Minneapolis-based Graco, Inc., announced Thursday that it completed acquisitions of two companies last month—businesses with combined revenue of about $30 million.
 
Graco designs and manufactures technology that helps manage fluid and coating materials in industrial and commercial applications. The company acquired Dexter, Michigan-based QED Environment Systems, which employs about 80 people, and Chesapeake, Virginia-based EcoQuip, which employs about a dozen people.
 
The financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.
 
QED is a manufacturer of “fluid management systems” for the environmental monitoring market. It builds pump systems for groundwater sampling, landfill liquid and gas management, and for the removal of harmful chemicals from drinking water supplies.
 
EcoQuip designs and produces eco-friendly blasting systems for coating removal and surface preparation. The company said its cleaning products are typically used for industrial maintenance at shipyards, surface preparation prior to repainting houses or cars, and roadway marking removal.

 
“Both companies operate in attractive niche markets where Graco currently has little or no exposure,” Graco President and CEO Patrick McHale said in a statement. “We expect that the specialized fluid management products of QED and EcoQuip will benefit from Graco’s commitment to innovative new product development, an exposure to a global distribution channel, and the company’s expertise in manufacturing efficiencies.”
 
According to Graco spokesman Bryce Hallowell, the company doesn’t have any immediate plans to hire additional employees at either businesses, although he said the company expects rapid growth from them both in the future.
 
“We bought the businesses to expand them. We think there is a tremendous opportunity to grow these two companies now that they can get the exposure that comes with a global company,” Hallowell told Twin Cities Business.
 
Hallowell said that because the two companies are well-known in their niche industries, Graco plans to maintain both the QED and EcoQuip brand names.  
 
Graco’s revenue totaled about $1 billion in 2012, up 13 percent from $895 million in 2011. Graco has about 2,700 total employees, the majority of whom work in Minnesota.
 
Shares of Graco’s stock were trading down about 2.4 percent at $76.25 during Thursday afternoon trading.