Flos aquires Ares
The Flos collection is now joined by Ares’ specific know-how to compete effectively in the outdoor sector on global markets. Ambrogio Strano, the founder of Ares, will continue as the company’s CEO and will become a minority shareholder of Flos, with a place on the Board of Directors.
This follows on from Italian private equity firm Investindustrial buying a majority stake in Flos in September 2014. The deal, which a source close to the company said, valued the Italian lighting business at around 400 million euros. This is the first operation closed with the aim of continuing and strengthening the Group’s strategic growth. Established in 1994 in Bernareggio (in the province of Monza and Brianza, Italy), Ares has been committed to reflecting the evolution of the outdoor lighting sector, offering innovative lighting products, manufactured with materials including aluminium, stainless steel and glass. It soon recognised the potential of LED light sources, with a view to offering fixtures featuring high efficiency, reduced energy consumption and with a focus on environmental protection. Today the Ares production facility covers an area of over 12,000 sq metres.
The integration of the Ares collection into the Flos universe will be represented during the Salone del Mobile in Milan by a theatrical installation at Flos’ Euroluce stand, created by Israeli designer and artist Ron Gilad.
Flos CEO Piero Gandini said: “Our encounter with Ares comes in a period of strategic growth for the company and has opened up new prospects for strengthening our competitive potential in an important area like Outdoor lighting. With Ambrogio Strano and his staff, we share not only advanced research and innovation processes, but also the concept of integration between lighting units, architecture and spaces and, in the final analysis, the idea of experiencing light as an emotion. The Outdoor division is now the Group’s fourth production unit, alongside the historical Design sector in Brescia (Italy), the Architectural sector in Valencia (Spain) and our custom products sector, Light Contract. We are therefore continuing to pursue our model based on independent business units that share the same identity of design, growth strategy and range integration.”
Ares CEO Ambrogio Strano commented: “After bringing up a daughter like Ares, who has given me so many satisfactions and positive emotions, it is an immense honour and pleasure to accompany her up the aisle in such a special marriage, which sets both myself and all my staff new prospects and professional challenges.”
