Linamar Corporation buys Bourgault Industies

Dec 22, 2023

Farm equipment manufacturer Bourgault Industries is being sold to Ontario-based Linamar Corporation.

The CAD 640 million deal represents the purchase of 100 percent of the equity in Bourgault.

Linamar President and Chief Operating Officer Jim Jarrell says Bourgault is a well-known agricultural brand that Linamar has admired for some time.

"If you go back to the day when we bought MacDon and did our first growth off-site regarding agriculture with them, this was a clear target and discussion point we really thought were complimentary. And the company - been in business for about 50 years - clear market leadership in the seeding segment with their innovative air carts and air seeders."

The deal also includes Bourgault’s Highline Manufacturing division which produces hay handling and livestock feeding equipment, as well as roto-moulding producer Free Form Plastics.

Jarrell says Bourgault which is based out of St. Brieux has about 1000 employees, very experienced senior management team, and around 500 million in sales, a huge strong order book out of the gate.

In the press release announcing the sale, Bourgault President Gerry Bourgault says the company was started by his father and has a rich history in agriculture.

"The Bourgault family is incredibly proud of the legacy we have created both here in St. Brieux, Saskatchewan, but also around the world. We are excited to have our team of over nine hundred people in Saskatchewan, and over one thousand worldwide, join the Linamar family. Linamar has a proven track record for not only successfully integrating acquired companies, but also for their manufacturing expertise and business execution overall. I am confident Linamar will take the Bourgault brand to new heights in its next chapter, while also allowing Bourgault to maintain and build upon its deep-rooted connections to its stakeholders in Saskatchewan and around the world."

With the Bourgault acquisition Linamar's lineup of products now covers everything from field preparation to seeding, crop nutrition, harvest, and post-harvest.

Linamar is based out of Guelph, Ontario and also owns MacDon and Salford.

You can listen to the official announcement from Linamar announcing the acquisition of Bourgault here.

Source : Pembinavalley online

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.