A Pella conveyor builder bolstered its business with its fourth acquisition in four years.

Precision Inc., purchased The Chantland Cos.'s pulley business Aug. 30, absorbing about 130 full-time employees and a 140,000-square-foot factory in Humboldt. Precision President and CEO Roger Brown said he has eyed the Chantland operation for about five years.

Though rebuffed by Chantland executives in the past, Brown said the company relented when his team made another pitch this summer. He declined to comment on the price of the acquisition, and Chantland executives did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Brown said Chantland's operation adds diversity to their conveyor business. While Pella has primarily built pulleys and rollers that go to package handlers like FedEx and UPS, Chantland workers make the type that end up under conveyor belts at airports and warehouses for large retailers like Amazon and Target.

Brown did not go into details, but he said the key difference between the manufacturers has to do with how workers weld the pulleys and rollers. They create a different shape and size, which are better to handle different types of packages and bags.

"We wanted to get into those markets," Brown said. "And we were starting to develop some product lines and basically trying to get into those markets. But the acquisition of Chantland, obviously, gets us into those markets immediately with probably the most noted manufacturer in those industry.”

While Precision will employ the factory's 130 full-time workers, Brown could not comment on the 24 part-time laborers employed through a temp agency. The acquisition also does not impact workers at Chantland's other conveyor manufacturer, Chantland MHS Co. in Dakota City.

The move is another step in Precision's expansion over the last four years. In 2015, the company bought Clark Ingenieria Y Desarrollo S.A. in Santiago, Chile, and R.A.S. Industries in British Columbia, Canada. 

Two years ago, Precision also bought Meyer Industries, a San Antonio, Texas, company that makes conveyor systems for the food processing industry. Precision used this purchase to spin off a new company: Precision Food Innovation. (The other company, the one that acquired the Chantland factory, is now Precision Pulley & Idler.)

Earlier this year, the company also announced it would open a 105,000-square-foot factory in Maysville, Kentucky. Brown said he hopes the operation will open by mid-October.

Precision is employee-owned. With last week's acquisition, according to a news release, the company now has 1,200 employees in 16 locations. This includes the Pella headquarters and training center, as well as factories in Algona, Corning and Lenox. Precision also has a service center in Cedar Falls. 

"The goal, obviously, being an (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) company, is to grow our share value," Brown said. "The more our share value grows, the more our folks are helped in their retirement plan.”

Tyler Jett covers jobs and the economy for the Register. Contact him at 515-284-8215 and tjett@registermedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.

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