The Pohlad family has acquired Shoreview-based PaR Systems, a growing manufacturer of robotic-automation and materials-handling equipment that employs 380 people.
Bob Pohlad, an executive of the family-owned company, declined to specify what the family paid British private-equity firm MML Capital Partners for the profitable company. PaR has sales of about $130 million a year.
"We want to invest in companies that make a difference now and in the future," Bob Pohlad said. "PaR is already a big business doing important things in automation and finding solutions for different customers. That covers everything from big cranes to small equipment for the life-science industry."
PaR, founded in 1961, serves the aerospace, medical device, marine, defense and other industrial markets. PaR created a robotic application with cranes to facilitate the handling and decommissioning of the Chernobyl Unit 4 nuclear reactor decades after the catastrophic 1986 nuclear accident in Ukraine.
PaR undertook a similar project at the Fukushima nuclear site disabled by a 2011 earthquake in Japan.
On the smaller side PaR works with medical device manufacturers by designing and building automation equipment for the manufacture of tiny, implantable products.
Pohlad said the company is well managed, and the family expects to make investments so it can grow more.
The company provides further diversification for the family's holdings.
