UK-based GKN plc has acquired Rockford Powertrain, a producer of high-speed driveshafts focused on the construction and mining-equipment sector.
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Rockford’s high-speed driveshafts are complementary to GKN’s current low-speed products, which are aimed primarily at the agricultural equipment sector.
The newly added products will help satisfy the increasing demand by major original equipment manufacturers to consolidate the sourcing of their off-highway driveline systems purchases from a single lead supplier, GKN said.
Based in Loves Park, a suburb of Rockford, Illinois, Rockford employs 185 people in the US but has outsourced an increasing proportion of its manufacturing to low labour-cost countries, retaining engineering and technical staff in the US.
GKN is acquiring the business for $50m, which is being met from existing resources. Rockford has current annual revenues of $60m.
The construction industry has enjoyed buoyant growth for the past three years, GKN noted.
