Buying Jervis B. Webb — its own former licensor — and entering airports (2007)

From the taught to the buyer

Recorded as the purchase of an airport business in North America, the implication of this acquisition is lost. What Daifuku took in full was Jervis B. Webb, founded in 1919 — the company that in 1957 had taught it chain-conveyor technology. Japan’s first integrated line at a plant built solely for passenger cars was assembled with that borrowed technology. Over half a century, the taught and the buyer can be seen to have changed places.

Read as the closing of a circle, though, the acquisition parts company with the facts. What Daifuku was after was airport baggage handling, a field that would have taken it far too long to build alone; the Webb name became Daifuku Airport America, and a corporate name that had run since 1919 did not survive. Two years after the purchase the financial crisis cut consolidated sales by nearly 40%, and years passed before the results showed in the numbers. A technology licence, it can be said, is not a relationship in which the lender stays on top forever.