Vortek products are currently sold worldwide, and ETC intends to expand that sales effort; the company's complete range of rigging products is planned to be available in Europe by next year.
The transition of Vortek into the ETC Rigging family of products will double ETC's current offerings of stage machinery. They will be able to provide customers with a wide variety of custom engineered heavy lift, high lift and high speed rigging solutions, which include orchestra shell, grand drape and scoreboard lifts, along with synchronised acoustic panels and motorised packaged hoists.
"On the heels of a successful launch of the new Prodigy P75 Hoist and with the incorporation of Vortek's engineering expertise," says ETC Rigging reneral manager David North, "ETC is preparing to open up its solutions for theatre systems."
The company's acquisition of Vortek will allow ETC to offer advanced rigging solutions for the entertainment market on a national and international level. By building upon the engineering experience of Vortek, ETC also plans to maintain a custom engineering design centre.
"We see a great synergy between ETC and Vortek," says ETC CEO Fred Foster. "The complementary strengths of rigging products as well as the combination of the skills and experience of the two companies will be a great benefit to our customers, old and new."
ETC will maintain an active, ongoing relationship with Daktronics to continue to provide high quality hoists and lifts for Daktronics' scoreboard system customers. In addition, ETC plans to provide the award-winning Prodigy hoists, QuickTouch, QuickTouch+ and Foundation controls, along with the Vortek Classic and custom hoists and the full line of Vortek control solutions.
Vortek's operations will be integrated with ETC over the next three months. Product manufacturing will be consolidated into ETC's new manufacturing facility in Wisconsin, while a design and engineering centre will remain in New York state to support custom products, customer support and service.
"We are committed to providing a smooth and seamless integration of these two companies," explains Foster. "The entire Vortek team will be helping us through the transition and we will offer them opportunities to continue to work with ETC in the future." The company also ensures that Vortek customers will continue to have access to the equipment and services they have come to expect from Vortek over the years.
(Jim Evans)
