In mid-2022, global air conditioning and refrigeration leader Daikin Industries, Ltd. acquired all shares of Italian hydraulic equipment manufacturer Duplomatic MS Spa, adding to its extensive product lineup and engineering capabilities. Brands acquired under the Duplomatic Group included Duplomatic Motion Solutions, Hydreco Hydraulics, Till Hydraulik, and Continental Hydraulics, Inc. With the latter company celebrating its 60th anniversary at the time, the move ushered in many positive benefits for Daikin and Continental alike.
“The acquisition by Daikin will strengthen our position in the Global market,” says Fabian Udo Beims, Sales and Marketing Director of Continental Hydraulics.
Being part of a strong company like Daikin—which has 90,000 employees—means greater access to resources and funds for investment. “It will allow us to improve in our product portfolio, speed up some of our initiatives and product launches, and strengthen our position in the market in terms of mergers and acquisitions,” shares Udo Beims.
Continental Hydraulics has a 114,000-square-foot plant in Shakopee, Minnesota, serving industrial and mobile applications across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Providing products and services to many top-tier customers, Continental’s client base includes construction, screening and crushing, mining, agriculture, oil and gas, machine tools, metal forming, food and beverage, medical and pharmaceutical, wood manufacturing, power generation, and more—“anything you can imagine that has hydraulics in it,” says Jason Dunlap, Interim General Manager and Director of Operations.
While sales were down for the company’s competitors in 2024, the opposite was true for Continental. “We have market share in all the sectors we are in, and are experiencing growth in all sectors in the last three years,” says Udo Beims.
Of course, Continental employs technology to make its processes more efficient, but the team is mindful of the need for human connections with its many customers. This has led to adopting a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) approach which sees buyers and sellers interact with one another through a P2P platform.
“We are trying to find ways to automate yet have a personal connection and not use automated or AI communication like some companies are doing,” says Eastern Regional Manager, Jamie Omvig II. “We have a customer service team and regional managers who are available by phone or email. We do a lot of face-to-face meetings with our distributors and direct customers to provide as much personal communication as possible. It’s a delicate balancing act, because what we don’t want to do is become inefficient and consume time on things that aren’t critical. We try to balance and manage that as best we can, particularly with our distributors.”
Indeed, Continental goes to market in different ways, with sales channels based on the Voice of the Customer approach, says Udo Beims.
Dunlap can be found regularly at the Gemba (shop floor), to ensure 100 percent customer satisfaction while supporting the employees and ensuring they have the tools to succeed, an example of Daikin’s people-centred management style.
“Daikin truly believes in a PCM structure, which fits perfectly with my leadership style,” Dunlap says. “We are trying to bring our employees into the mix right in the decision-making process, making sure they are challenged and that they are part of the decision-making here when it directly affects their responsibilities for the day. Nobody knows the job better than someone who’s doing it. For management to make its own decisions without consulting the employees is the wrong direction to go, and it’s definitely what we don’t do here—we make sure we bring everybody in here.”
Coming on board around the time of the Continental acquisition, Dunlap is happy with how everything is progressing in a timely fashion. “Corporate support is essential in this industry, and we have agile leadership that has the proven ability to move quickly on capital requests for machine replacements and moving our facility into Industry 4.0.”
Another Daikin acquisition, Till Hydraulik, has helped the company enter the German market. “Globally, we produce almost every single hydraulic product line you can think of,” says Dunlap. “We’ve had many success stories with our pumps,” with some customers finally requesting replacements for pumps that have been out in the field for 40 years or longer.
Ever continuing to innovate, Continental Hydraulics offers its customers new and existing products. These include IO-Link hydraulic valves, an electronics communications protocol product line that is unique in the industry. “It is a differentiator in the market,” says Omvig. Another is the company’s line of zinc nickel-plated hydraulic valve products. “That’s a standard feature for us, and kind of unique in the industry,” he adds. “For a lot of our customers who use our products—particularly mobile equipment or industrial applications where there is a lot of wash-down or a corrosive environment—it’s a very popular feature that again, not everybody offers,” he says. “We certainly have an expanded product offering that we are being very judicious about, but it is coming.”
Certainly, Daikin’s acquisition of Continental Hydraulics and its expansion into the global hydraulics market mark a strategic move that strengthens its position as an industry leader. By leveraging its extensive resources, people-centered management approach, and commitment to innovation, the company is not only enhancing its product offerings but also reinforcing customer relationships through a balanced mix of technology and personal engagement. As these companies continue to invest in growth, branding, and product development, they remain well-positioned to drive long-term success in the hydraulic sector while upholding their well-earned reputations.
