CLEARWATER, FL, USA, January 9, 2013– Hitachi Critical Facilities Protection Pte. Ltd. (Hitachi-CFP), (a subsidiary of Hitachi Plant Technologies Ltd, Japan) and Advanced Protection Technologies, Inc. (APT) announce the signing of an agreement that marks the beginning of a strategic partnership between them. The Agreement provides that APT will manufacture Hitachi-CFP’s new line of UL-listed Surge Protective Devices (SPDs) and Hitachi-CFP shall have exclusive reseller rights of those UL SPDs in 20 Asian and Oceania countries, including Australia, New Zealand and India. The business relationship between Hitachi-CFP and APT is envisioned to be a strategic, dynamic and progressive relationship and both parties’ foresee future areas of further collaboration to jointly exploit Asian infrastructure development.
The official signing ceremony between Hitachi-CFP and APT took place today in APT’s global headquarters in Clearwater, Florida.
APT is a long time global leader in the development and manufacture of Surge Protective Devices. The Agreement extends to Hitachi-CFP a new series of UL SPDs that expands the current range of Hitachi-CFP’s existing products and services which focuses primarily on natural disaster risk reduction for mission critical facilities.
Having provided protection services to multiple facilities across Asia, Hitachi-CFP, views this as a big step forward. Andrew Mui, CEO of Hitachi-CFP is of the belief that “this new series of UL SPDs is in line with Hitachi-CFP’s mission to become a global base for the risk reduction business and will further enhance Hitachi-CFP's reputation as a world leader in the field of critical facility protection. With the inclusion of these UL listed SPDs, Hitachi-CFP will be able to provide even better protection to its clients, many of whom are in the vital industries of Oil and Gas and Telecommunication sectors.”
APT, based here in Clearwater, Florida, has been supplying many notable companies with SPDs since 1985. The single largest private label manufacturer of SPDs in North America, APT has earned the respect of various major companies and is also actively involved with the testing and evaluation of UL standards.
“We view this agreement as the first step in an exciting marriage of American quality and Japanese standards.” Says Andy Malcolm, President of APT. “We have high expectations of this strategic business relationship with Hitachi and we look forward to developing even better products together in the future.”
This initial contract, valued at over a million dollars, would supply Hitachi-CFP with UL listed SPDs that will be marketed worldwide, will also ensure bright prospects for the APT team right here in Florida and is a demonstration of the value of American-made quality in the surge protection market. Along with Hitachi’s widespread presence throughout Asia, both parties see this as a mutually beneficial agreement and will be working closely with each other in the Asia Pacific region. There are also plans for future joint research and development projects in the pipeline.