Acquisition of the Stettler Group by IMI

The Stettler Group and the IMI Group announced their merger in mid-December.

Five years after acquiring the business with Martin Stettler and some members of the management, the HQ Equita investment fund decided to sell its share. On the same occasion, Martin Stettler and the managers are also disposing of their shares. The IMI Group has therefore become the company’s sole owner.

The Stettler Group was founded in 1881. Today it is the independent leader in the manufacture of high quality sapphire watch crystals and sapphire components for technical applications in the medical, electronic and optical fields. The Group combines the expertise of its 120 employees in Lyss with that of a further 200 employees on the island of Mauritius.

The IMI Group was founded in 1987 by Jean-Pierre Gérard. It has been managed for the past 8 years by his son, Antoine Gérard. After acquiring the Cheval Frères company in 1994, the Group has expanded to offer its clients mechanical systems using many different kinds of complementary technologies. Today it operates three manufacturing plants in the Besançon region of France, a factory in Le Locle, a factory in Fundao (Portugal) and another in Mauritius. It supplies products for the watch industry (crowns, pushpieces, jewels, dials, ceramic components) and also for other branches of the luxury industry, together with technical applications in the medical, aviation and advanced technology industries.

With this acquisition, the Gérard family is continuing to develop a company fit for the future which supplies high quality, Swiss made products. Its strategy is to establish a technology integrator for the luxury sector and for industrial applications in the fields of materials, lasers and high quality mechanical microsystems. This acquisition reflects its determination to build an independent, family-owned industrial group capable of accompanying its clients’ developments on a long-term basis.

The Stettler company teams will remain in place and continue to meet the standards of service, exigency and rigour on which their reputation is based.

January 12, 2017