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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowOne of Indianapolis’ oldest industrial businesses, Peerless Pump Co., has been sold to Grundfos Group, a pump-making giant headquartered in Denmark, for an undisclosed price.
Peerless, whose origin dates to the 1920s, had been owned by Monaco-based Thyssen-Bornemisza Group since 1976.
Peerless manufactures pumps for fresh water. Much of its $110 million in sales is generated by pharmaceutical plants, offshore oil platforms and other industrial projects. Peerless also sells to municipalities and to office buildings for fire protection. Its fire protection pumps move water to upper floors of some of the world’s tallest buildings, including the Sears Tower in Chicago and Taipei 101 in Taiwan.
Grundfos plans to sell Peerless fire protection pumps alongside other pumps it sells to industry, said Peerless CEO Dean Douglas.
Peerless employs 275 at its headquarters near Methodist Hospital downtown. Another 150 work at plants in California, Texas, Alabama and Mexico and elsewhere.
Peerless might add 50 manufacturing workers in Indianapolis over the next four years as Peerless pumps are sold through the much-larger network of Grundfos sales representatives, Douglas said. Management is expected to remain.
Thyssen-Bornemisza Group acquired Peerless from Philadelphia-based FMC Corp.
FMC bought Peerless in 1932. Peerless was founded in the 1920s in California to pump irrigation water in the Central Valley. It later acquired an Indianapolis pump maker that specialized in pumps for fighting fires. The headquarters eventually was consolidated in Indianapolis.
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