Buying a Belgian insulator maker — NGK-BAUDOUR (1977)

Winning on technology, and getting into a market

NGK’s ultra-high-voltage transmission technology drew enquiries from the advanced countries themselves; General Electric came to it, hat in hand, to propose a joint venture. And yet in Europe the company did not build its own plant: it bought a working insulator maker, equipment and workforce included. The reason, it appears, is that it had seen clearly that winning on technology and getting past the specifications and supply records held by each country’s electric utilities are two different problems. It was the same way in as taking over GE’s plant in North America.

The insulator company it bought did not, however, survive as an insulator company. It merged with a sales subsidiary in 1994, and in 2007 took over the name of the automotive ceramics business; insulator manufacturing in Europe disappeared from the group’s structure. Measured against the purpose of 1977 alone, the acquisition did not last. But given that having a plant and people in Belgium is what decided the site of the 1985 automotive ceramics factory, one can say that an overseas foothold sometimes outlives the business that created it.