Ecolab Inc. continued its buying spree, this time acquiring a small, New York-based water-treatment firm named Cascade Water Services Inc.
Company officials on Wednesday did not disclose terms of the deal.
Privately held Cascade provides water-treatment services to U.S. institutional customers mostly in New York and Florida. It has annual sales of about $35 million and will become part of Ecolab's growing water division.
The deal, the latest of several small purchases Ecolab has made during the past two years, expands Ecolab's traditional service and filtration business model. It also steers clear of the recently volatile oil and gas industry, which Ecolab entered in a big way via significant acquisitions in 2011 and 2013.
Ecolab officials said Cascade should be a good fit.
Ecolab already offers sizable water-processing services to paper, food, beverage, power and mining companies and to factories and large commercial buildings. Cascade treats water used in large commercial boiler and cooling systems and uses remote-monitoring technology to track data and alert building engineers to possible problems or service needs.
"Cascade's people and technologies complement Ecolab's existing water business well and will enable us to provide their customers our broader range of water-treatment services to support their growth and success," said Michael Johannsen, executive vice president and general manager of Ecolab's Nalco Water Global Light Industries & Water Services.
Demands for more sophisticated water filtration are growing, he said.
"As commercial building, lodging and health care facilities continue to expand, the demand for experts who can bring effective solutions to our customers' water-related challenges has increased," Johannsen said. "These challenges include increasing concerns regarding Legionnaires' disease."
St. Paul-based Ecolab, with $13 billion in 2016 revenue and 48,000 employees, provides water filtration, hygiene, food safety and energy technologies.
The acquisitions are assisting Ecolab's overall growth plans, officials said.
How much the deals have added to revenue and profits remains to be seen.
Among Ecolab's latest acquisitions was Arpal Group, a Scottish cleaning- and sanitizing-products firm with locations in the United Kingdom and Middle East.
Arpal, which Ecolab bought last month, generates about $20 million a year in revenue.
Also last month, Ecolab bought three U.S.-based pest-elimination companies that cater to food and beverage customers in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, Mississippi, Delaware and Louisiana. In November, it bought the paper-chemicals business of Georgia-Pacific for an undisclosed price.
Ecolab releases its 2017 revenue and profit results in late February.
Dee DePass • 612-673-7725
