Bradford White moves into oilheat with acquisition of Laars Heating

Reprinted with permission
from the September 2005 issue
Bradford White moves into oilheat
with acquisition of Laars Heating Systems
“We are very serious about the oil business,” said Nicholas J.
Giuffre, Executive Vice President, of Bradford White Corporation. The occasion at which his comment was made was the
official closing of the deal in which Bradford White, the Ambler, PA based water heater manufacturer, acquired Laars Heating Systems from Water Pik Technologies. The acquisition
puts Bradford White squarely into the oilheating business.
Laars’ product lines, combined with Bradford White’s extensive water heater lines, gives the parent company a full
domestic—and commercial—hydronic heating line of products.
Bradford White significantly entered the oilfired water heater
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market in August 2002 [See Oilheating Journal, Feb. 2003]
when it acquired the Canada-based Aero Environmental. Although the company did have a limited share of the oilfired
water heater business, the acquisition of Aero Environmental
solidified its position and put it in a competitive position, but
only in water heaters. The next logical step: offer the complete system—hot water and heat.
On June 30, the day the deal was signed, Oilheating Journal
met with Bradford White’s President and CEO, A. Robert
Carnevale, Nicholas Giuffre and Theodore J. Sikorski, Vice
President of Marketing, and two representatives of Laars—
2/21/2006, 10:16 AM
Bradford White moves
into oilheat... continued from p. 32
William R. Root, Vice President, Sales & Marketing and Angelo Sinisi, Vice President & General manager, to discuss the
acquisition.
to 5,000,000 Btus at various efficiency ratings, some of which
are condensing systems offering efficiencies of up to 98%.
For more on Laars, visit their website at www.laars.com.
LAARS
Laars Heating Systems, based in Rochester, NH, is a manufacturer of hydronic systems for residential and commercial
use, including boilers and volume water heaters.
Water Pik Technologies, of Newport Beach, California,
Laars’ former parent company, announced publicly in June of
this year that it was selling Laars to Bradford White Corporation for $24,300,000. The sale was finalized on June 30 and
Laars became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bradford White.
As far as oilheating is concerned, Laars brings four key oilfired boiler lines—all welded steel, no cast iron—to Bradford
White’s product offerings. From Laars’ Trianco division:
• The Newport line of steel boilers, with nominal AFUEs of
83%. This line consists of seven sizes of vertical tube units,
with outputs ranging from 85,000 to 178,000 Btus.
• The larger Horizon series, which is composed of eight wet
base, horizontal tube oilfired boilers (AFUEs of 84 to 85.8%),
with outputs from 87,000 to 300,000 Btus.
• The top of the line Max series (five sizes), which features
low mass boiler design with a counterflow water chamber, no
refractory in the combustion chamber and minimum water usage (water travels between two concentric chambers) for quick
heat up and AFUE ranges up to 87%. Btu range is 75,000 to
231,000.
• There is also a variation on the latter called D-Max, for
direct vented Max low mass boiler.
Laars also has a gas commercial line with boiler outputs up
FULL OFFERING
With the addition of these lines (as well as other Laars products), Bradford White says it can now offer complete hydronic systems, including radiant, high temperature hot
water, oilfired pool heaters and so on.
In the joint press announcement with Water Pik, Bradford
White President Carnevale said, “The addition of the Laars
Heating Systems’ extensive line of technologically advanced
products, its personnel and manufacturing and distribution
capabilities are key additions to the Bradford White family.”
These recent acquisitions affirm Nicholas Giuffre’s statement that Bradford White wishes to expand significantly into
the oilfired hydronic market beyond water heaters. Carnevale
added, “The acquisition is one in a series of focused moves
we have made in recent years to continue growth and expand our appeal to the plumbing and HVAC industry.”
Both Bradford White and Laars have been working diligently to get that message across. Said Sinisi, “We have
done what we could do to meet the needs of oil dealers.
We've attended every show and showed products at AREE.
Now we can integrate heating with hot water [all from one
source].”
Bradford White has manufacturing facilities in Middleville,
MI; Niles, MI and Mississauga, ON, Canada, and Laars will
continue to operate out of Rochester, NH, where it also
maintains a training facility. Laars is also establishing a facility
in Simi Valley, California to handle west coast needs. ‰
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