GÜTENBACH, Germany – The solar industry continues to turn on the heat as it courts and claims PCB manufacturers and suppliers alike. RENA GmbH has acquired Höllmüller GmbH. Financial details of the acquisition have not been made public.

RENA manufactures equipment systems for the semiconductor and solar industries. Höllmüller is a manufacturer of wet process equipment for the PCB industry. A number of Taiwanese PCB companies have announced plans to expand into the flexible solar cell market this year. The Höllmüller acquisition by RENA is seen as further support for the business model.

In a press release, Jürgen Gutekunst, managing director of RENA GmbH said, “We see this as an enormous step forward. We intend to expand our market share of the photovoltaic industry even further with the acquisition of Höllmüller Maschinenbau GmbH and to cover a large part of the rapidly growing market.” Gutekunst added, “We want to operate with more force on the world market. We can achieve this by bringing our production capabilities in line with the speed of the market growth.”

RENA has employs 300 people at three locations in Germany. The company’s 2006 turnover was over € 60 m. The core business is equipment systems for semiconductor and solar applications. In 2001 the company began manufacturing equipment for the solar cell market. In 2006 this was expanded to include systems for the fabrication of solar wafers.

Managing director of Höllmüller, Joe Kresky said about the acquisition, “An extremely positive combination of two companies that are well established on the market – for us a win-win situation.” Kresky continued, “The two companies complement each other in their technologies and both wish to expand even further.”

Both companies will continue to operate under their own names. Expansion plans are already being discussed. The Höllmüller operations in Poland will double in size in the medium-term and some of the locations in Germany will also be expanded.