Hampidjan acquires International Rope Braid in Australia

Hampiðjan has signed an agreement to acquire International Rope Braid (IRB), a company located on the Gold Coast just south of Brisbane on the east coast of Australia. The company was founded in 2005, or about 20 years ago. The founders and owners of IRB are the couple Dave and Suzy Allan, and they will sell their entire share but support the acquisition process over the next few months to ensure a good takeover of the business.

IRB’s operations will be included in Hampiðjan’s consolidated accounts from August  1st.

IRB specializes in making various types of braided ropes and twine for Aquaculture, Yachting, Sailmakers, Cable Pulling, Marine, Mining and Rope Coverbraiding.

IRB’s turnover has been stable in recent years at around €1.7m per year and EBITDA was just over €0.4m in the last financial year.

About a 30-minute drive to the north is Hampidjan Australia, with its headquarters and the cooperation between the companies has been close and growing. Hampidjan has supplied IRB with high performance ropes manufactured in Hampidjan Baltic in Lithuania. IRB has supplied Hampidjan Australia with braided ropes and coverbraiding on special Hampidjan ropes for the mining industry.

Although Hampidjan Baltic can handle most of the work done at IRB for Hampidjan Australia, the transport time and costs are too high to be able to serve the Australian market in an acceptable manner in terms of delivery time.

It is planned that IRB and Hampidjan Australia will be operated as sister companies for the next few years.  There are several synergies which consist of even closer cooperation between the companies, more favorable prices for raw materials that Hampidjan purchases, many of which are the same as those used in Hampidjan Baltic. The acquisition will also strengthen Hampidjan New Zealand’s position because it opens up new possibilities with access to IRB’s products.

Quote Suzy and Dave.

Building IRB from the ground up, with no customers or suppliers when we arrived in Australia 20 years ago, has been an extremely rewarding challenge. During this time we have had the pleasure of training many young people starting out in the textile industry, as well as securing great partnerships and relationships with our customers.

What started out as a small local industry has grown over the years to become a leader in braided rope manufacture in Australia and beyond.

We are thrilled to leave our company, and in particular our team,  that is very important to us,  in such capable hands knowing that the future of IRB in Hampidjan‘s hands will continue to prosper as well as forge stronger relationships with our current team, customers and network.

Thorsteinn Benediktsson, Director of Hampidjan Australia says: „Australia is far away from everything and through the years we have relied on airfreight which is expensive and still takes too long a time in many cases for our customers. Dave Allan at IRB has helped us out many times with special coverbraiding for our ropes, his skills and willingness to help has been fantastic. Dave has trained his team well and they are now ready to take over once he and Suzy retire“

Hjortur Erlendsson, CEO of Hampidjan Group says: „The aqusisition of IRB is a vital step in building further up our operations in Australia in order to serve both the Australian and New Zealand markets better as its difficult to provide acceptable delivery times from our manufacturing facilities in Europe in coverbraided ropes.  IRB will gain from our established markets and our extensive knowledge of materials and production technology and in that way enabeling them to grow the company.  We look forward to working with the dedicated and skilled tem of IRB and thank the owners, Dave and Suzy, for the costructive and good dialogue we have had during the sales process and their continuing support in coming months to secure good transistion of the operation.“