Altus Group expands portfolio with SEHO partnership

Above: Gareth Fenton, Sonja Kaufman, Michael Straub, Lena Walter and Charles Lower.
Courtesy Altus Group

The agreement strengthens Altus’ position across soldering technologies and expands its capability to support both surface mount and through-hole assembly processes as a turn key partner. Through the partnership, customers will gain local access to SEHO’s range of batch and inline soldering platforms, backed by Altus’ sales, applications, and after-sales engineering support teams.

SEHO is recognised for its expertise in automated soldering processes and has built a strong international reputation in wave and selective soldering technologies. The company manufactures selective soldering machines, wave soldering systems, integrated inspection and automation technology, supporting electronics manufacturers ranging from high-mix, low-volume production through to fully automated high-volume manufacturing environments.

Joe Booth, CEO at Altus Group, said: “SEHO is a company we’ve admired for many years. They are a perfect example of the kind of high-quality, engineering-led manufacturer we want to work with.

“Our customers are typically focused on long-term reliability, process performance, and support, rather than simply choosing the lowest-cost option. The market for wave and selective soldering across the UK and Ireland remains very strong and, with increasing pressures around manual labour, we see significant opportunities for further growth in this area.

“By combining SEHO’s technology with Altus’ local applications knowledge, sales coverage, and after-sales engineering support, we believe we can significantly strengthen their position across the region. We think this partnership of Altus & SEHO, offers one of the most attractive solutions on the market today.”

The collaboration forms part of Altus Group’s ongoing strategy to partner with specialist manufacturers across every major electronics assembly process. By adding SEHO to its portfolio, the company can now offer customers a broader range of soldering technologies spanning convection reflow, vapour phase, vacuum soldering, selective soldering, robotic soldering, wave soldering, and laser soldering solutions.

Ronny Horn, Area Sales Manager at SEHO, said: “It is a great pleasure for us to partner with Altus Group. The reputation of Altus Group from both customers and suppliers is really impressive. From our perspective, they are one of the most dynamic distributors in Europe and clearly on a mission to be the best at what they do.

"It will be fascinating to see how combining strong technology with excellent support and a new level of energy can further strengthen our position in the market.”

SEHO already has an established installation base across the UK and Ireland, with systems operating in a wide range of manufacturing environments. Altus expects the announcement and activity surrounding this partnership to significantly increase investments in SEHO, creating a top-quality, low risk partner for UK & Irish facilities who are looking for THT soldering automation.  

To support the partnership, Altus has invested in additional technical training with SEHO in Germany, with three after-sales engineers and the wider sales team completing product and process training. A demonstration system is also scheduled to arrive at Altus Group’s Redditch headquarters, supporting customer evaluations and process development activities.