Pepperl+Fuchs and Systec Enter Strategic Partnership

TWINSBURG, OH - Pepperl+Fuchs, one of the world's largest manufacturers of electronic sensors for the automation industries and a world market leader for intrinsic safety and explosion protection technology, and Systec & Services GmbH, a system integration provider that offers comprehensive IT integration and production management solutions to the life science and regulated industries, have entered into a strategic partnership agreement. The partnership calls for a transfer of assets and intellectual property rights, as well as an Industrial Cooperation Agreement to jointly market and sell their complementary HMI products and services expertise to the life science industry.

Within their GMP-IT business unit, Systec & Services has developed a number of elegant and innovative stainless steel platforms, industrial PCs, and remote panels for the pharmaceutical production and clean room environment. As part of this agreement, Pepperl+Fuchs acquired the assets and intellectual property rights of the SLICE product platform.

"The SLICE platform complements ideally our hazardous area HMI product portfolio," comments Dr. Gunther Kegel, CEO at Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH. "With our global presence and worldwide project activities in the life science industries, we see a great demand and market opportunity for the SLICE product platform to fulfill the rigid specifications and GMP requirements of this regulated market. This acquisition will further strengthen our strategic HMI portfolio development and supports our continuous growth in HMI systems into the process automation markets."

The companies have also signed an industrial cooperation agreement to jointly market their products and services to their current and future life science industry customers. "We are certain that our customers will greatly benefit from the combined products and services expertise Pepperl+Fuchs and Systec & Services can provide as a result of this partnership," says Karl G. Linder, CEO and founder of Systec & Services. "Most of our customers operate and standardize their systems and solutions globally across their operations. With Pepperl+Fuchs' international presence, we will be able to service them accordingly."

About Systec
With its headquarters in Karlsruhe, Germany, Systec & Services GmbH is a system house that offers comprehensive IT integration to customers in the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics, and chemical industries, specializing in integrated production management. Their international customers profit from many years' experience in the optimization of their business processes in production-related environments, and they value Systec's full-service offering. Systec & Services is an IT system integrator of MES systems in SAP environments, as well as of specialized GMP IT platforms and compliance process control solutions for the regulated industries.

About Pepperl+Fuchs
Pepperl+Fuchs has nearly 4000 employees in more than 30 countries and is a world leader in the design, manufacture, application, and support of a broad range of automation solutions. Pepperl+Fuchs is the market leader for intrinsic safety interfaces and hazardous location equipment. Our FieldConnex fieldbus installation system for Profibus and Foundation Fieldbus provides maximum flexibility to modern process automation applications.

Additionally, P+F's Bebco EPS purge & pressurization systems provide rugged protection for any type of instrumentation. This comprehensive range of explosion-protection systems and interface equipment is complemented by technologies such as EXTEC visualization & operation systems, as well as on-line corrosion monitoring transmitters and level-sensing instruments.

For additional information, contact Pepperl+Fuchs, 1600 Enterprise Parkway, Twinsburg, OH 44087; 330-486-0002; fax: 330-425-4607; [email protected].