In mid-November, Concrete Technology Integrators owner Fred Schultz announced the purchase of certain assets and liabilities of Pedershaab A/S in Denmark. A new company, Pedershaab Concrete Technologies, will remain in Denmark as a stand-alone entity and global player in concrete pipe, manhole and drainage product machinery. A Forest Park, Ga., North American sales and service subsidiary, Pedershaab USA Inc., will be assimilated into Green Bay, Wis.-based CTI, whose stable of European manufactured-concrete machinery brands includes CMS (wet cast slab and wall panels); Masa (block, landscape units); Echo (prestressed hollow core plank); and Teksam (pipe,utility products).

Pedershaab had long operated as a subsidiary of one of Europe's major conglomerates, FLS Industries in Copenhagen. The sale of Pedershaab follows a sweeping consolidation of old-line European concrete plant machinery manufacturers during the past three years, yielding such combinations as Masa-Henke and Hess-Schlosser Pfeiffer. It also coincides with FLS' shedding of non-core business assets. Another FLS subsidiary, Unicon Group, sold its North American ready mixed and concrete block operations in the Carolinas, plus European concrete products plants, last year. Unicon operates in tandem with Denmark's lone cement producer, Aalborg Portland, under FLS Building Materials. FLS' namesake business, F.L. Smidth, is a dominant player in cement plant equipment and automation.