Saab Seaeye Acquires ROV Tooling Maker Hydro-Lek

Saab Seaeye Acquires ROV Tooling Maker Hydro-Lek

Top ROV manufacturer, Saab Seaeye, has acquired manipulator and ROV tooling maker, Hydro-Lek.

Saab Seaeye’s managing director Jon Robertson sees a clear synergy between the two companies as manipulators and tools are key elements in the design and function of underwater vehicles.

Formed 20 years ago, Hydro-Lek has long supplied manipulators and hydraulic components to Saab Seaeye for its ROV systems.

Charlotte Mott, daughter of the late Chris Lokuciewski founder of Hydro-Lek, agrees that the two companies are ideally suited for each other. “The family are pleased to have found a new owner for Hydro-Lek who will be able to grow and develop the company into the future.”

Jon Robertson says the acquisition will bring greater product content to Saab Seaeye through vertical integration and is an important step in the company’s growth strategy.

Customers will gain from advances in systems integration following the blending of technologies that will create new and higher levels of integrated solutions.

The ability to offer a turnkey solution embracing both ROV systems and tooling technology will bring significant benefits to the market, says Jon Robertson.

He also believes that the new resource will accelerate the development of tooling for the company’s innovative hybrid vehicle range.

In addition, he believes that Saab Seaeye’s presence in the work sector of the ROV market will grow faster with the combination of a greater tooling system portfolio and new ROV development.

Both Hydro-Lek and Saab Seaeye customers will benefit from a fresh engineering partnership that will yield new systems and components backed by Saab Seaeye’s reputation for innovation and commitment to engineering and quality standards.

These developments will also draw upon the collaborative engineering relationship with the Saab Group in Sweden that has already helped create innovative new concepts in underwater technologies.

Such collaboration will benefit from Saab Seaeye’s ‘Technology Toolbox’ concept that has already won an award for innovation. The Technology Toolbox distils core technology across the range into a common architecture that creates the lowest number of parts, at the least possible cost for the highest possible performance and quality.

“Most importantly,” says Jon Robertson, “all Hydro-Lek’s customers can be assured of our total commitment to serving their technology needs and building Hydro-Lek as a key supplier in the global market, supported by Saab Seaeye’s international sales and support presence”.

Press Release, September 03, 2013