1/31/2022 – Marlin Steel has acquired the assets of Madsen Wire, an Indiana-based maker of wire products that was founded in 1938, and the new owner plans to bolster further growth.

A press release said that Madsen Wire, based in Orland, Indiana, makes security partitions for fleet vehicles, and is one of the largest manufacturers of wire mesh, wire grid, wire mats and forms and refrigerator shelves. The acquisition price was less than $10 million, said Drew Greenblatt, president of Marlin Industries and Madsen Wire.

“The combination of the two companies will allow Madsen and Marlin to ship faster and provide much more capacity to handle bigger jobs, since so many opportunities are coming back from China,” Greenblatt said in an announcement. “We are all in on USA manufacturing.”

Madsen Wire Products reported that it plans to hire additional workers in Indiana to help serve new clients and surging demand. The company was said to have recently invested millions of dollars in robotic welding and wire forming technology.

Madsen Wire General Manager Steve Cochran said there were many positives to come from the acquisition. He noted that Madsen Wire was focused on quality and on-time delivery. “By adding the strong suit of Marlin’s engineering team, our footprint will become global.”

Greg Parker, one of the sellers of Madsen Wire, said that the deal is a good fit as the companies share common goals and interests, including safety. “Marlin Steel’s history of safety (1,400-plus days) and Madsen’s history of safety (1,000-plus days) were a big factor in our getting comfortable with each other. I wanted our employees to have a company that embraced the safety culture as we did. Marlin and Madsen’s team gets safety.”

Greenblatt said he wants to aggressively grow the Madsen workforce— now about three dozen employees—by about 20%, to keep up with new business. “We’re planning to get Madsen to 45 or so in the next couple of weeks. We just want smart people who want to be part of a growing company.”