BMZ Group acquires production machinery business

Supplier of electric bike industry battery technology, the BMZ Group, has announced that it has acquired the struggling APA GmbH in a bid to improve its long-term manufacturing capabilities.

The purchase of the APA GmbH business, which had filed winding down papers with the Aschaffenburg District Court, gives BMZ new understanding and capability when it comes to the automated machinery for construction. In particular, the gained understanding of fully automated cell plugging and lazer welding will override formerly manual processes, according to the company’s statement.

APA GmbH was already a supplier to BMZ and bringing the business in-house bolsters testing, turnaround on new lines and latterly should see OEM customers benefit from faster lead times on goods.

BMZ produce battery solutions for a wide-range of bike industry clients, with the catalogue spanning solutions for the likes of Brose, Gazelle and Shimano. Though headquartered in Germany, the group has production facilities in China, Poland and the USA as well as branches in Japan, UK and France.

The firm also offers service tooling for electric bikes, a dealer backup portal for replacements, as well as packaging solutions designed specifically to handle the shipping of lithium-ion products.

Since 2018, the 3,000 employee strong BMZ Group has made investments north of €150 million to more than double its production capability, even tripling at some sites. The group’s expansion has in part been driven by a surging micromobility segment, though its activities go wider than the cycling business. In the depths of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic the group converted its lithium-ion battery production resources to deliver additional support to those manufacturing ventilators designed to aid a person’s breathing