Paris— Christian Dalloz group purchased Bacou Group SA in September, completing a merger first announced in May. The combined company, Bacou-Dalloz, announced that its merger created the largest personal protective equipment manufacturer in the world.

Distributors are unsure how the merger will affect their sales and inventories, and whether or not overlapping product lines pose a problem.

Sales figures for 2000 in both companies were EUR 902 million, and the new company expects 54 percent of its sales in the United States, 39 percent in Europe and the remainder throughout the world. Employing over 7,000 around the world at 53 facilities, the company's core products are head, fall and body protection, including clothing, respirators, eyewear, faceshields and footwear.

To facilitate the merger, Dalloz SA acquired 100 percent of Bacou SA's capital. Shares of Bacou USA, a previously held American affiliate of Bacou SA listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BAU), were purchased by the new company for $28.50 a share, as part of the merger.

George Hayward, president of United Sales Associates, represents several lines in competition with Bacou-Dalloz. He says that although it is early in the merger, B-D's best plan would be the "synergistic leveraging" of their product groups to distribution.

"What this means is that the company will have a complete set of product lines that cover a particular market and I think they should, and will, leverage those very good brand names they have into the distributors. They need distributors to take the whole package in the end. That's synergistic leveraging," he said.

Bacou-Dalloz has overlapping lines, including Uvex eyewear, one of the world's largest safety eyewear lines, and Willson, a maker of eyewear and lenses, and faceshields.

"I think part of this event is that when you merge, you start cutting people. They don't want redundancy ... nobody does. But when that happens, they lose some real good talent and other companies get that talent. They get people experienced in making and selling those very products," Hayward said.

The consolidation of all types of manufacturing continues rapidly, he said, and safety is apparently no different.

"We've got some huge egos playing a part in a merger like this," said Hayward. "These are two very old and very independent family companies who have competed literally right down the street from each other for decades. Will they have trouble blending corporate cultures? I think so."

Bacou-Dalloz has not announced any personnel or product cuts and did not comment on the issue.

Ed Stephenson, vice president of Essential Safety Products in Denver, Colo., agrees the merger will cause some overlap in products. His company specializes in fall protection, gas detection and ergonomics.

"I know the waters are muddied somewhat, especially in eye protection. I don't think the whole [merger] will affect me as much as some others. We sell Miller fall protection and Howard Leight [hearing protection]," he said. Miller and Howard Leight fall under the Bacou-Dalloz umbrella.

Another distributor, Steve Spahr, president of Sanderson Safety in Portland, Ore., noted that he hoped to learn more about the merger and its consequences at the National Safety Council meeting in Atlanta in September, but Bacou-Dalloz cancelled its plans to have booths there after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.

According to John Montigny, vice president of marketing for Bacou USA, details of the effects of the merger on distribution and the safety industry in general were forthcoming, but delayed due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York. In-depth information was to be available at the NSC meeting in Atlanta.

"Our large booth and other displays were all organized as a big party, to kick off the merger. Obviously, [Bacou-Dalloz] was not about to set up a display and celebration like that so soon after such tragedies. Actually, we are still working out many of the business and product cross-references for distributors at this time," Montigny said.

The long-term effect of the merger on distribution was not immediately known, he added.

In a statement, Bacou-Dalloz said the two companies "have limited overlaps in their product range." Dalloz's main world market arena is Europe and Australia, and it specializes in fall-protection equipment. Bacou "has ... a most diverse range of product offerings and is a leader in the American market," according to the release.

Major purchases are nothing new for either entity. In 1989, Dalloz bought the American WGM Safety Corp., which included the Willson, Miller and Granet companies. They added European-based companies including Bilsom, Troll, Komet and Moxham in the last decade.

Bacou acquired Howard Leight, Perfect Fit, Optrel and Delta Protection, among others, in the 1990's, as well.

According to Montigny, information detailing more specifics of the merger will be available soon for distributors and customers. He had no date available for that release at the time of this interview, and said there were a lot of unanswered questions being discussed. Calls to other Bacou SA and Dalloz Groupe officials were not returned.