Tolerance rings acquisition

As a wholly-owned subsidiary the company will change its name to Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Rencol with managing director Jim Smith reporting to Marc Aerts, general manager of Saint-Gobain's Bearing Business Unit. "This represents an exciting opportunity for Rencol as Saint-Gobain has extensive global sales channels and the product families complement each other", said Jim Smith. Saint-Gobain describes itself as a "global leader in the design, production, and distribution of innovative, high-performance materials for industry". It has a worldwide workforce of over 200,000 of which 20,000 are in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Rencol states that it is the only company in the world that focuses solely on the design and manufacture of tolerance rings. It is based in Bristol and employs over 120 at its international headquarters which includes a research and development facility and technical centre.