Bosch's Thermotechnology division has bought Köhler & Ziegler Anlagetechnik GmbH, a German maker of combined heat and power plants, for an undisclosed sum.
Employing around 130 people in Lollar, Germany, Köhler & Ziegler's CHP plants are mainly used to supply buildings with heat and power, to generate heat for industrial processes as well as in district heating networks.

Köhler & Ziegler has supplied the Bosch Thermotechnology brand Buderus with small and medium-sized CHP plants since 2008. The acquisition will add larger plants as well as container construction, especially for biogas plants, to Bosch's product range. A spokesman for Buderus said that although the immediate impact of the acquisition would be felt in Germany, it was encouraging news to now have have an industrial/ commercial CHP specialism in the UK market.

'The acquisition complements our activities in the promising co-generation segment and expands our portfolio of environmentally compatible technologies. Köhler & Ziegler is one of the pioneers in this technology. We will now jointly expand this business both geographically and technically,' says Dr. Ing. Jürgen Sterlepper, member of the executive management of the Bosch Thermotechnology division.

Köhler & Ziegler generated sales revenues of some 17m euros in 2008. Bosch Thermotechnik GmbH forms the Thermotechnology division of the Bosch Group. In fiscal 2008, Bosch Thermotechnology employed 13,000 people and generated sales of roughly 3 billion euros.