Background In 1933 in
Germany, Alexander Salkind left his home along with his family and relocated to what was then
Mandatory Palestine. Prior to that he had owned factories in
Germany and
England producing parts for
radios. Alexander's father had been an
industrialist in
Russia, and owned factories producing
steam engines. Alexander's son Gershon (born Georg, in 1928) studied at the
Herzliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv and later at the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in
Zürich. Gershon served in the
Armored Corps Alexander's son, Gershon Salkind, joined the company in the early 1950s, and in the early 1970s management of the company was transferred to him. The company opened a new manufacturing plant in
Ramat HaSharon in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, a factory for the production of electricity meters, under the subsidiary Elcomet, was established in
Safed/Tsfat. In 1973, the subsidiary Elco Contracting and Services, headquartered in
Herzliya, was established and engaged in the installation of electrical and electromechanical equipment. In 1975, the control and computer division Elcontrol were founded. A new subsidiary, Elco Fire Detection was established to engage in the assembly and maintenance of
fire detection and automatic
extinguishing systems. In 1987, a number of shareholders attempted to acquire control of Elco. By purchasing the stakes owned by Discount Investments and the Danot Investment Company, Gershon Salkind thwarted the attempted takeover, and increased his share of the company to 80%. It was from this point on that Salkind made
mergers and acquisitions a core strategy of the business. In 1989, the company acquired the competing company Katzenstein Adler. In the same year, the company began a process to reorganize the group's structure, so that at the end of the process it became a holding company.
1990–2009 's
International Sammy Ofer Stadium, an Electra Construction project In 1991, Elco acquired Electra from
CLAL Industries, and expanded its operations into the field of air conditioning, elevators, and contracting. In the late 1990s, Electra Real Estate was established, which acquired income-generating
real estate in Europe and the United States. Elco acquired the French conglomerate
Brandt in 2002 for 250 million
euro, with unions welcoming the takeover. The resulting conglomerate was one of the largest white appliance manufacturers in the world, and engaged in the manufacture and marketing of products such as ovens, stoves, washing machines, dryers, refrigerators and freezers, and operated under the name Elco-Brandt for several years. It was sold in June 2005 for a profit of 100 million euro. In 2008, the group's
transformer manufacturing activity was sold to the Swiss industrial group
Von Roll Holding for ILS 290 million, with a pretax capital gain of ILS 120 million on the sale, despite the
2008 financial crisis.
2010–present In February 2014, the company changed its name from
Elco Holdings Ltd. to Elco Ltd. In 2016 Elco sold the land in Ramat HaSharon where the company's manufacturing plant had been located. It also sold LAT, a residential real estate subsidiary in the US, and land in China. All of these transactions contributed to making the company debt-free for the first time, ushering in a new era of
M&A. in
Jerusalem,
Escalators Project of the Year 2021 In January 2017 it was announced that Electra Consumer Products had reached an agreement to buy the
cellular network Golan Telecom for ILS 350 million, and the deal was completed in April 2017. Electra Consumer Products sold Golan Telecom in August 2020 to
Cellcom — one of the "big three" mobile operators in Israel — for a price of ILS 513 million in cash, making a capital gain of ILS 163 million. In September 2017, the company acquired the operations of the Globus Max Cinema Chain for ILS 144 million (US$40.9 million), beating five other bidders. Upon the death of Gershon Salkind in September 2017, his sons Daniel and Michael became the controlling shareholders and were appointed co-CEOs of the company. In July 2019, Elco acquired Granite Hacarmel, which owns
natural gas distributor Supergas, for ILS 770 million. In August 2020,
Calcalist reported that Bosch and Electra were to set up a
HVAC manufacturing facility in Israel, in
Ashkelon, investing US$29.6 million in the facility. The products manufactured in the facility will be distributed worldwide by Bosch, according to the report, with the companies expecting to control 10% of the European
heat pump market within four years. Also in 2020, Elco's subsidiary in
Poland, Electra M&E Polska, signed an agreement with US
electric vehicle manufacturer,
Tesla, to perform electromechanical work at its first European production facility,
Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, in a deal worth US$80 million. According to Calcalist, Electra M&E Polska has also completed electromechanical projects for German auto marques
Volkswagen,
Audi and
Mercedes-Benz in deals totaling more than US$75 million. In January 2021 Electra acquired control of Amnon Mesilot, which owns 100% of
Afikim, one of Israel's main
bus transport companies, which it
rebranded to Electra-Afikim. At the time of acquisition, Afikim was operating 840 buses on 250 routes, with annual
ridership of about 60 million passengers. In May of the same year the company acquired
Egged Ta'avura for ILS 200 million, resulting in it becoming the country's third largest bus operator. In 2021 Elevator World magazine named the escalator at
Jerusalem–Yitzhak Navon railway station the global Project of the Year in the "Escalators (New Construction)" category. Elco and long time partner
OTIS carried out the project. In May 2021 Elco acquired the supermarket chain
Yeinot Bitan through its Electra Consumer Products subsidiary, with the deal including Yeinot Bitan's network of Mega-branded stores. In October 2021 Electra Consumer Products signed a 20-year franchise agreement with the US-based international convenience store chain
7-Eleven to operate the brand in Israel, with an option to extend the agreement for a further 50 years. Also in 2021, Elco took a 29.8% stake in IDB Investments, the owner of several well known companies in Israel. == Subsidiaries ==