Tenant Company Acquires Outdoor Equipment Manufacturer

Tennant Company has announced that is has entered into a purchase agreement with Applied Sweepers, maker of Green Machines® brand cleaning equipment.

Applied Sweepers, a privately-held company based in Falkirk, Scotland, is recognized as a leading manufacturer of sub-compact outdoor sweeping machines in the United Kingdom (UK) and operates overseas subsidiaries in France and Germany. Applied Sweepers is a supplier of smaller sweepers used for city cleaning to municipalities across the UK and sells through a broad distribution network around the world.

“Tennant Company sees tremendous potential to build upon Applied Sweepers’ highly-regarded service organization, its pride in innovation and, of course, its stellar reputation for high-quality products,” said Chris Killingstad, president and CEO of Tennant Company. “We have found a strong and beneficial alignment of Tennant Company’s long-term goals and those of Applied Sweepers: International market expansion, innovative product development, improving operational efficiencies and leveraging a strong distributor network.”

Sold under the brand name “Green Machines,” Applied Sweepers’ products come in three ranges, and are used in city cleaning applications such as sweeping pavements, pedestrian areas, streets and alleyways. Killingstad said that this series of city cleaning products complements Tennant’s current outdoor offerings, particularly in Europe, and will enhance the company’s ability to offer a broader set of solutions to customers worldwide.

“Applied Sweepers is very excited about its future within Tennant Company,” said Francis Galashan, chairman of Applied Sweepers. “Both are world-leaders with a proven pedigree in producing high quality, strongly innovative solutions to customers’ cleaning needs. The complementary fit between our two companies’ current product lines and our respective areas of strength in distributor networks makes us believe this will be a very successful partnership.”

Killingstad and Galashan confirmed that current Applied Sweepers management will stay in place to continue to drive growth in the city cleaning business.

This acquisition, combined with its 2006 acquisition of Hofmans Machinefabriek in The Netherlands, provides Tennant greater access to the $250 million European city cleaning market and will provide opportunities to further leverage both companies’ existing sales and service capabilities around the world.

Killingstad said that this transaction is consistent with the company’s strategy of pursuing add-on acquisitions to gain access to interesting products or to expand its global sales and service coverage.