Bosch to Divest Security Product Manufacturing to Focus on Systems Integration

Bosch announced Thursday it plans to sell most of its Building Technologies division’s product manufacturing business and instead focus on its regional systems integration business. 

The German multinational engineering and technology company said it is now looking for a buyer that will take on its solutions and services for building security, energy efficiency and building automation. This includes the video surveillance, access control and intrusion, and communication business units, and affects some 4,300 associates at more than 90 locations worldwide. 

Bosch’s fire alarm systems products business will not to be sold because of its importance for systems integration and will instead be merged with the integrator business, according to the announcement. 

“We are confident we will be able to find a buyer who will take over all three business units, and who will further strengthen the business and give it a secure future,” stated Christian Fischer, deputy chairman of the Bosch board of management, who is responsible for the company’s Energy and Building Technology and Consumer Goods business sectors. 

Thomas Quante, the president of Bosch Building Technologies, added: “The product business is excellently positioned for a promising future under a new owner: innovative products, highly skilled associates, and a market environment with attractive opportunities for growth.” 

In July, Bosch acquired Paladin Technologies, a Vancouver, B.C., Canada-based provider of security and life safety solutions and system integration services in North America. The acquisition complemented Bosch’s 2015 deal for Climatec, a provider of energy efficiency, building automation, security and life safety solutions for the U.S. market.

Following the realignment, the Building Technologies division will employ some 7,600 associates, and operate at 40 locations in eight countries. As a brand-independent systems integrator with a wide-ranging portfolio of energy and building solutions, the division intends to benefit in the future from digitalization and a growing customer demand for integrated, intelligent and cross-domain solutions in the areas of building security, energy efficiency and building automation.

"We want to become one of the global leaders for systems integration in building technology and to seize the favorable opportunities for growth in this market," Fischer said. "To achieve this, we need to consolidate. This is why we will in the future be focusing on systems integration as our core business."