Canadian farm equipment maker MacDon Industries is being sold for $1.2 billion to another Canadian company, according to CBC News.
Linamar Corporation – known as a manufacturer of precision metallic parts for several industries (including the automobile sector) – announced in December that it had “reached an agreement” to buy MacDon (which is based in Winnipeg).
Linamar said that MacDon, and its group of companies, will complement its existing agricultural harvesting business in Hungary and allow the company to serve more markets globally.
Linamar is a major entity; it has a staggering 59 manufacturing facilities dotted around the globe; it has over 24,000 employees. It notched up worldwide sales of $6 billion in 2016.
Back in October, we reported that mounting demand for MacDon equipment here in Europe led to the company’s decision to open its first European subsidiary.
The new entity will be known as MacDon Europe and will be located in Wiesbaden, Germany. From this German base, it is expected that it will seek to grow its European operations – and possibly appoint more distributors and dealers in other countries.
MacDon isn’t a brand-name that’s readily familiar to most Irish farmers or contractors. However, it is a significant player in the Canadian and US markets. There, it’s best known for its self-propelled windrowers and headers, its pull-type mowers and its draper-type and pick-up headers for combine harvesters.
The company’s origins
The company’s origins go back to 1949, when the entity was known as Killbery Industries. Back then, Killbery manufactured sprayers, grain augers, seeders and cultivators.
In 1951, Killbery produced one of the first self-propelled windrowers. In 1971, the MacDonald family purchased the company and shifted the focus firmly onto harvesting equipment. It later changed the trading name to MacDon Industries.
With a workforce of approximately 1,600 people nowadays, MacDon sells its products in over 40 countries – with existing overseas offices in Australia, Russia and Brazil.
