KSS buys Strack Scale Service, expanding to 28 branches nationwide

What's the deal? Kanawha Scales & SystemsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (KSS) has acquired Strack Scale ServiceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Cincinnati-based scale calibration and service company. Strack will keep its brand name, and President Christopher Geers Jr. will stay on in an executive capacity. Terms were not disclosed.

What each side does: KSS, founded in 1954 and based in Poca, West Virginia, provides calibration, maintenance, and repair services for industrial weighing systems and automated control solutions. Strack offers scale calibration, installation, and maintenance across the Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana tri-state region.

What's the endgame? The deal brings KSS to 28 branches nationwide. It continues the company's strategy of partnering with independently operated scale service businesses across the US.

What changes for staff? All eligible Strack employees will receive an ownership stake in KSS through its Employee Ownership Plan, which KSS calls "the first of its kind in the scales and weighing industry." Employees also gain training, tuition reimbursement, and enhanced benefits.

"We're proud to welcome them to our platform and to extend our Employee Ownership Plan to their team," said Chris Carsten, chief executive officer of KSS.

Geers said the deal gives employees "an ownership stake in a growing national platform" while customers "will continue to receive the same high-quality service they have always expected from us."

The signal: The acquisition reflects steady consolidation in the fragmented industrial weighing services market, where national platforms are rolling up regional operators. KSS's employee-ownership pitch offers a differentiator as it competes to attract independent businesses and their technicians.

Read more: Associated Press