The Normec Group announces that it has signed a definitive agreement with the shareholders of Organic Waste Systems (OWS) concerning the acquisition of OWS. Normec is active in the field of testing, inspecting, certification (TIC) and compliance mainly in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany with more than 1100 employees. OWS will continue to grow on an independent basis in cooperation with Normec.
OWS was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Gent, Belgium. Today the company has more than 115 employees. OWS has subsidiaries in the US, Germany and Japan and expects a sales volume of 25 million € for 2020. OWS is world leader for the determination of the biodegradability and compostability of plastic packaging materials and other applications of biodegradable polymers. The company has also developed several digestion and treatment processes for the biological treatment of household waste organics and other solid or semi-solid organics. OWS belongs to the top 5 companies in the world concerning the design and construction of municipal solid waste treatment plants using anaerobic digestion for the production of compost and biogas.
The engineering and plant construction division is currently working on 4 new projects. In Belgium, 2 DRANCO plants for the conversion of household waste into biogas and compost are currently being built (Leuven & Dendermonde), and 2 plants are under construction in Asia (Chongqing in China and Yorii in Japan).
The lab division is also performing very strongly. Currently there is an unprecedented growth in the development of biodegradable polymers and compostable products in order to replace persistent fossil plastics. In this way, OWS is contributing to the development of various solutions to the global plastic pollution crisis. A new lab in the US is currently being set up to meet the need of large American multinationals for determining biodegradability in all kinds of different environmental conditions.
The growth path and the good prospects had aroused the interest of a number of potential new shareholders. Luc De Baere, managing director at OWS stated: “Over the past year, we have spent time preparing to find a new shareholder for OWS. We are delighted that Normec has been able to add us to their group. Together with Normec, we will continue to strengthen and expand our value proposition to our customers, build up our testing capacity and increase our anaerobic digestion business. We look forward to our future cooperation”.
Joep Bruins, CEO and founder of Normec, commented: “We are delighted that OWS has chosen to partner with Normec. We are very impressed by the activities of OWS, the developed technology and the market position OWS has been able to acquire. We are excited to work together with the management team of OWS and to continue the growth path the organization has chosen. For the Normec Group, OWS provides the opportunity to expand the Group’s service offering, facilitating a leap towards our objectives of becoming a European TIC-player offering a one-stop-shop in all relevant fields within our segment Life, Safety & Environment.”
It is the intention that OWS will continue to grow on an independent basis in both of its activities. Synergies will be sought and cooperation with other labs within the Normec Group will be established. The transaction was closed at the end of October 2020. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.