New Berlin-based Pieper Electric Inc. has acquired Green Bay-based HiTech Controls and Manufacturing Solutions for an undisclosed price.
Mike Shea was the majority owner of HiTech, and will remain with the company as a consultant.
HiTech, founded in 1985, provides manufacturing automation solutions. It has 58 employees at locations in Green Bay, Neenah and Cincinnati, Ohio. Those employees and operations will remain in place under the HiTech name in the integration, said Rick Parra, president and chief operating officer of Pieper. David Thode, former HiTech president, will serve as branch manager for Pieper.
Pieper, founded in 1947, is a plumbing, heating and HVAC contractor for both commercial and residential customers. In addition to the New Berlin headquarters, it has locations in Kenosha, Madison, Neenah, Janesville, Merrill and Park Falls. It is part of an employee-owned holding company, PPC Partners, and has 850 employees.
The acquisition of HiTech will add capabilities for Pieper, such as robotics, vision inspection systems and full project engineering.
“The automation market is an attractive market to us as technology continues to grow and the demand for automated systems increases,” Parra said. “We hope to leverage that with our current customer base, as well as the fact that we have a rather large customer base that HiTech will be able to benefit from.”
Previously headquartered in Milwaukee, Pieper in April consolidated its Milwaukee-area operations in a new 85,000-square-foot headquarters facility at 5477 S. Westridge Court in New Berlin. It has ended the leases on the former Milwaukee headquarters at 5070 N. 35th St., as well as on a second Milwaukee facility and locations in Sussex and Brookfield. Half of the new space is offices, while the other half is warehouse and light manufacturing.
“Co-location and synergy really provides some neat benefits that in the end provide better value for our customers, as our guys are talking and figuring out how to provide value for our customers in a more collaborative way,” Parra said.
Pieper does not have any other immediate consolidation or expansion plans, he said.
“Our people grow in a unique culture of entrepreneurship, empowerment, servant leadership, lifelong learning, safety and high ethical standards,” Parra said. “We started our search by looking at 75 companies and ended with HiTech. They’ve done a wonderful job building a leading company in the market and creating the cultural attributes we feel strongly about.”
