Ends CAS cooperation with Rothenberger

Metabo is ending its cooperation with tool manufacturer and sanitary specialist Rothenberger in the cross-manufacturer battery alliance CAS.

“We were not able to agree on a common line for the strategic direction of the alliance,” says Henning Jansen, CEO of Metabo. “This is very unfortunate, especially since Rothenberger was one of the nine founding partners of CAS in 2018. But an alliance like CAS can only grow and function well in the long term if all cooperation partners pull in the same direction on key issues. Recently, this was no longer the case at Rothenberger. That’s why, in the interest of our currently 32 other CAS partners, we didn’t see any way to continue the cooperation with Rothenberger.”

CAS is not only the world’s first cross-brand battery alliance in power tools, it also has the largest number of participating manufacturers. Within four years, the number of cooperation partners has risen from nine at the beginning to 33 at present. Currently, the companies Metabo, Mafell, Eisenblätter, Collomix, Haaga, Electrostar (Starmix), Eibenstock, Steinel, Rokamat, Elried/edding, Birchmeier, fischer, Prebena, Cembre, Pressfit, Jöst abrasives, Gesipa, Trumpf, Monti, Baier, Scangrip, Cemo, ITH Schraubtechnik, Spewe, Lamello, Promotech, Rico, Virax, Engelbert Strauss, Hellermann Tyton, Jepson Power, Holmatro and Rothenberger are part of CAS. The alliance expects to grow to 35 partners by the end of the year, and even 50 by 2023. “Talks with corresponding interested parties are underway,” explains Metabo CEO Jansen. “We are the leader in terms of application diversity and customer benefits because we offer professional users in industry and trade not only all common power tools as cordless machines, but also the widest range of trade-specific special machines. Our users need these to be able to perform first-class work efficiently.”

According to Jansen, Rothenberger still has contractually agreed delivery obligations for CAS-compatible batteries and chargers. These would of course be fulfilled and delivery would only be discontinued after the contract expired, the Metabo CEO explained. Since joining CAS, Rothenberger had used the cooperation’s battery technology to offer a whole range of power tools based on the 18-volt batteries.