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Manatee County-based RND Automation & Engineering, already in rapid growth mode, recently closed on an acquisition that will launch 2018 with more expansion potential.
RND, which designs and assembles custom-made automation and robotic machines used by other manufacturers, acquired the assets of MDC Packaging Machinery, based in Sarasota. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
“Even though it's an acquisition, it's more a merger of a equals,” RND President Sean Dotson tells Coffee Talk. “The stuff we are not good at, they are great at. We think this will be a one plus one equals three kind of deal.”
MDC Packaging Machinery manufactures horizontal and vertical form, fill and seal packaging machinery, in addition to other products. It has standard and custom lines for the medical device, pharmaceutical, consumer product and food/beverage industries. RND and MDC have partnered together on several projects.
Dotson says when he heard last year that MDC, founded and run by Michelle Bergeron and Jon Ford, was being put up for sale, he quickly looked into an acquisition. MDC fielded offers from other possible buyers, but liked the idea of local ownership better. “They wanted to keep the culture intact,” Dotson says. “They didn't want a large company to buy them for the intellectual property, shut it down and move everything up north.”
RND had $3.8 million in sales last year in 2016, up 36.4% from $3 million in 2015. It has about 18 employees. The combined entity will have some 40 employees, and Bergeron and Ford will remain with the business, to help lead the sales division of MDC Packaging. While both facilities remain open, Dotson hopes to eventually consolidate into one place. “This deal will make us one of the key packaging companies in the region,” he says.
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