Cherry Tree advises Water Works Manufacturing, LLC in its sale to Nelson Global Products

Nelson Global Products Inc., a global leader in the design and manufacture of tubular and exhaust products for commercial vehicle markets, has acquired Water Works Manufacturing located in Cambridge, MN. Water Works also has two subsidiaries; Cambridge Metals and Plastics (CMP), located in Cambridge, MN and, Interlaken Technology Corporation (ITC), located in Chaska, MN. The acquisition is effective immediately.

Water Works will continue to operate under the leadership of Jim Shear, their current President and CEO, and his experienced management team.

The 250 employees at Water Works will maintain their positions with the respective companies. A new 33,000 square foot addition is currently underway at the main manufacturing facility in Cambridge.

Founded in December 2003, Water Works is a leading provider of advanced metal forming solutions that have allowed the Company to become a major supplier to blue chip customers in the power-sports & infrastructure related industries.
Nelson Global Products is a portfolio company of Wind Point Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in Chicago, IL. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“This acquisition is a very exciting opportunity for us,” said Tom Gosnell, CEO of, Nelson, “Water Works provides a significant opportunity for us to expand our addressable end markets, our manufacturing processes, and our product offering, as we better meet the expectations of our growing number of customers”.

“We are especially enthusiastic about the advanced metal forming capability which Water Works brings to the Nelson Global Products family. Jim Shear’s past investments in these processes, as well as laser technology for tube and sheet processing, further strengthens our already robust manufacturing technology”.

“We are proud to be aligned with the Water Works team”.

About Nelson Global Products
With a 60+ years of rich engineering and manufacturing history, Nelson Global Products designs, manufactures, and markets a broad range of high performance exhaust and tubular products for OEM and aftermarket use for the global on-highway and off-highway markets. These products include mufflers and silencers; exhaust tube assemblies; EGR and Thermal Management Tubing (TMT) for emissions systems; pressurized tube assemblies for air, hydraulic and lubrication; and structural assemblies.

The company’s operations include corporate offices in Stoughton, WI and manufacturing operations in Clinton, TN; Fort Wayne, IN; Peoria, IL; Arcadia, Black River Falls and Viroqua, Wisconsin; and international operations in Scoresby, Australia; Pune, India; and Changzhou, China.

Stringent new emissions regulations for U.S. on-highway diesel engines, mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2010, have required the industry’s need for quality, thermal management tubing solutions. As other countries adopt tighter emissions standards in the future, Nelson anticipates carrying over North America thermal management technology to achieve significantly higher demand for its thermal management tubing products.