"This is a new market. We had some products for the agricultural sector, but not many," explains a Ceratizit spokesperson. The Luxembourg-based manufacturer develops and produces highly specialised cutting tools, removable inserts, hard material bars and wear parts. On Tuesday 13 September, it announced the full acquisition of the French company AgriCarb, which specialises in tungsten carbide agricultural wear parts. The amount of the transaction remains confidential.

The transaction is part of Ceratizit's sustainable development strategy. "With increasing restrictions on the use of herbicides in agriculture, mechanical weed control is becoming increasingly important," the Mamer-based group explains in its press release. "AgriCarb offers a wide range of tungsten carbide tools for this and other agricultural applications," says board member Frank Thomé. AgriCarb's products (more than 1,600 in total) are used for soil and vineyard work.

60 employees and a site near Lyon

Based in Meyzieu, near Lyon, the company was founded 37 years ago and employs 60 people. Its integration into Ceratizit's "hard material solutions" division does not imply any relocation or redundancy, a spokesperson for the Luxembourg-based group said. "I am delighted to have found in Ceratizit a buyer whose international distribution network [can] help AgriCarb to further develop and enter new markets," commented Lionel Curtat, former managing director and co-owner.

Ceratizit, which is part of the Plansee Group, employs more than 8,000 people in over 30 production sites worldwide, including 1,300 in Luxembourg. The century-old industrialist also owns 50 subsidiaries. Its annual turnover amounts to 1.3 billion euros. The company AgriCarb, for its part, had reached 22.6 million euros in 2021, according to .

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.