Materialise has just announced its acquisition of e-Prototypy, Poland’s leading provider of rapid prototypes and 3D printing services, in apears to be a strategic geographic extension of the Belgian 3D printing company’s activities. According to the news coming out of Materialise, e-Prototypy has been active in the Polish market since 2008 and has grown to become the market leader in this region, but is a good fit for Materialise with a broad range of 3D printing solutions and specializing in the production of laser sintered components. The Polish company has also invested in scanning and reverse engineering services in recent years.
It is a notable divergence in strategy for Materialise, as the company has not generally gone in for M&A’s, tending towards natural, organic growth across the 3D printing industry and the globe. Materialise has indeed been a market leader in the nearby Czech market, through its subsidiary in Usti Nad Labem CR, since 2004 and Poland is obviously now a ripe market.
“With the acquisition of e-Prototypy, Materialise shows its commitment to further invest in the east-European market”, says Bart Van Der Schueren, Vice President Industrial Production, Materialise. “Thanks to the acquisition, Polish customers will be gaining access to the vast production capacity of Materialise. Furthermore, current Materialise customers will benefit from access to the scanning and reverse engineering services of e-Prototypy.”
“We see a lot of opportunities for growth in the Polish market and by joining Materialise, the e- Prototypy team looks forward to helping even more people in the region realize the benefits of the services and solutions we have to offer, As part of Materialise, our customers will be given access to even better service with a larger range of 3D Printing technologies and they can benefit from Materialise’s 23 years of experience in this industry”, says Grzegorz Sworobowicz, vice-CEO and co-founder of e-Prototypy.
