DAMPA_75_years_of_quiet_design_ENG - Flipbook - Page 196
In the summer of 1998 Van Geel decided to approach Chicago Metallic about the possibility of a joint venture in
Europe, in which each would own 50 per cent and in which
Jack Van Geel would be chairman in the initial phase with
Bahr as CEO. Negotiations progressed well until it came to
valuing the assets, whereupon there was significant disagreement particularly about the true worth of the Wijnegem
plant. This impasse caused the process to collapse and so
Van Geel DAMPA reverted to ‘business as usual’.
In the late summer of 1999, however, Chicago Metallic
approached Jack Van Geel directly to make a take-over
offer for Van Geel DAMPA so generous that it could not be
refused and so suddenly and unexpectedly DAMPA came
under American ownership in October. As Chicago Metallic’s Wijnegem factory manufactured standard ceilings and
the Van Geel factory in Boxtel made ones that were bespoke,
Chicago Metallic would be able to supply both categories
and so address the whole European market. But demand
was at that time shifting in favour of bespoke designs and
there was already enough capacity in Europe to produce
standard ceilings – including those made by DAMPA.
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When Jens Ole Bahr met Chicago Metallic’s CEO, Lawrence
(Larry) Kinderman, his impression was of a ‘tough guy’ who
would insist only on doing things his way. On a subsequent
visit to Jack Van Geel to present his resignation, he was
instead asked to join the latter’s cable business, which had
newly acquired a company in Stuttgart. Bahr’s four-yearlong tenure at DAMPA thus involved three owners – but
achieved the return to financial and operational stability he
had initially been hired to provide. In 1999, a profit of 2.6 million kroner was recorded and in 2000 it was 4.9 million. Bahr
was superseded by Jens C. Magelund who was a long-serving DAMPA director and earlier had been a board member
of F.L. Smidth when it had owned the company.
