Linamar deal to acquire Salford closes

Linamar’s purchase of the Salford Group has been finalized. Linamar, a Guelph-based industrial equipment and parts maker made the announcement June 3, and executives met with Salford Group staff and management five days later to tour the fertilizer application and tillage maker’s manufacturing plant in Salford. 

Linamar initially announced it had an agreement in place to buy 100 per cent of the equity in Salford Group in late April. In a release April 27, Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz said the crop nutrition application and tillage segments where Salford operates are “areas we had identified in our agriculture growth strategy as highly attractive segments for future product diversification.”

Hasenfratz said the company’s growth strategy is a long-term one, looking outwards to the year 2100, and that agriculture is one of three business sectors the company is focusing on. 

She said Linamar has a long history in what she called the “mobility” sector, which includes precision machining and assembly of transmissions and powertrain assemblies for traditionally powered vehicles, and they have now diversified to create components for electrified vehicles. Salford is in Linamar’s industrial sector, joining MacDon industries, which Linamar purchased three years ago, and Skyjack, maker of aerial lifts and telehandlers. The final sector focuses on healthcare equipment components. 

The acquisition positions Linamar as a leading Canadian-based agriculture equipment shortline OEM on a global stage, said Hasenfratz. 

Salford Group president Geof Gray said combining Linamar’s resources and brand strengths with Salford’s “will enable Salford to compete and innovate at a higher level with greater market coverage, delivering even more value to dealers and farmers.”

Jim Jarrell, Linamar’s chief operating officer, said through MacDon, the company already has an “an established market-leading position in the harvesting segment,” and that Salford is a natural complement to the company’s product portfolio. Linamar plans to use this established network to grow the Salford brand, particularly in Australia, where MacDon is well-known, he said. 

Hasenfratz said Salford will continue to sell its products under the Salford brand. 

“I think a key message for the local community is this is home for Salford,” said Geof Gray. 

Gray joined Salford Group 20 years ago, and has helped it grow and build a talented workforce. “Linamar can help us keep growing, help us with our manufacturing and bring on new technology,” he said. 

Salford was founded in 1978 at Salford, Ont., and has manufacturing plants at Salford and nearby Norwich, Ont., as well as sites at Elie, Man., Osceola, Iowa, and Cornelia, Georgia.