Ideal Standard Vidima AD (Bulgaria)

Sevlievo-based sanitary and industrial fittings firm Vidima has been making bathroom faucets and valves since 1934. Ideal Standard - Vidima AD focuses its production in two main lines - sanitary fittings and sanitary ceramics. Its product range features bathroom faucets, kitchen mixers, porcelain sinks, WC, bidet, urinal, shower trays, showers, acrylic bathtubs, siphons, installation systems, accessories. The production facilities of the company have the capacity to produce 6 million sanitary fittings and 3 million pieces of sanitary ceramics per year.
In April 1992, the company set up a joint venture with New York-based plumbing fixtures maker American Standard. American Standard controlled 51% in the venture and the rest was state-owned. The venture was named Vidima Ideal and by 1997 American Standard had taken full control of it through several capital increases. In October 1996, Bulgaria's Privatisation Agency sold 77% of Vidima to American Standard Companies Inc. for USD 5.4 million. The remaining 23% stake in Vidima was offered to employees at a preferential price and used to cover property claims by former pre-communist owners. In April 1997, the two companies Vidima and Vidima Ideal were merged into a single enterprise - Ideal Standard - Vidima.
In 1996, American Standard registered a new company called Ideal Standard Bulgaria. Ideal Standard opened in October 1998 in Sevlievo Europe's biggest sanitary ware products manufacturer. In 2001, American Standard expanded the production capacity of Vidima by launching a second fittings plant named Vidima-2 and a plant for brass hardware Vidima-3 in the nearby village of Gradnitsa.
In March 2007 American Standard announced plans to sell its bathroom and kitchen fixtures production units in Bulgaria, as part of its restructuring plans to focus on its core air conditioning business. In July 2007 the U.S. company sold its two Bulgarian units, sanitary and industrial fittings producer Vidima and sanitary ware products manufacturer Ideal Standard Bulgaria, to global private investment firm Bain Capital Partners. In 2008, Ideal standart BK Bulgaria merged into Ideal Standart - Vidima and two years later Ideal Standart Bulgaria merged into Ideal Standart - Vidima.