International Equipment Solutions (IES) has acquired, through an indirect wholly owned subsidiary, CWS Industries, a leading manufacturer of highly engineered attachment products, including tire manipulators, cable reelers, grapples, buckets and various large excavator attachment products.

This is the fourth acquisition by IES since its formation in September 2011 as a platform for investments serving the construction, mining, energy and other industries. IES’ first two acquisitions occurred in September, 2011 when the company acquired Paladin Brands Holding and Crenlo from Dover Corporation, tools and cab enclosure groups, respectively. As part of its globalisation strategy, IES acquired Siac do Brasil, another manufacturer of cab enclosures in Brazil, in June 2012.

CWS employs 140 people at two facilities, located in Surrey, British Columbia and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Stephen Andrews, Chief Executive Officer of IES, said: “The acquisition of CWS is another important step towards the globalisation and diversification of IES. We are very impressed with CWS’s rapid growth trajectory, customer base, engineering capabilities and broad portfolio of highly engineered attachment products.” 

“This acquisition not only strategically enhances our footprint with dealers in Canada and the US Pacific Northwest, but also opens up IES to a growing base of sales relationships located internationally in South America, Russia and Asia. Additionally, the acquisition enhances IES’ product portfolio to include a suite of attachments with applications in the high-growth mining, oil & gas and forestry end-markets, which are currently underserved by IES.  As demonstrated with both this acquisition and the acquisition of Siac do Brasil, IES remains committed to supporting our customers’ global expansion initiatives with localised supply, technical resources, and parts and service support.  IES intends to invest significant additional capital and resources into CWS to ensure the highest level of production quality and capacity for our customers. IES has made tremendous progress in our first ten months and I am very confident our future is bright.”