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GRAND RAPIDS - The change of ownership at Monarch Hydraulics Inc. is one for the history books - but it isn't the end of the Monarch story, and the Jackoboice family is not entirely out of the manufacturing business, either.
Tom Jackoboice, whose great-grandfather founded the original manufacturing company, and Dan Vaughan, who will continue to serve as president of Monarch Hydraulics, both said that current management and employees will remain in place under the new owners.
"This is not a distress sale," said Vaughan. Jackoboice added that the change in ownership will enable Monarch to reach a "new level" of business with a "broader product line."
Bucher Industries of Switzerland, a $1.8 billion publicly held corporation, officially acquires the company on Jan. 1. The purchase price was not disclosed. Monarch, which manufactures well-known brands of hydraulic power packs in North America, had 2006 sales of $71 million. According to Vaughan, the company has 175 employees in the U.S., most of them at production facilities in Grand Rapids and Newaygo. There are an additional 50 employees in China, 25 in Canada and three in the U.K.
Monarch Hydraulics has had the distinction of being the oldest family-owned business in Michigan -- five generations of Jackoboices. In 1856, Joseph Jackoboice started building steam engines, then formed the West Side Iron Works in Grand...