With its acquisition of mouldmaking and injection moulding company Bekto Precisa (Goražde / Bosnia and Herzegovina; www.bekto.com), Emka (Velbert / Germany; www.emka.com) has boosted its plastics activities and its presence in southeastern Europe. The acquisition adds a further 150 employees to the company payroll, which now stands at more than 2,100.

Emka claims to be world market leader in the closures, hinges and seals used in switch and control cabinets for electronics and electrical engineering applications. The company additionally delivers closure components to the air conditioning and transport sectors. Its range covers 15,000 articles in metal and thermoplastics (especially PA). The company's production network includes eight production facilities in Bosnia, France, Germany, Serbia, Spain and the UK. Its plastics activities are located in Velbert (injection moulding), Arnedo / Spain (PCX and EPDM profiles), Birmingham / UK (EPDM profiles) and – following the acquisition – two plants in Goražde / Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bekto Precisa – now Emka Bekto – produces moulds and injection-moulded parts for the automotive and E&E industries. Company founder Redzo Bekto has had links to Emka for many years. Back in 1988, he ran a company in Wuppertal / Germany that supplied Emka with injection moulds. And that was also the time he got to know Emka's managing partner Friedhelm Runge. In 1990, Bekto returned to his Bosnian homeland and set up Bekto International. The Bosnian war in the 1990s marked a turning point, when the production shops in Goražde were hit by bombs. Bekto and his employees had to flee. With support from Runge, he built up his company again in the Austrian state of Burgenland, returning to Goražde with his employees and machinery once the war was over. Over the years that followed, his working relationship with Emka grew until, after 10 years in a joint venture, Runge acquired all the shares in Bekto International, integrating it in the Emka group. At the same time, Bekto set up his new company, Bekto Precisa.