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A Central Ohio manufacturer is expanding through acquisition.
Gahanna-based Grote Co., which has added businesses and expanded several times in recent years, is at it again.
The company announced that it has purchased Springdale, Arkansas-based ProFab, a designer and maker of conveyors and other stainless steel equipment for the food processing industry.
Terms of the deal were not released.
“ProFab’s focus on the poultry industry and suite of services allows us to expand into new markets within the food processing industry,” Grote CEO Bob Grote said in a release.
In a subsequent email, he said ProFab's addition could add up to 25% to annual revenues and create additional growth opportunities in other Grote businesses.
The company, founded in 2003, also is a millwright and a process piping supplier and installer.
Grote Co. was founded in 1972 by Jim Grote, who almost a decade earlier started the Donatos chain. He invented the Pep-a-matic slicer and applicator to ensure consistency with pizzas. That creation also birthed the family’s equipment business.
Today the company produces food slicing and assembly equipment for the pizza and sandwich industries as well as other machines for slicing potatoes, meats, vegetables and more.
The ProFab acquisition joins other recent additions and expansions.
The company opened a 10,000-square-foot operation in the Netherlands in 2022 that includes sales, service, parts and a distribution center.
Grote acquired Iowa-based Precision Food Innovations, another material handling and conveying equipment company, in 2021.
The Grote family has not wavered in its desire to turn to equipment to improve efficiency.
The Edge Innovation Hub opened in 2019 and is housed on the same campus at Grote Co. and Donatos. It’s home to multiple ventures focused on the future of food, including Agape Automation, which is making automated products for Donatos, and Beehex, which is applying automation to the baking world.