The stakes in the German AWP business have been upped. Austria's Novomatic has bought Crown Technologies, the new name for the longest-existing German machine manufacturer, Bergmann.
Novomatic president Johan Graf completed the deal in mid-August, taking 90 per cent of the shareholding in the Crown outfit. The remaining 10 per cent is split between the Crown managing director Uwe Christiansen and Novomatic sales director Jens Halle.
Novomatic already owns Löwen, one of the biggest German AWP manufacturers, which has taken an aggressive stake in the new street market there since the laws were updated.
The significant factor in Germany is that operators tend to buy from local branch offices of machine manufacturers. It is therefore difficult for manufacturers to get into the market without coming to some kind of deal with one of the existing machine makers.
All of the big players, Gauselmann Group, Bally Wulff Entertainment and Löwen have a series of branch offices across Germany. The old Bergmann company had seven.
It was initially bought by Löwen’s Uwe Christiansen three months ago and renamed Crown Technologies. The Novomatic acquisition will put considerable resources behind Crown.
Uwe Christiansen now becomes Crown’s president with Jens Halle and Ulrich Doppertin as joint managing directors.
