Hoover Precision Products Inc. (USA, a subsidiary of Tsubaki Nakashima Co. Ltd., Japan) is acquiring the bearing ball production facilities of Polish bearing manufacturer Fabryk Loczysk Tocznych (FLT). The purchase price is approximately USD $13 million.

ZET -- Zaklad Elementow Tocznych -- is the specific company being acquired by Hoover. ZET is the separate bearing ball production company within FLT. Located in Krasnik, ZET employs approximately 600 people and has annual sales of around $19 million.

Although ZET is currently Poland's only bearing ball factory, AKS (Japan) is in the process of building a ball factory in an industrial park in Zarow. The AKS plant will be able to produce more than 840 million balls per year.

Quoted by the state-run news agency PAP, FLT's Development Director Kazimierz Giza said, "The agreement has been signed. The investor has already received the go-ahead from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration to take over the real estate. Now, it only needs permission from the antimonopoly office, but in my opinion this is only a formality."

A key part of the ZET purchase is a state-imposed provision that Tsubaki Hoover agree to keep all 600 employees in place for the next three years. After three years, the company is free to gradually reduce employment to more reasonable levels.

With the ZET acquisition, Hoover now has nine operations in five countries, including one recently constructed in China. Four factories and a warehouse are located in the United States. A ball factory is located in Puebla, Mexico, and Hoover recently acquired the Daewoo-owned MGM bearing ball factory in Debrecn, Hungary.

Hoover had also been manufacturing balls in Washington, Indiana until recently. Acquired from the former Superior Ball Company, those facilities produced semi-precision balls. Approximately 100 people lost their jobs when production was moved to Mexico in 2001.