Legrand (company)
Legrand is a French industrial group historically based in Limoges in the Limousin region. In 2011, the firm was the largest global producer of switches and sockets, with 20% of the global market, and in cable management (15% of the global market), generating 75% of its turnover internationally. The group is also expanding its product range in sustainable development and energy saving technologies, and has developed new products for photovoltaic installations and lighting control. History. The company's origins date back to 1865, when a Limoges porcelain (in France's Limousin region) workshop was set up on the  route to Lyon originally making porcelain dishes. In 1904, the company was taken over by Frédéric Legrand, who gave his name to the company. In 1919, the company entered into partnership with Jean Mondot, an artisan from Limoges who had started, a small factory, in Exideuil making electric switches using porcelain and boxwood. Manufacturing subsequently gradually diversified into electrical equipment. At that time, before the appearance of plastic, porcelain was the best available insulating material. In 1949, following a factory fire, the decision was made to concentrate exclusively on electrical wiring devices (switches and sockets). The company very quickly extended  its range to cover protection products (fuse-holders and circuit breakers, etc.), cable management products (trunking and mini-trunking), emergency lighting, etc. Since then, Legrand has made 120 targeted acquisitions becoming a large, diversified maker of electrical wiring devices with more than 150,000 product items. As of 2006, it has bases in 70 countries and sales in 180 countries. Some notable dates: 1966: First subsidiary outside France established in Belgium. 1977: Development outside Europe with the takeover of Pial in Brazil. 1980: Bought from GEC in Liverpool, UK. Plugs and sockets company formally Fluvent, transferred works to Milton Keynes, UK  1984: First subsidiary in the United States with Pass & Seymour. 1989: Acquisition of Bticino, Italy's largest electrical equipment manufacturer. 1996: Acquired Fael in Poland, Luminex in Colombia, MDS in India, and WattStopper in the United States. 1998: Acquisition of Ortronics, a US leader in structured cabling and Voice Data Image (VDI). 2000: Acquisition of Wiremold in the United States (doubling the Group's size there), and Horton Controls, a US lighting controls company, merged into its WattStopper brand, and Quintela and Tegui in Spain. 2005: Acquisition of ICM Group (KZ and Cablofil brands), world leader in wire mesh cable  trays. 2006: Acquisition of the electrical wiring devices division of TCL China (No. 1 in China) and Shidean, Chinese leader in audio and video door entry systems. Acquisition of Vantage Controls, US lighting control specialist. 2007: Acquisition of HPM, No. 2 in electrical wiring devices in Australia, and Kontaktor, the leading Russian manufacturer of power circuit breakers. Took over MACSE, the Mexican leader in cable trays, UStec, US specialist in residential networks, TCL Wuxi, Chinese specialist in modular circuit breakers and Alpes Technologies (Annecy, France), specialist in energy compensation and measurement. 2008: Acquisition of PW Industries, a US cable tray  specialist; HDL, the No. 1 in Brazil producer of residential access control (entry phones); Estap, the Turkish leader in VDI enclosures, and Electrak, UK specialist in ground-laid cable trays. 2009: Legrand is severely affected by the economic crisis. The group sees a 15.6% fall in its turnover (to €3.6 billion). It still manages to maintain its operating margin at 17.6%, as against 17.7% in 2008. A return to growth is forecast for the second half of 2010 2010: 2011: 2012: Takeover of Numeric UPS of India in 2012. 2014: In March, Legrand signed an agreement to acquire Lastar , Inc. a Moraine, Ohio cabling and connectivity products supplier which, in 2013, reported more than $140 million in revenue and had nearly 1,000 total employees in nine locations in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Brands falling under the Lastar umbrella are the Quiktron and Cables to Go which became C2G in 2012. 2015: Legrand North America acquired Raritan Inc., completed in September. 2017: In June, Legrand started procedures to purchase Milestone AV, the manufacturer of AV racks and mounts in the US and overseas. Milestone manufactures products under the brand names Chief, Sanus, Echogear, Da-Lite, Projecta, and  Vaddio. In November, Legrand North America acquired Server Technology. 2019: Acquisition of Connectrac, a leader in the development of flexible floor-based cable management solutions that bring power, data and communications to commercial interior applications. 2020: Acquisition of Focal Point LLC, a private architectural lighting manufacturer based in Chicago. 2021: Acquisition of Ensto Building systems division of Ensto, a private electrification, lighting and EV charging solutions manufacturer based in Finland. At the end of 2006, the minority shareholders (banks and institutions) sell their holding via an accelerated private institutional placement, thereby taking traded shares to 35% of the capital and  increasing the share's liquidity.