Ingersoll-Rand (Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey), parent of The Torrington Company (Torrington, Connecticut) has acquired all of French needle bearing manufacturer Nadella S.A. from its partner in the venture, SNR Roulements.

Founded in 1930, Nadella S.A. was acquired in 1985 by an equal partnership of Torrington and SNR Roulements.

Nadella manufactures precision needle bearings for automotive and industrial applications. It operates three manufacturing facilities in France, an engineering center and a network of sales subsidiaries in Western Europe, employing a total of 1,100 people. In 2000, the company manufactured about 80 million needle bearings worth USD $130 million.

The acquisition also includes Nadella's position in an Indian joint venture.

Nadella will become an operating division of Torrington Europe.

This acquisition and other investments in the company by Ingersoll-Rand seem to signal a reversal of fortune for Torrington within I-R. For the past several years, it has been widely reported within the bearing industry that Ingersoll-Rand was actively trying to sell off the entire Torrington operation. Torrington was acquired by Ingersoll-Rand in 1969.

In addition to the Nadella acquisition, I-R's investments in Torrington now include a new factory in the Czech Republic, scheduled to go online late in 2001.

Chairman and CEO, Herbert Henkel, said, "This move greatly expands our participation in the European bearing market in support of our global growth strategy. The Nadella product line complements Torrington's offering and its customer base provides new opportunities for our company in Europe's automotive and industrial markets, especially as we transfer Torrington's proprietary engineering and manufacturing expertise to the now-wholly-owned business."

A Torrington spokesman said, "This will really have no direct impact on our U.S. operations. Nadella's capabilities will improve our abilities to become involved in vehicle development programs in Europe. They are complimentary plants with very little overlap."

Founded in 1866, Torrington manufactures bearings under the Torrington, Kilian and Fafnir brands. The company still keeps its corporate headquarters in the Torrington, Connecticut area and now employs approximately 11,000 people in 25 manufacturing plants and over 60 sales locations around the world.

In both April and August of this year, Torrington announced layoffs related to the softening industrial and automotive markets.