SKIDATA acquires majority interest in its main US distributor Sentry Control Systems

SKIDATA has acquired a majority stake in its American distributor Sentry Control Systems. With its participation in the company, SKIDATA strengthens its US business and highlights its international growth strategy.

SKIDATA is the majority shareholder in its American distributor Sentry Control Systems based in Van Nuys, CA (greater Los Angeles area). SKIDATA has been working with Sentry since 2000 and intensifies the successful cooperation with this investment. The current Sentry management remains on board and together with SKIDATA will jointly continue to develop the US business.

"By investing in Sentry we are taking the next step in the growing American parking industry. We are strengthening our US business and from now on can directly serve even more customers who, in turn, benefit from years of know-how and a strong single-source solution - from complete parking management systems, software and hardware, to third party systems and the associated service," said Hugo Rohner, CEO of SKIDATA, speaking about the majority participation.

SKIDATA, founded in Austria in 1977, is now operating in over 90 countries with 10,000 installations, 21 subsidiaries and 3 joint ventures. The American SKIDATA Inc. Car Access branch was established in March 2002. An additional American subsidiary for people access was opened in 2008.

A successful cooperation is intensified

Sentry, an independent, family-owned company, acted as distributor of SKIDATA's parking solutions in California, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. A total of 40% of SKIDATA installations in the US were made by Sentry. Sentry offers a very successful installation and service business and introduced many interesting products into the American market such as the only solar powered parking space occupancy sensor ‘frogparking.’

The participation of SKIDATA in Sentry strengthens the already close relationship between the two companies. SKIDATA benefits from the business contacts and Sentry's strong service organization; Sentry benefits from SKIDATA's experience and know-how in major projects and their international accounts. "We are very proud that SKIDATA and Sentry can take this path together. Sentry has an exemplary service organization and is well-known in the market as a leading solution provider for parking technology," said Hugo Rohner.

About SKIDATA

SKIDATA is an international leader in the field of access solutions and their management. Almost 10,000 SKIDATA installations worldwide in ski resorts, shopping centers, major airports, municipalities, sports stadiums, trade shows, and amusement parks provide secure and reliable access and entry control for people and vehicles. SKIDATA places great value in providing solutions that are intuitive, easy to use, and secure. The integrated concepts of SKIDATA solutions help clients optimize performance and maximize profits. SKIDATA Group (www.skidata.com) belongs to the publicly traded Swiss Kudelski Group (www.nagra.com), a leading provider of digital security solutions.