Salford Group Inc., a global tillage and application equipment manufacturer, has announced it will be acquired by Linamar Corporation, an advanced manufacturing company based in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The purchase is expected to close during the second quarter of 2022, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including the receipt of required regulatory approval.
The acquisition of the Salford will expand Linamar’s agriculture portfolio, which is currently anchored by MacDon Industries Limited.
Aside from MacDon, Linamar is steeped in agricultural manufacturing history, having owned White Farm Equipment in the 1980s along with Western Combine, which manufactured combines under the Massey Ferguson brand in the 1990s. Linamar’s OROS Division in Eastern Europe also manufactures combine corn and sunflower headers under the MacDon and OROS brands.
“We are very excited to join the Linamar family,” said Geof Gray, president of Salford Group. “Linamar and MacDon both have excellent reputations in the industry, and we believe the combination of our resources, our respective brand strengths and distribution networks will enable Salford to compete and innovate at a higher level with greater market coverage, delivering even more value to dealers and farmers.”
“This is an exciting and important acquisition for Linamar,” said Linda Hasenfratz, Linamar’s executive chair and CEO. “Salford has a strong portfolio of differentiated products in the crop nutrition application and tillage segments. These are areas we had identified in our agriculture growth strategy as highly attractive segments for future product diversification.”
Linamar has 26,000 employees in 60 manufacturing locations, 11 research and development centers and 25 sales offices in 17 countries in North and South America, Europe, and Asia, which generated sales of $6.5 billion in 2021. An acquisition price was not announced.