WCCO Acquired by Continental

WCCO Belting, Inc., the continuation of a nearly 70-year family-owned business that began with Edward Shorma of Wahpeton, has been acquired by Continental of Fairlawn, Ohio.

Continental stated that a combined product and service portfolio will generate a full multi-tier offering and enable better support and service, terms of the transaction were not disclose.

“Two years ago, I served notice to the board of directors and shareholders that I wanted to retire at the end of 2022,” WCCO CEO and President Tom Shorma said. “That started the discussions on succession and what we were going to do. My intentions are still to retire at the end of 2022.”

Continental will retain 100 percent of WCCO’s workforce, “Frankly, their interest in WCCO really begins with the acquisition of talent even more so than it is equipment and capacity,” Shorma said.

Equipment can be bought, Shorma said. An intimate knowledge of the agriculture industry comes from people, like the employees of WCCO.

“It’s going to create tremendous opportunities for the team, the next generation at WCCO Belting that simply, they would not have had if we would have kept the status quo. This creates huge opportunities for our people to advance their careers and income to help, overall, the organization versus just WCCO,” Shorma said.

Source: Company Release &

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