Grown worldwide from its roots as a cultivator maker in southwestern Ontario, Salford Farm Machinery has now attracted Manhattan money.
New York private equity firm GenNx360 Capital Partners, which bills itself as a backer of “middle-market industrial business-to-business” companies, announced Thursday it’s bought control of Salford for an undisclosed sum.
Salford said its manufacture of primary tillage, secondary tillage, seeding and fertilizing equipment will continue “uninterrupted” from its existing base at Salford, Ont., with its “entire workforce remaining in place.”
“At GenNx360, we strongly believe in the megatrends that drive agribusiness,” partner Matt Guenther said in a release. “Tillage equipment manufacturers stand to benefit from the need for higher farm productivity and crop yields.”
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GenNx360, he said, believe Salford “is well positioned to benefit from the growth in the tillage market.”
The company, he added, expects to build on Salford’s strengths “by leveraging our operational expertise and executing on identified growth opportunities, both organically and through add-on acquisitions.”
“We are certain that GenNx360’s vast manufacturing expertise and the operational capabilities of its partners will help us develop even more technologically advanced tillage and seeding equipment that provides the greatest benefit to the grower,” Salford president Geof Gray said in the same release.
Working with GenNx360, he said, is also expected to “improv(e) our speed and efficiency when delivering products to our dealers and distributors.”
Salford, started at Salford, Ont. in 1978 by mechanic and welder Jake Rozendaal, today markets its product lines through over 300 dealers and distributors in North America and various export markets.
The company still manufactures at Salford, about 35 km east of London, and at Osceola, Iowa, about 60 km south of Des Moines. It also has a stake in a joint manufacturing venture at Omsk in southwestern Siberia.
The ag sector is billed as a focus of GenNx360’s investments, along with others in the industrial machinery, oil and gas, transportation and logistics, specialty chemical and aerospace sectors. — AGCanada.com Network
Related stories:
Salford planting seeds for expansion, June 22, 2012
Is vertical tillage right for your farm?, Sept. 16, 2011
