The assets of Greenwood-based industrial scale distributor Master Scales have been purchased by an Indiana-based company, System Scale.
System Scale, headquartered in Indianapolis, is entirely employee-owned and has offices across the Midwest and Mid-South.
The purchase was finalized on Monday.
Gary McDonald, who founded Master Scales in 1982, said that his company has been doing business with System Scale since the 1980s.
“As far as we’re concerned, it’s a name change,” said McDonald of the acquisition.
Both companies specialize in distributing and maintaining industrial, agricultural and laboratory scales.
Master Scales has served customers throughout north-central Mississippi as well as southeast Arkansas and northeast Louisiana.
System Scale, founded in 1979 and among the largest scale distributors in the nation, already has offices in Memphis and Jackson.
“Master Scales has flourished over the years and became an obvious choice to incorporate into the System Scale family when the owners elected to sell their business,” said System Scale president Harry Dunavant in a prepared statement.
Master Scales employees have all been kept on staff, including Jason McDonald, Gary’s son.
“We want to welcome the Master Scales team members to the System Scale family and look forward to leveraging our collective strengths in the future,” said Dunavant.
Gary McDonald said that he was happy about the sale and that the Greenwood location will benefit from the support structure offered by a larger company. He said he and Dunavant have been “friendly competitors” throughout their careers.
Ray Maddox has been brought in as the operations manager of the Greenwood location.
During the height of the catfish farming industry in the Delta, Master Scales employed 14 people. Dunavant said he hopes to return the Greenwood operation to that size.
Dunavant said that other than an increase in the number of employees, he doesn’t expect to have to change much. “We are very pleased with the existing business model and will work to preserve the local customer service culture while adding further investments and processes to drive incremental demand,” he said.
Dunavant thanked Gary and Jason McDonald for their “longstanding contributions to our industry” in a statement released last week.
nContact Nick Rogers at 581-7235 or nrogers@gwcommonwealth.com.
