Rhinestahl’s Hydro Acquisition To Bring Engine Tooling Synergies

CHICAGO—Rhinestahl’s acquisition of German tooling specialist Hydro Systems will see the unified company grow market share and combine synergies related to the supply of narrowbody and widebody airframe, engine tooling and ground support equipment.

Under the agreement, announced last week at MRO Americas, both businesses will continue to operate under their current names. However, the combined entity will be called RH Aero Systems and operate from Rhinestahl’s headquarters of Mason, Ohio. Meanwhile, Hydro will continue to be based in Biberach, located in Germany’s southern region.

Dieter Moeller, CEO and president of U.S.-based Rhinestahl, says the acquisition was motivated by the synergies a combined entity would be able to offer while growing support volumes for tooling on engine programs. Rhinestahl specializes in General Electric and CFM International engines, while Hydro has a strong foothold in the tooling and ground support equipment segment for Rolls-Royce Trent engines. Hydro also supplies Boeing and Airbus tooling on the airframe side.

“The industry is growing at record rates and coming out of the COVID slump, but it is also changing and requiring a lot more support for its customers and the OEMs around the world,” says Dieter Moeller, CEO and president of Rhinestahl. “We looked at Hydro and identified very little overlap between the two companies; the fit was very complementary.”

Moeller says the acquisition will strengthen Rhinestahl’s resources while allowing it to have more “critical mass” when approaching tooling supply for new engine programs such as the CFM Leap, General Electric GE9X and Rolls-Royce engines.

The current market environment has seen both companies experience record backlogs for their products, and Moeller says much of 2024 will be spent identifying how to take advantage of the new synergies a combined entity would offer before setting a roadmap for the next 5-10 years.

RH Aero Systems will operate at 15 service center locations, including North America, Europe, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai. Thomas Elsner, CEO of Hydro, says the company is now exploring potential growth into India following the acquisition. “It’s an interesting new country for us and the Rhinestahl team has already started the process to set up a new facility in India,” he says.

Elsner also sees combined supply chain benefits, owing partly to the lack of overlap in both Rhinestahl’s and Hydro’s market segments and its increased operating scale.

From day one, the combined entity will employ more than 800 people and both parties are now looking at growing the workforce over the next year.