We’re excited to announce that our parent company, Pivot International, recently acquired WideBlue, an engineering firm in Glasgow, Scotland.
The WideBlue acquisition brings the total number of company engineers to 50, and total worldwide employees to about 400, explained Mark Dohnalek, Pivot International CEO. Optics are a pretty specific technical area, and not that many companies can do that, Dohnalek told the Kansas City Business Journal. WideBlue was originally the European Design Center division of Polaroid, and has grown to a team of 15 engineers who helped develop the popular new Polaroid cameras with built-in digital printing. They specialize in digital optics and imaging technology, and we’re looking forward to sharing our expertise on future projects.
“It’s very much a niche in the engineering world. It’s why a lot of times those camera systems are expensive because it’s pretty technical stuff. It also ties into Internet of Things products, which use a lot of optics. Optical engineers can help Pivot develop products for areas including identification management and border security, outdoor engagement, police surveillance, body cameras, security systems and medical products.”
WideBlue is Pivot’s fifth acquisition in the past 24 months. A little over two years ago, the company bought Mid-Continent Custom Electronics, then Shawnee-based DigitTron Technologies was acquired in March 2016. Shortly thereafter, Lenexa-based Avatar Engineering was added to the team, followed by Omaha-based Electronic Design and Manufacturing in September 2017. These last four acquisitions have focused on building up Pivot’s manufacturing capabilities in the United States, where the company now has approximately 90,000 square feet of manufacturing facilities. It has an additional 75,000 square feet of manufacturing in Asia and the Philippines.
Pivot International has begun to shifting its attention toward Europe. “We really need a larger footprint in Europe,” Dohnalek said. “We previously had about 25 people in Europe, just a few key people. Adding WideBlue gives us 15 more engineers, building a nice foothold for further growth in Europe. We’ll probably do another acquisition in Europe down the road. I see Europe being a strong employment center for us to serve that market.”
The company has grown rapidly in recent years, with revenue up 82.4% since 2016, ranking Pivot as the area’;s 11th fastest-growing company, according to the Kansas City Business Journal List. The company subsidiaries include:
- DigitTron Technologies
- Avatar Engineering
- MCC Electronics
- Electronic Design and Manufacturing (EDM)
- Pivot UK
- Pivot-Hawk in Manila
- Pivot Shenzhen
- Pivot Hong Kong
- Pivot Taiwan
