Fabrinet acquires UK's Exception EMS

With its base in Wiltshire, United Kingdom, Exception EMS has been providing contract electronics manufacturing services since 2015 – the company’s customers include industrial, energy, aerospace and defense companies. Approximately 80% of Exceptions' revenue derived from customers in Europe. “Fabrinet has enjoyed exceptional growth over the past several years, primarily with customers in the U.S. and Japan, and there are tremendous opportunities for growing our business in Europe,” noted Tom Mitchell, Chairman and CEO of Fabrinet. “With this acquisition, we are establishing a strong foothold in Europe, which will allow us to grow our business with European customers, and give them access to our advanced low-cost manufacturing services in Thailand, particularly in our new facility in Chonburi that is coming on-line and ramping in the next several months.” Back in February 2015, Fabrinet "went overseas" and established Fabrinet West, Inc., a new product introduction (NPI) center in Santa Clara, California, which was tasked to serve the company's US customers with advanced NPI services, particularly those in Silicon Valley. With the acquisition of Exception EMS, Fabrinet will now provide the same NPI services to European customers, along with the low-volume manufacturing services Exception EMS has provided. Going forward, as NPI projects in Fabrinet West and Exceptions EMS transition to volume manufacturing, these intra-company relationships will facilitate the transfer of the volume manufacturing to Fabrinet’s Thailand facilities. Total consideration for the transaction was approximately USD 13.5 million in cash. Fabrinet anticipates that the transaction will have an immaterial impact on revenue and net income in the first quarter of fiscal 2017.