Beumer acquires Glidepath

Material handling equipment supplier Beumer Corp. has acquired Glidepath LLC, an Arlington, Texas-based provider of airport baggage-handling systems, the companies announced Thursday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The two firms were already linked in a joint venture after Beumer acquired a majority share of Glidepath in 2014 to add baggage handling, baggage security, and software-control products to Beumer's airports segment. By acquiring the rest of Glidepath, Beumer can offer a full range of both conventional baggage-handling systems and tote-based baggage-handling systems, said Sebastian Titze, Beumer's marketing insights and strategy manager. Somerset, N.J.-based Beumer Corp. is the North American subsidiary of Germany-based Beumer Group GmbH and Co. and manufactures conveying, loading, palletizing, packaging, sortation, and distribution systems.

The companies will ramp up their production of an individual carrier system (ICS) that allows airports to place each piece of baggage in a single tote, moving it throughout the airport conveyor network with greater automation than would be possible with bags placed directly on a conveyor surface, Titze said. Airport managers can use track and trace technology to follow each item along its journey from the check-in desk to conveyor paths, through security screening, to the departure gate, and back again, he said.

Glidepath has recently moved its 100 employees from Dallas to the current location, upgrading to a larger facility that will allow greater production of baggage-handling systems that include tote, tilt-tray, and ICS components, Titze said.