Their strategic purchase in southern Germany allows the company group from Alsdorf (NRW) to augment their position in the attractive hardening market in southern Germany and to strengthen their core business in the field of heat treatment and coating. The transaction was put into effect in October of 2024.

Based in Neu-Ulm, Donau-Härterei GmbH is an established company in the heat treatment business and has been operating in all corresponding areas since 1989. With the acquisition, the HÄRTHA Group widens their geographical presence in southern Germany while further enlarging their network for metal refining in this key industrial region. Donau-Härterei GmbH boasts a broad portfolio that includes such processes as heat treatment under protective gas and in a vacuum, salt bath nitriding, salt bath hardening and inductive hardening. The company supplies customers from many areas, including mechanical and plant engineering, construction and agricultural machinery, toolmaking and mobility. This acquisition allows the HÄRTHA GROUP to expand their capacities and gives them the ability to now offer customers in southern Germany even more comprehensive services in the field of heat treatment.

“I warmly welcome to the HÄRTHA family the workforce of the Donau hardening plant, and the tremendous professional expertise they bring with them. We are particularly grateful that the experienced management of the Donau hardening plant, Mr. Stefan Schiele and Mrs. Ingrid Schiele, will remain on board. The integration of Donau-Härterei GmbH is making it possible for the HÄRTHA GROUP to fortify our position in southern Germany and to grow our service network in another important region of Europe. With this acquisition, we are adding another logical building block to our growth strategy,” explains Sven Killmer, CEO of the HÄRTHA GROUP.

And, Stefan Schiele, Managing Director of Donau-Härterei GmbH, adds: “We are overjoyed that we managed to secure both my succession and the continuation of the business for the long term by joining forces with the HÄRTHA GROUP. The aspects that won us over were the advantages of a medium-sized group of companies combined with a corporate culture that is marked by exceptional entrepreneurship and agility. What this means for us is that we can request targeted support in the future, while simultaneously retaining the freedom of decision for our own activities.”

“Over the last 35 years, Mr. and Mrs. Schiele have successfully poured their heart and soul into building this company. I have the utmost respect for this magnificent business achievement. I am delighted that both will remain with us and that we can jointly offer continuity for customers and employees alike,” adds Sven Killmer.

Since its founding in 1990, the HÄRTHA GROUP has been a leading supplier in the field of metal refining. Head-quartered in Alsdorf, the Group specializes in heat treatment processes and coating solutions. Operating with 12 locations in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, HÄRTHA employs a workforce of approx. 500. Customers from various industries, such as electro mobility, toolmaking, railway transportation, wind energy, medical technology and aviation, benefit from the state-of-the-art and resource-saving production processes provided by the HÄRTHA GROUP. The investment follows HÄRTHA's clearly laid-out strategy for growth in attractive industrial regions of Europe. Thanks to the expansive scope of their activities, Donau-Härterei GmbH will henceforth make a direct contribution to the advancement of the HÄRTHA Group.

In this transaction, the attorneys of the ARQIS law firm acted as legal advisers to the HÄRTHA GROUP, while PwC financial services served as financial advisers and tax consultants.

The HÄRTHA Group has acquired the company Vacuum, thereby continuing its successful growth strategy. Vacuum is an innovative company based near Milan that has been specialising in the finishing of metals and their surfaces in northern Italy for more than 40 years. With the acquisition of the company, the HÄRTHA Group now has four locations in Italy: after Verdello, the first location in Italy, two company additions were made in Verona in 2018 and 2022.

Vacuum was founded in 1975 in Trezzano sul Naviglio near Milan and is one of the first Italian companies to introduce vacuum technology for heat treatment. In over forty years of activity, the company has continued to perfect its production processes in terms of quality and efficiency and today supplies customers from the aerospace, mechanical and plant engineering, mobility, renewable energy and biomedical sectors with its 25 state-of-the-art machines and systems on 3,000 square metres of production space. Parts and components are heat-treated there with a high degree of automation. Vacuum meets the strictest international standards for quality management and is, for example, certified according to NADCAP (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program), an internationally recognised accreditation programme for the aerospace industry.

"The acquisition of Vacuum will enable us to continue to create sustainable, substantial value in our attractive industry with stable, long-term growth trends - despite the current economic challenges," says a delighted Sven Killmer, CEO of the HÄRTHA Group. "The integration into the HÄRTHA Group is in line with our strategic goals. Innovation, expertise and customer proximity are the core values that we live by every day. The new location will enable us to further expand our service network in an industrial centre. We are very pleased that Bencis Capital Partners, our shareholder, is actively supporting our growth strategy."

"We are now part of a successful and very well-positioned group of companies with which we share our vision for the future," says Gabriele Lorenzi, who has been responsible for the Vacuum site for many years. The succession plan under company law is now also secured for the long term thanks to the new owner.

"Thanks to the acquisition, HÄRTHA can consolidate its existing company network in Italy and continue to expand in the interesting growth market of northern Italy," adds Fabiano Peli, who is responsible for the HÄRTHA Group's Italian business as Managing Director. "With our four locations, we are now even better positioned here in Italy."

The transaction was supported by Allen & Overy, Arkios Italy and PwC Deals Team.

We welcome our new member to the HÄRTHA GROUP. As of today, Vacuum S.p.a. is part of our group of companies, making it the fourth location in Italy 💪. By acquiring the company, we can consolidate our existing company network and expand further in the interesting growth market of northern Italy 🚀. With our four locations, we are now even better positioned in Italy.

Vacuum S.p.a. is an innovative company that has been specialising in heat treatment for more than 40 years. Vacuum was founded in 1975 in Trezzano sul Naviglio, near Milan, and is one of the first Italian companies to introduce vacuum technology for heat treatment. Today, the company supplies customers from the aerospace 🛰, mechanical and plant engineering 🏭, toolmaking, renewable energy 🌱 and biomedical sectors with its 25 state-of-the-art machines and systems on 3,000 m² of production space.

Together with Fabiano Peli, Managing Director of Härtha Italy, Simone Landolfi, CFO of Härtha Italy and Gabriele Lorenzi, long-time authorised signatory of Vacuum, we will use the new location to further expand our service network in an industrial conurbation in Western Europe.

The transaction was advised by Antonio Ferri, Marta Avara (Allen & Overy, Italy) Deborah V. Setola (Arkios, Italy), PwC Deals Team, Milano.

Many thanks for the support!

With the implementation of intelligent energy management in production, we can reduce peak loads at our HÄRTHA - WEISSENBURG GmbH site and significantly lower our energy consumption.

How do we achieve this? By implementing automatic load management, we shift our individual peak loads outside the high-load time windows of the grid operator. High-load time windows are projected periods when grid loads are at their highest – for example, when many consumers require electricity simultaneously. Thus, we place much lower stress on the grid during these 'critical' times and operate much more energy efficiently.

What does this have to do with sustainability? Energy efficiency is a crucial pillar of the energy transition and a prerequisite for achieving energy policy goals. A more conscious use of energy, resulting in lower overall electricity demand, reduces the required electricity generation capacities in Germany and potentially the need for storage infrastructure as well.

After conducting an extensive ESG audit, Eurazeo, one of the leading global investment companies, has awarded us the Gold Status. Our projects relating to sustainable energy supply and CO2 reduction received particular recognition.

We are delighted!

The first trucks were unloaded yesterday, and our co-workers in Italy immediately started to commission the new system.

LPC stands for "Low Pressure Carburizing" and designates a state-of-the-art technology for the case hardening and carbonitriding of steel components such as gears, shafts, mechanical components, etc.

The advantages of this process include:

• Environmentally friendly process: lower gas consumption, no CO/CO2 emission
• Improved carburising efficiency, through the use of acetylene
• No intercrystalline oxidation thanks to the absence of oxygen
• Perfectly controlled and repeatable case hardness depth within tight tolerances
• Excellent component aesthetics

Our new plasma tandem system is here! A few days ago, the HÄRTHA – Weissenburg GmbH plant at our Cadolzburg location put our 7th tandem pulse plasma system into service. With this system, we are expanding our capacities significantly. As a contract service provider for plasma nitriding, HÄRTHA - Weissenburg GmbH boasts the largest plant capacity in southern Germany.

Our system sizes range from Ø 800 mm x 1,200 mm to Ø 1,000 mm x 2,300 mm. The maximum capacity per furnace chamber is 3,000 kg.

Advantages of the plasma nitriding process

One of the most important advantages in favour of plasma nitriding is hardening which is almost warp-free across a wide variety of iron materials - from sintered steel to stainless steel. Precision components in particular benefit from the minimal dimensional changes, because there is usually no need for post-processing after hardening.

• nearly warp-free and therefore no dimensional changes
• highly wear-resistant surfaces
• individually controllable layer structure
• hardening of partial areas possible
• hardness depths up to 0.6 mm
• with or without compound layer
• reproducible process outcomes

Aldenhoven/Karlsruhe. Whether used in the automotive industry, wind energy, aerospace, or everyday life, components made of hardened steel are needed in many areas.

As a leading service provider in the field of hardening and surface technology, the HÄRTHA GROUP offers services that enhance the resilience, wear resistance, and other characteristics of components. Most of the applied finishing treatments are highly energy-intensive.

Based in North Rhine-Westphalia, HÄRTHA GROUP GmbH has been obtaining a portion of its required energy from the EnBW solar park in Massbach since 01 October 2022. To this end, HÄRTHA and EnBW concluded a 15-year Corporate Power Purchase Agreement (CPPA) for 10 megawatts of solar power.

CPPAs are an energy transition instrument devised to ensure price stability even in uncertain times

A year ago, EnBW put the 28 megawatt solar park in Bavaria into service. EnBW was able to realise approximately two thirds of this output – 18.3 megawatts – without any funding from the Renewable Energy Act (EEG). HÄRTHA GROUP GmbH secured their own share of this solar power, which is freely available on the market. CPPAs are particularly attractive to companies with energy-intensive production. They help companies achieve their climate goals quickly and efficiently. We are very thankful that we can support the treatment of steel at HÄRTHA by providing our solar power, thus making yet another contribution to the energy transition," explains Daniel Hacki, Head of Origination at EnBW.

"Our hardening and surface treatment services make a substantial contribution to implementing society’s sustainability objectives. For example, we enable our customers to make vehicle components that are more resilient yet lighter at the same time. We are proud to play a significant part in the promotion of electromobility. It should thus come as no surprise that we want to make our own energy consumption as sustainable as possible. In combination with the photovoltaic systems we operate at our own locations, this joint project with EnBW constitutes an additional and comprehensive source of sustainable power that helps us to lower our CO2 footprint dramatically," explains Sven Killmer, CEO of the HÄRTHA GROUP.

About Härtha

The HÄRTHA GROUP was founded in 1990 and is a successful group of companies. Headquartered in Aldenhoven, the Group is one of Europe's leading service providers of metal finishing through heat treatment processes and coating solutions. HÄRTHA operates with approx. 400 employees at 10 locations in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. HÄRTHA attaches primary importance to protective production processes and uses the most efficient and state-of-the-art plant technology available.

About EnBW

With over 26,000 employees, EnBW is one of the largest energy companies in Germany and Europe. It supplies around 5.5 million customers with electricity, gas, and water, as well as services and products in the areas of infrastructure and energy. The expansion of renewable energies is a cornerstone of the company’s growth strategy and a focus of investment. EnBW will invest around 4 billion euros in the further expansion of wind and solar energy by 2025. By the end of 2025, more than half of the generation portfolio is set to consist of renewable energies. This is already having a noticeable effect on reducing CO₂ emissions, which EnBW aims to halve by 2030. EnBW is working toward climate neutrality by 2035.