WINNIPEG, Manitoba Bus and motorcoach industry supplier Vansco Electronics has been acquired by Parker Hannifin, the Cleveland-based multinational maker of motion and control technologies.

Vansco designs and produces rugged electronic systems and components for buses, trucks, agricultural equipment and other machinery. Motor Coach Industries and New Flyer Industries are two of its key customers.

The company was founded by Ed and wife Terry Van Humbeck -- in their Winnipeg basement -- about 30 years ago and it has grown to upwards of $180 million in annual sales and more than 1,000 employees. It remains based in Winnipeg, where it, MCI and New Flyer have large manufacturing facilities.

The company has been renamed Parker Vansco. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Niels Erik Hansen, CEO of Vansco, said there is no indication there will be any layoffs at the Winnipeg operations and the hope is that there will be growth.

Parker Hannifin is a $10-billion company whose hydraulic components and systems are sold worldwide.

Jim Cartwright, a spokesman for Parker Hannifin, said hydraulics are moving from mechanical to electronic controls and thats why Vansco was targeted for acquisition.

"It used to be that a backhoe operator would have 22 sticks to control all the hydraulics," Cartwright said. "Now he might have five electronic controls at his fingertips and a four-direction job stick."

He said Vansco will give Parker the ability to provide more of those electronic controls and the computer programming behind it. He said Parker was interested in future sales opportunities with some of Vansco's customers like Buhler Versatile, New Flyer and MCI.

Parker Hannifin bought Vansco from two Toronto-based private equity firms, Kilmer Capital Partners and Perseis Private Equity Fund (formerly Borealis Private Equity), which had acquired it in 2004. Ed Van Humbeck only had a small equity stake left in Vansco prior to the latest deal.