NORWALK, Conn. - EMCOR Group Inc., a mechanical-electrical energy infrastructure and facilities services and construction company, announced that it has acquired Fluidics Inc., Philadelphia, a privately held mechanical services company.

According to EMCOR, "This strategic acquisition strengthens [our] service offerings, builds on the company's already formidable Mid-Atlantic presence, and creates a platform for additional growth in facilities services." Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Fluidics provides a full array of mechanical services to businesses in Philadelphia, southern New Jersey, and Delaware. The company employs approximately 380 technical and service personnel using more than 85 service vehicles. Founded in 1968, Fluidics' services include 24-hour, 365-day mobile response and preventive maintenance, onsite building operations and maintenance services, and HVAC and plumbing retrofit projects.

"Fluidics' offerings will play a key role in the continued growth of our overall facilities services operation," said Frank T. MacInnis, chairman and chief executive officer of EMCOR. "Fluidics' strength in the commercial, health care, pharmaceutical, and university markets and its experienced management team, which champions a customer relationship culture that is on a par with EMCOR's, will enhance our capabilities on both a regional and national scale."

EMCOR says it offers end-to-end services for the entire lifecycle of a facility. It provides customized construction, energy infrastructure, and facilities services. Similarly, Fluidics provides its customers with a broad range of customized mobile and onsite services and retrofit construction work.

"We are extremely excited to join forces with EMCOR," said Ed Quinn, chief executive officer of Fluidics. "This is a tremendous opportunity and the perfect fit for Fluidics. We look forward to our future prospects."

"From a geographic perspective, Fluidics' strong presence in the greater Philadelphia and southern New Jersey/Delaware regions will complete our East Coast footprint," stated Tony Guzzi, EMCOR's president and chief operating officer. "Additionally, we see substantial opportunities to extend the scope of Fluidics' growth opportunities by linking them to our branding programs and EMCOR's national facilities services platform."

Service Vehicles Help Find Missing Children

The contractor may be growing, but its heart is in the right place. Earlier this year, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell, Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC), and EMCOR's MacInnis launched a major, three-pronged national initiative to help find missing children across the country and promote child safety.

The kick-off event featured a message of support from John Walsh, a tireless advocate for victims' rights and missing children, the host of "America's Most Wanted," and co-founder of NCMEC. According to Walsh, every day more than 2,000 children are reported as missing to U.S. law enforcement.

Under the program, EMCOR has been "Taking KidSafety to the Street" by displaying NCMEC's posters of missing children on the back of the contractor's fleet of more than 5,000 trucks and service vans across the country, utilizing them as moving billboards to heighten public awareness of children reported as missing.

"EMCOR's vehicles, which move daily from its 130 offices to 12,600 jobsites throughout the United States, will cut a wide swath of increased awareness that we hope will exponentially increase the chances of finding missing children throughout the thousands of communities where we live and work," stated MacInnis.

The vehicle posters have been designed so that photos of missing children and NCMEC's 24-hour nationwide hotline - 800-THE-LOST (800-843-5678) - are highly visible. The posters are tailored to six different geographic zones that encompass the entire country; new photos will be rotated on a monthly basis.

The second prong of the program goes inside buildings and involves EMCOR's more than 2,000 facilities services personnel. They help maintain hundreds of public and private facilities across the country, many of which are visited by or have particular attraction for children. These personnel are being trained to implement Code Adam. This program, originally developed by Wal-Mart associates, is activated when a child is first reported as missing within a facility and prior to the arrival of law enforcement personnel.

"Literally millions of people in urban and rural areas across the country frequent the facilities we maintain and see our trucks on the roads and at locations 24/7/365," MacInnis said. "We're at construction sites, retail outlets, airports and other transportation centers, hospitals, schools, museums, and nearly every other conceivable location - places where missing kids and those who have seen them could be."

The contractor also is continuing its initiative online at www.emcorgroup.com/kidsafety. A special brochure, "My Safety Tips," provides children with NCMEC's rules for child safety and Internet safety tips, as well as building safety tips. After reading these rules, children are invited to take "The KidSafety Challenge " and earn a "KidSafety Certificate" of accomplishment.

EMCOR said it makes these materials available to businesses across the country. For more information, visit the company's KidSafety page online.

Publication date: 12/05/2005