David Brown acquires leading industrial gear manufacturer Unigear

Traverse City-based gear company Cone Drive is getting a new sibling, or at least, some new colleagues.

David Brown, the engineering company that owns Cone Drive, announced it has acquired Montreal-based Unigear Industries, Inc. Unigear is a private industrial gear manufacturer, and officials from David Brown say its addition to the company will really help build on their North American markets.

The umbrella of David Brown also includes interests like mining, oil and gas, but the ability of Unigear to manufacture and service industrial-level gears fits in nicely with Cone Drive, which creates high-quality, specific-use worm gears.

Unigear's president, Ron Mehra, and VP Peter Zurcher both will continue with the company and help lead it in the future.

"We are delighted to have acquired Unigear, it is a very successful business that we want to further grow and develop. It is a perfect strategic fit for David Brown with its combination of customer relationships, experience, skills and precision gear manufacturing equipment…We are already active in North America, however, this enables us to make a much more compelling offer to our customers in the region," says David Brown CEO John Paterson. "We are looking forward to working closely with Ron, Peter and the team and building a strong and prosperous future together."

David Brown also plans on opening a service center at Unigear's Montreal location to better serve Canadian customers.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: John Paterson, David Brown/Cone Drive