focus on increasing its participation in the agricultural segment. With 75% of WCCO's business in the agricultural sector, the acquisition strengthens the company's commitment. WCCO's product portfolio has a solid market position, serves a complementary customer base and enjoys a good global reputation. Furthermore, the combination of the two product portfolios generates a multi-layered offering that provides better support to manufacturers, distributors, dealers and farmers.

"We intend to utilize and expand our manufacturing capacity in order to elevate Continental's opportunity in this area and offer complete technical solutions to manufacturers and distributors, with the aim of increasing profitability and speed to market with innovations and new products" , explains Jim Hill, CEO of ContiTech for North America. Song Qi, Senior Vice President of ContiTech's Conveying Solutions business area, adds that Continental will drive sales of high-value specialty belts in the global market and utilize Continental's global sales team to further expand the WCCO Belting business outside the Americas.

In his welcoming remarks, Hill expressed great pleasure: "We are all delighted to welcome WCCO's experienced and dedicated employees to our Continental team. I am confident that we will learn from each other and grow together to better meet the needs of customers. Continental and WCCO strive for excellence and focus on a customer-centric approach, and this is something that unites us."

WCCO Belting

Established in 1954, WCCO Belting has more than 300 employees. It produces and distributes agricultural machinery applications such as conveyor belts, baler belts, collection belts, pipe conveyor belts, melting belts, as well as industrial belt applications for material handling and packaging, recycling, forestry and aggregates.

"We are a perfect fit at Continental as we share the same passion for our industries. Everything we do is to better meet the needs of our current and potential customers based on our extensive experience and the dedication of our team, contributing to the process of creating custom rubber products that impact businesses around the world. We are very excited about our shared future path," said Tom Shorma, CEO and President of WCCO Belting.

The company distributes to more than 20 countries. WCCO Belting is known for its belting innovation, which helps meet the unique needs of its customers around the world. By designing each product to the operational requirements of a specific application, belts consistently outperform the industry standard across multiple product segments. This effectively reduces the total cost of equipment ownership for operators.