Grede Holdings LLC has made another acquisition, the first in several months for the expanding ferrous foundry group. The new holding is Paxton-Mitchell Corp., a ductile iron and gray iron foundry in Omaha, NE, that produces a range of pump and valve bodies and housings, flanges, mounting brackets, and similar castings for agriculture and construction machinery and equipment and hydraulics systems industries.
Grede did not announce the financial terms of the new purchase. It said the new Grede Omaha LLC division strengthens its position in heavy truck and industrial markets.
“This latest acquisition represents Grede’s commitment to the industrial and heavy-truck iron casting market,” said Doug Grimm, chairman. “We have focused on diversifying our business model to weather cyclicality, and now 60% of our revenues are derived from non-automotive customers.”
Grede Holdings LLC was established in 2010 following the merger of Citation Corp. and Grede LLC. Its U.S. operations also include assets of the former Blackhawk Foundry (USA), and earlier this year it absorbed two former Grupo Proenza foundries near Monterrey, Mexico.
In an interview earlier this year, Grimm suggested that Grede’s expansion program would slow down in order maintain profitability, manage its assets, and invest in existing operations.
Paxton-Mitchell also operates an extensive machine shop with vertical and horizontal machine centers, CNC turning machines, lathes, milling machines, grinders, and drilling machines. The company has 75 employees, but the buyer said the business will expand as work is reassigned from other parts of the Grede organization.