LAPP Insulators, which grew from a entrepreneurial start-up 99 years ago in Le Roy, Genesee County, to become one of the world's leading manufacturers of high-voltage electrical insulators, has been acquired by a German energy-products firm.

LAPP has been purchased by the PFISTERER Group, which has its headquarters near Stuttgart, Germany, according to a news release Tuesday morning from the two companies. LAPP has well-established roots in that country, having merged with another German firm in 2001 and moved its corporate headquarters there, and then having been acquired by a German investment group in 2011.

LAPP still employs hundreds of people at its manufacturing complex alongside Oatka Creek at the edge of the village of Le Roy. Founder John Lapp pioneered the manufacture of porcelain and ceramic insulators, and the company continues to be prominent in that field. The company's ceramic and composite insulators are used in electrical substations, on high-voltage transmission lines and in electric railways, among other applications.